MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Bucks are dealing with injuries to key players during the playoffs — again. And Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers are standing in their way.
Milwaukee lost four of five regular-season games against Indiana, though they haven’t met in the last 3½ months. The Bucks likely won’t have Giannis Antetokounmpo for the start of their first-round playoff series because of a strained left calf.
The 29-year-old Antetokounmpo was listed as doubtful for Sunday’s Game 1 on an injury report that came out Saturday. Antetokounmpo averaged 42.2 points and 13 rebounds against Indiana this season, including a franchise-record 64 points in the Bucks’ lone victory over the Pacers.
“I think the good part about it is it’s not something that’s unfamiliar,” said Milwaukee’s Damian Lillard, who will play in Game 1 despite battling a sore adductor and an Achilles tendon issue the final weekend of the regular season. “We’ve had our stretches of games where we’ve been short-handed, and we kind of know what it’s going to look like for us out there.”
Indeed, the Bucks had their top three players – Antetokounmpo, Lillard and Khris Middleton – all available for only five of their last 33 regular-season games. That helps explain why the Bucks went 17-19 under coach Doc Rivers after going 32-14 before his arrival.
The Bucks have encountered similar situations in previous postseasons.
Antetokounmpo missed the final 1½ games of a 2020 second-round loss to Miami with a sprained ankle. He sat out the final two games of the 2021 Eastern Conference finals with a hyperextended knee before returning to lead Milwaukee to the title.
Middleton missed the Bucks’ final 10 playoff games in 2022 with a sprained medial collateral ligament. Last year, a bruised lower back knocked Antetokounmpo out of Game 1 and caused him to miss the next two games in the Bucks’ first-round loss to Miami.
Indiana is in the playoffs for the first time since 2020 and attempting to advance beyond the first round for the first time since 2014. Even though the Pacers are seeded sixth and the Bucks third in the East, Indiana is a slight favorite, according to BetMGM.
“I’m really thankful to be here,” said Haliburton, who averaged a league-leading 10.9 assists per game this season.