The NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament has been price it for all concerned. For the Los Angeles Lakers, many males who might use a $500,000 direct deposit obtained it. Tyrese Haliburton emerged from the tourney as the latest NBA famous person. Additionally, an actual inter-division rivalry is budding. The Indiana Pacers and Milwaukee Bucks seem to not rock with one another and that’s great.
These central division foes have performed towards one another thrice since Nov. 9. A kind of was an In-Season Event knockout-round recreation. The younger Pacers rained jumpers on the heads of the Bucks in a 128-119 victory.
On Tuesday, the Pacers performed in Milwaukee for the primary time in the course of the 2023-24 common season. Haliburton carried out nicely, scoring 22 factors on 50 p.c taking pictures from the sector whereas including seven assists. Nevertheless, he was no match for Giannis Antetokounmpo, who set a franchise document by scoring 64 factors in a 140-126 victory.
The sport was within the stability till Pacers try-hard teen, Aaron Nesmith, despatched Antetokounmpo to the ground with what would ultimately be dominated a Flagrant 1. There was no precise hurt achieved, however the Bucks weren’t prepared to chalk the play up as no blood, no foul. Bobby Portis — who as soon as broke teammate Nikola Mirotic’s face throughout an altercation through which he reportedly was not the aggressor — was actually spitting mad after Antetokounmpo was despatched tumbling. Portis was ejected just a little greater than a minute after receiving that first technical foul for his involvement in one other altercation.
Of Antetokounmpo’s 64 factors, he scored 26 of them after Nesmith put him on the bottom. He went 14-20 from the free-throw line and 6-8 from the sector within the fourth quarter. The Pacers have been helpless as he broke Michael Redd’s document by means of brute power.
Apparently, exhausting emotions lingered after the sport as a result of the Bucks alleged that the Pacers raced off of the court docket with the sport ball. A ball that was speculated to go to Antetokounmpo for his franchise-best achievement. Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, it was a Bucks worker who eliminated the ball from the court docket instantly after the sport was concluded.
The Bucks gamers didn’t see that and believed that the Pacers deliberately took the ball to maintain it from Antetokounmpo. There was an precise confrontation within the hallway, after which Indy coach Rick Carlisle instructed the media that the workforce’s normal supervisor obtained elbowed. Carlisle claimed they have been making an attempt to get a ball for rookie Oscar Tshiebwe. Per Woj, he was introduced with a ball that was not the primary one used within the recreation.
In his postgame press convention, Antetokounmpo stated the ball that was introduced to him in honor of his record-setting evening did not feel like the one that was used within the recreation. He additionally threw in that he doesn’t have the ball from his 50-point, Recreation 6 NBA Championship clincher in 2021.
Damian Lillard stated flatly, throughout his postgame press convention, that the Pacers took the ball. He instructed the media that generally groups act petty after they get proven up — regardless that Antetokounmpo was pulled with greater than three minutes remaining within the recreation with the Bucks up by 19 factors.
Haliburton has proven some chops not solely on the basketball court docket, however on social media as well since his Pacers defeated the Bucks in that In-Season Event semi-final recreation. Whereas he didn’t straight check with both Lillard or Antetokounmpo’s press conferences, he used the duvet of a literary basic to specific his perception that the Bucks’ stars have been lower than truthful with their feedback.
In a league with few precise rivalries between groups, and a handful of gamers who act like bullies, what occurred on Wednesday evening is grand — for individuals who aren’t a two-time NBA MVP named Giannis, who cares if he obtained the right basketball? If that’s the closing straw that begins an actual rivalry, then extra NBA groups have to make a behavior of working off with the ball following their opponents’ historic moments.
Gamers combing the depths of an area for the sport ball, that’s the kind of ridiculous battle that makes the NBA nice. Screw perspective, get upset and make wild accusations. The sector is just not a court docket of regulation.
I used to be not on the Fiserv Discussion board on Wednesday evening. All I can affirm is the stats I learn, Antetokoumpo’s dominance, and that the gang chanted “Bobby!” after each of Portis’ technical fouls. With all of that, together with the social media melodrama after the sport, NBA League Cross paid for itself on Wednesday evening.
With out the In-Season Event, I don’t consider this mid-December recreation would have had the kind of spice to go viral. Haliburton went for 27 factors and 15 assists towards the Bucks in Las Vegas and did the “Dame Time” celebration. Six days later, one of many best statistical performances in NBA historical past will get punctuated by a backstage battle.
The In-Season Event now deserves a standing ovation.
