It’s cold within the Midwest however the Bucks and Pacers are quickly developing a heated regional rivalry.
After scoring a career-high and franchise-record 64 points in Milwaukee’s 140-126 home win Wednesday night at Fiserv Forum, Giannis Antetokounmpo wanted the sport ball only to learn the Pacers had already nabbed it.
He then went bolting toward their locker room in an try and retrieve the ball.
While it initially gave the impression of the mission had been completed, Antetokounmpo told reporters after the sport he may need been duped.
“I actually have a ball, but I don’t know if it’s the sport ball. It doesn’t feel just like the game ball to me,” Antetokounmpo said. “It looks like a brand recent ball. I can tell, I played, what, 35 minutes today? I know the way the sport ball felt.”
Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said after the sport that the team had tried to nab the sport ball for rookie Oscar Tshiebwe’s first official basket (he scored one point within the NBA In-season Tournament finals against the Lakers, but those stats don’t count within the NBA record book), and their general manager got “elbowed within the ribs” by a Bucks player in a “fracas” within the hallway to their locker room.
As social media sleuths analyzed all of the video angles after the sport, one leaked video with audio emerged of a Pacers assistant grabbing the sport ball with a smirk on his face, while one other from the Pacers hallway appeared to point out an unidentified Pacers player saying, “You wish the ball? You’re not getting that ball.”
The Bucks were out for revenge Monday after getting knocked out of the IST semifinals by the Pacers last week.
The sport got slightly chippy, with Bucks crowd favorite Bobby Portis getting ejected for defending Antetokounmpo against a tough foul from Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith.
It also likely didn’t sit well with the Pacers that the Bucks kept Antetokounmpo in the sport late in a blowout for the needs of getting the franchise points record and/or to send a message to their rivals.
One other wrinkle within the rivalry is that Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton grew up in Wisconsin as a giant Bucks fan.
The Bucks will host the Pacers again on Jan. 1.
