The Bucks will face the Pacers tonight in Indianapolis. They are looking for a win that helps them set their postseason seeding. The Bucks have won 12 of their last 17 games while the Pacers have split their last 10 games.
Milwaukee sits one-and-a-half games behind Brooklyn in the race for second in the East with three games left to play. The Nets have two games remaining.
Buck shots
• Following a 114-102 win over the Magic at Fiserv Forum on Tuesday, the Milwaukee Bucks head to Indiana to take on the Pacers in their second-to-last road game of the season. After Thursday’s game, the Bucks conclude the 2020-21 regular season with a back-to-back at home against the Heat on Saturday and at the Bulls on Sunday.
• The Bucks are going for a season series sweep over the Pacers tonight. Milwaukee, which has won eight of its last 10 games over Indiana, has defeated the Pacers by an averaging margin of 23.6 points in its two wins this season – a 130-110 win on Feb. 3 and a 140-113 win on March 22.
• Including their two wins over the Pacers, the Bucks are a perfect 10-0 against Central Division opponents this season. Dating back to the start of the 2018-19 season, Milwaukee is 37-3 (.925) against its own division, which is the top record in the NBA for a team against its division.
• In Tuesday’s win over the Magic, Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 27 points, 12 rebounds, five assists and three steals, marking his 20th game of the season with at least 25 points, 10 rebounds and five assists (2nd-most in the NBA). Antetokounmpo remains one of just two players in the league averaging 25/10/5 this season (N. Jokić) and is on pace to join Oscar Robertson as the only players in NBA history to average 25/10/5 in three seasons throughout their careers.
• Donte DiVincenzo has scored in double figures in each of his last five games after putting up 19 points (7-12 FG) on Tuesday, which is one game away from matching his career-long double-figure scoring streak (first 6 games of this season). Over his last five games, DiVincenzo is averaging 15.6 points, 6.6 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game while shooting 55% from the field and 43% from
three.
Pacers points
• With three games left to play, Indiana sits in ninth place in the Eastern Conference standings heading into Thursday’s matchup against Milwaukee. The Pacers are currently a game ahead of Washington (32-37) in 10th and tied with Charlotte for eighth (33-36), but the Hornets own the head-to-head tiebreaker.
• Over the last two games, the Pacers have held their opponents to 98 points per game and 39.4 percent shooting from the field and 32.3 percent from 3-point range. Indiana yielded 42 points in the second half Monday at Cleveland before allowing a season-low 32 second-half points in the win over Philadelphia Tuesday.
• Indiana is 11-5 this season on the second night of a back-to-back.
• The Pacers improved to 20-15 on the road this season as they defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 111-102 Monday night. The Pacers have secured a winning record on the road this season posting a winning road mark for the second straight season, the third time over the last five years and for only the eighth time in NBA franchise history. Indiana has posted back-to-back winning seasons on the road for the first time since the 1997-98 and 1998-99 seasons.
• Domantas Sabonis finished with 21 points, 20 rebounds, nine assists and tied his career high with four blocks in Monday’s win. Coupling with his performance against Phoenix (28 points, 22 rebounds) on Jan. 9, Sabonis became the fourth player in NBA team history to post multiple games with 20+ points and 20+ rebounds in one season (Jermaine O’Neal, 3, 2002-03; Clark Kellogg, 2, 1982-83; Dan Roundfield, 2, 1977-78).
• Sabonis recorded his ninth triple-double of the season with 16 points, 13 rebounds and a career-high 15 assists Tuesday against the 76ers. After missing the previous six games with a back injury, Sabonis has posted three triple-doubles while averaging 24.6 points, 15.0 rebounds and 11.0 assists over a seven-game span since his return to the court May 1.
• Kelan Martin came off the bench to lead Indiana with a career-high 25 points as he shot 11-for-16 from the field and 3-for-4 from 3-point range in Monday’s win at Cleveland. He also pulled down a season-high seven rebounds in 25 minutes.
• Out of the rotation for most of the season, Martin has played himself into the lineup late in the season and has scored in double figures in two of the last five games while averaging 10.2 points and 4.6 rebounds per game over that span..
• Caris LeVert set game highs and posted his first double-double of the season as he finished with 31 points and 12 assists against Atlanta last Thursday. He followed by posting 35 points and a career-high 14 rebounds Saturday against Washington. LeVert posted 30 or more points in consecutive games and double-doubles in two straight games for the first time in his NBA
career. LeVert recorded three straight double-doubles after finishing with 20 points and a game-high 10 assists Monday in Cleveland.
• LeVert has scored 30 or more points in four of his last eight games and is averaging 27.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 6.8 assists per game while shooting 45.4 percent from the field (79-174), 45.8 percent from 3-point range (22-48) and 86.4 percent from the free throw line (38-44).
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