Bucks vs. Pacers, Game 1: Lost for Cream City

The Milwaukee Bucks—some of them, anyway—got their butts handed to them by the Indiana Pacers 117-98. Pascal Siakam led the charge with 25 points, followed by Myles Turner and Andrew Nembhard with 19 and 17. Giannis had 36 points and 12 boards but only one assist, while AJ Green and Gary Trent Jr. chipped in 15 and 14.

Read our full summary of the game here and catch a six-minute audio recap on the Bucks+ podcast Bucks In Six Minutes below:

What Did We Learn?

There are necessary caveats to this game, most notably Dame’s absence and the Bucks’ outlier shooting from deep. But those caveats do not preclude a glaring takeaway: this starting lineup, at least against Indiana, ain’t it. In a nutshell: the starters had negative double-digit plus-minuses (-13 to -24, a big chunk coming at the end of the first half), whereas the reserves had a mix of positive and negative single-digit plus-minuses (-6 to +3). The starters might play against stronger opposing players, but that simply shouldn’t happen. Doc even seemed to recognize it, with four of the top five minute-getters coming off the bench.

I therefore propose:

Three Bucks Starters that Doc Should Humbly Consider Benching

Kyle Kuzma

Tony Snell would never:

Kyle Kuzma on pace to set a playoff record!The most missed shots by a player to not register a point, rebound, or assist in 20+ minutes of a playoff game!

Maurice Lucas’ four missed looks stood for almost 40 years. pic.twitter.com/tpMpWpquNa

— Josh Eberley (@JoshEberley) April 19, 2025

In this case, there is a strong argument for permanent benching. Kyle “White Flag” Kuzma has upside, but it is vastly outweighed by myriad downsides. Moreover, the Bucks have other guys who would be better uses of his minutes.

I don’t want to belabor this point. Please bench him, Doc.

Taurean Prince

Prince leads the league in 3P%. He attempted one shot in 20 minutes.

It’s unfair to put that squarely on TP. As I mentioned in the rapid, the Bucks only racked up 15 assists, with minimal ball movement opening up their three-point gunners. But only one?

More notable is on the other end of the floor. The Pacers are a bunch of young athletes who are going to run in transition (where they outscored the Bucks 22-5). I am more confident in guys like AJ Green and Gary Trent Jr. to stay with them (and Kevin Porter Jr., but I don’t see him starting next to Dame). Prince offers more heft, but Indiana has limited size that would require that skillset, but AJG in particular defended well against bigger guys on-ball anyway.

TP is not a bad player and deserves to see court time. I could even see him starting in a world where he isn’t forced to play the 2 (…like if a certain someone is benched). But for now, he’s coming off the bench for me.

Ryan Rollins

This one is a bit of a cop-out, since Dame would presumably snap up his spot in the lineup. But Rollins didn’t have his best game. The former two-way only finished 2-8 from the field (with some of the misses outside of his wheelhouse), adding a couple boards and three assists. I’m a Rollins fan, but I think he is better served as a steady Freddy coming off the bench.

That leaves Giannis and Brook as the only starters salvaged by this exercise. It wasn’t Giannis’ best, especially on the defensive end, but he’s a lock. Brook isn’t, but he still does good things most of the time. Taken together, I would feel a lot better about a Dame, GTJ, AJG, Giannis, and Brook starting five. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Bonus Bucks Bits

I don’t want to contain my opprobrium to the starters. Kevin Porter Jr. and Bobby Portis ended up with respectable plus-minuses, but were more-or-less neutral. KPJ had a team-high five assists but seemed a bit off, and Bobby was held to four points.
Jericho Sims, on the other hand, was a breath of fresh air in his 10 minutes off the bench.
It was interesting to see both teams play 10 folks. We’ll see if those rotations tighten as the series progresses.
The Bucks threw in a bit of zone throughout the game, but it might be nice to show it more given the Pacers’ struggles against it this season (and the need to find SOMETHING to slow down their offense).
Tyrese and Dame were chatting post-game:

pic.twitter.com/JB8HqZkx7m

— Nathan Marzion (@nathanmarzion) April 19, 2025

Okay, on to more important matters. Indiana’s mascot—a cat named Boomer—is a miss for me.
Notable in-game entertainment: gender-antiquated Deal or No Deal and competitive three-level scoring. Not a fan of either.
Our playoff slogan is apparently “Win for Cream City.” That’s the best we could do?
My second-favorite moment of the game? Coming out of the half, the Bucks went on a 7-4 run to make it a 74-47 game 🙂
My favorite moment of the game? LOLLIPOP LADY. I hope they’ll be back for Game 2.

Up Next

There are two days off before the next game of the series on Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. Central. Watch the game on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin / NBA TV or stream it on our Playback and YouTube channels.

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