Pacers offense falls flat in loss to Bucks: Six things learned

MILWAUKEE – Usually, Milwaukee is filled with Bucks signage and flags. The bridges that cross the Milwaukee River are lined with "Fear the Deer" messages, especially around Fiserv Forum.

Monday night? Forget it. It was, rightly, a Brewers town with Game 3 of the World Series taking place in St. Petersburg. Thousands of fans were at American Family Field for a watch party. Bars were packed. There was a giant screen outside of Fiserv Forum broadcasting the game.

As a result, Pacers-Bucks had a different feel than it has across the last half decade. Tyrese Haliburton was playing in his home state. So was Bucks star Tyler Herro. Andrew Nembhard joined a growing list of players out for the Pacers. There were many storylines to monitor for the limited fans that did show up with the Brewers entertaining most of the city.

It was the second night of a back-to-back for the Pacers, with both Jay Huff and Kelly Oubre starting. What was learned in Pacers vs Bucks?

Circle City Spin

The Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever, up close

Circle City SpinTony East

The Pacers struggled from deep, especially early

This game featured quite a bit of open-floor play in the first quarter. The Pacers pushed after both makes and misses while the Bucks hit the turbo button in transition after the Pacers missed jump shots.

That happened often. The Pacers had good tempo and ball movement as they created several open threes. But they missed many of them. They started 2/9 from long range before finishing the first quarter 4/15 from deep.

"I can't count how many wide open threes we had," Pacers star forward Pascal Siakam said postgame. "It was really, really good shots. So it happens. [They don't] go in, we've got to move on."

That they generated so many open threes was a good sign. Only one or two of them were bad shots. But at some point, the Pacers needed to make them.

Their accuracy from beyond the arc improved as the game progressed, but not by much. The Pacers finished 13/48 from deep.

Jarace Walker started strong, then faded away

After struggling in the Pacers first two games and dropping in the rotation, the Pacers needed Jarace Walker to play well in Milwaukee thanks to their many injuries.

The young forward was up for it. After a strong preseason, it was only a matter of time before he found some footing. In the first half, Walker mixed in the obvious big things he has been working on with little things that make teams win.

On the big-picture front, he drilled two threes in the first half and had one assist with zero turnovers at halftime. Making shots and moving the ball effectively are important in any game, especially one with less depth available. He had nine points at halftime.

"I thought Jarace played well," head coach Rick Carlisle said postgame. "He didn't have a great shooting night, but his energy was good. He was rebounding the ball."

Walker also had two powerful rebounds and executed on defense. After two quarters, his +/- of +14 led the Pacers.

In the second half, Walker threw a gorgeous cross-court pass to Larry Nance for a dunk when the Pacers really needed some juice. But his impact was muted in the second half, and he had one of his typical turnovers while throwing a daring pass into a tight window. His shots stopped falling.

Walker's final stats: 10 points (3/12), eight rebounds, two assists.

This is a Brewers game

The biggest cheers of the first half came when the jumbotron flashed an update that the Brewers were beating the Rays 2-0 in Game 3 of the World Series. Then, a cut to the Deer District outside showed thousands of fans, probably more than were in the arena itself.

The baseball-related dynamics made for a unique experience. The Bucks mascot wore a Brewers jersey, and some of the in-game entertainment was baseball themed. A bigger roar came in the second half as the Brewers improved their edge to 10-0 in the fifth inning. Fans were loving it, and the energy helped the Bucks.

The Bucks found their range in the third quarter

The Pacers, on a back-to-back, started to show their sea legs in the third quarter. And the Bucks punished them, going on a 23-12 run in under eight minutes to open the third quarter. That surge tied the game

Milwaukee shot 5/8 from deep in that stretch while the Pacers were 0/8 from beyond the arc. That played a factor, obviously. So did the shot quality for both teams in that stretch. Milwaukee was creating far better looks.

"That third quarter, they got going a little bit offensively," Haliburton said. "And we got into trading baskets mode, which is a hard way to live for any NBA team."

The Pacers needed to up their defensive intensity. They turned to Jalen Slawson for the first time in the third quarter as they tried to turn things around.

His energy helped, as did some jump shots finally going down for the Pacers. After Milwaukee tied the game, the Pacers went on a short run to get back in front on the scoreboard. But the game was much closer, and more tense, thanks to the Bucks' third quarter improvements – on top of their shooting, Kel'el Ware was causing the Pacers all kinds of problems.

The Pacers offense and depth died in the second half

The Pacers scored 28 points in the first 17 minutes of the second half. Their offense fell apart.

Some of that was the aforementioned struggles from beyond the arc – they were 2/15 on threes in the second half at the time. But they were under 40% from the field on all shots while struggling to get any momentum. Every string of baskets was answered by the Bucks quickly.

Postgame, Haliburton said the team stopped playing with pace in the second half. Rebounding was a factor. "Just gotta do a better job playing with some pace. I thought we got a lot of good looks, especially early in the game, that just didn't go down for us," he said.

In the second half, the Pacers finished with 41 points and shot 31.9%. Walker, Nance, and Quenton Jackson all struggled. It was costly.

Rebounding was a big issue late

With 5:25 to go in the game, the Bucks had taken nine more shots in the second half than the Pacers. They had 11 offensive rebounds across the third and fourth quarters at the time (finished with 12) – Milwaukee owned the boards and, in turn, the tempo of the game.

It put the Pacers on the back foot. They couldn't make shots and had fewer chances to score. That's a losing formula.

"Didn't get enough rebounds to get anything going," Carlisle said postgame of the second half. He thought his team needed more energy in general as the game went on.

And it was. The Pacers continued to miss jumpers down the stretch while the Bucks made their threes to put the game away. Many little things were costly for the Pacers in this battle, but their inability to string together stops stood out.

The final score was Bucks 110, Pacers 102. The Pacers are 2-2 and will play much better opponents this week.

Thank you for reading. A tough start to the season for the Pacers, both in record and in health. Sign up for the latest on their results and available players.