Upstart Pacers Topple Bucks to Reach NBA Cup Final – News18

Tyrese Haliburton scored 27 points to propel the Indiana Pacers to a 128-119 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday and into the title match of the inaugural NBA in-season tournament.

Haliburton added 15 assists, without a turnover, and Myles Turner scored 26 points and pulled down 10 rebounds as the Pacers remained unbeaten in the tournament.

Indiana, sixth in the Eastern Conference regular-season standings, had knocked out the East-leading Boston Celtics in the quarter-finals and followed up with another scintillating showing against the 2021 NBA champion Bucks, who were led by 37 points and 10 rebounds from two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Giannis Antetokounmpo.

In Saturday’s final in Las Vegas the Pacers take on the winner of the Western Conference semi-final between LeBron James’s Los Angeles Lakers and Zion Williamson’s New Orleans Pelicans.

The tournament has been a coming-out party for Haliburton and the Pacers, who came into Thursday’s game averaging more than 128 points per game but whose NBA title hopes have been largely discounted.

“I think this was the whole point of the in-season tournament, to see a young group like ourselves compete and come out here and fight,” Haliburton said. “I think we’re shocking the world right now. Nobody expected us to be here except for the guys in the locker room.”

In a game that featured 16 lead changes — seven of them in the fourth quarter — the Pacers got the stops they needed to hold off a Bucks team that scored 146 points in their quarter-final win over the New York Knicks.

The Bucks appeared to take control when they out-scored the Pacers 43-28 in the third quarter to take a 94-91 lead into the final period. Damian Lillard, who scored just four points in the first half, scored 20 in the second for Milwaukee.

But in a nip-and-tuck fourth, Turner’s put-back layup gave the Pacers a 115-112 lead with 2:19 to play.

Haliburton pushed the lead to 119-114 with a driving layup. He drilled a step-back three-pointer that put the Pacers up 122-114 with 49.5 seconds left.

Racing back up court, Haliburton pointed to his wrist where a watch would be, an imitation of Lillard’s longtime “Dame Time” celebration.

“For as many times as I’ve done it to people, I can’t be upset when somebody else does it,” Lillard said. “I respected it.”

After the game, Haliburton said his message was that it was the Pacers’ time.

The in-season tournament, conceived to add excitement to the early stages of the long NBA season, has proved the perfect showcase for the high-octane Pacers, who have never won an NBA title.

“We’re in an inaugural championship game,” Haliburton said. “That’s going to go down in history. It’s a lot of fun for us. But we didn’t just come here to play one game, play in two games, compete.

“We came here to win.”

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – AFP)