Indiana Pacers: Player grades from the loss to the Milwaukee Bucks

After an impressive victory against Miami for their first win of the season, the Indiana Pacers failed to mount their first win streak of the campaign, bowing to the defending champions Milwaukee Bucks 119-109 at home to fall to 1-3 in the early going.

The Bucks once again paraded an incomplete lineup, missing Jrue Holiday, Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis. Still, their two-headed monster of Giannis Antetokounmpo (30 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists) and Khris Middleton (27 points, five rebounds, seven assists) proved too much for the Pacers to handle. Grayson Allen chipped in as well, finishing with 19 markers on four three-pointers.

Meanwhile, usual suspects Malcolm Brogdon (25 points and seven assists) and Domantas Sabonis (21 points, 13 rebounds, five assists) paced Indiana once again, with rookie Chris Duarte managing to rack up 18 points despite facing tough defense. However, for the second game in a row, Myles Turner was plagued by foul trouble, playing a measly 14 minutes.

Milwaukee led throughout the game, with the Pacers only flirting in the second quarter where they shaved the lead to three and in the middle of the fourth frame, where they trimmed the lead to five before an altercation between Goga Bitadze, George Hill and Middleton disrupted play, and eventually, their momentum, faltering in the last stretch.

With a tough string of games still awaiting the Indiana Pacers, here are player grades from their loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, starting with the MVP for the Blue and Gold in this contest.

Chris Duarte continued to impress for the Indiana Pacers against the defending champions

I’ll be honest here. Chris Duarte gets the nod because the Indiana Pacers’ statistical leaders, despite finishing with their usual great numbers, had glaring holes in their performance against the Milwaukee Bucks.

Brogdon, despite shooting better from the field, committed seven turnovers, one of which came in a crucial stretch in the fourth where the Pacers trimmed the deficit to five. Sabonis was repeatedly late in closing out in the perimeter once more, and even struggled with his timing on double teams. Bitadze impressed in his limited minutes, but he’s better off as an honorable mention here.

While Duarte relatively struggled (by his own standards) by shooting 43.8 percent from the floor, he proved that he can hold his own against the tough Bucks defense despite being hounded all night long by their revolving door of pesky and physical defenders. On one occasion, he even swished a jumper on an isolation against the Greek Freak.

Just to boot, he also played good defense on Middleton multiple times, forcing tough looks, though not necessarily misses.

While Duarte’s string of impressive performances hasn’t yet culminated in a lot of wins, facing tough competition early on will only push him to become better as he continues to acclimate to the NBA.

Player grades for the Indiana Pacers starters against the Bucks

Domantas Sabonis: B

Domas remained fluid offensively, making eight of 13 shots on the floor and netting five dimes, but he looked quite tentative as a decision-maker, especially off feeds to him on the inside as the Greek Freak evidently bothered him. His defense was fine, save for a few rotation mishaps.

Malcolm Brogdon: B-

Malcolm made almost half of his shots, converting on 10 out of 21 attempts, including two of four from downtown, but his seven assists were quickly negated his seven turnovers, which were simply too costly to warrant a better grade despite his numbers.

Myles Turner: D

I’ve pointed out why his defense will be crucial for the Pacers against the Bucks. Unfortunately, he was virtually inexistent, playing 14 minutes due to yet another battle with fouls. Even in his limited time, he failed to provide much impact, even at the rim, save for that one block.

Justin Holiday: B+

This was easily Holiday’s best game of the season, finishing with four three pointers made on nine tries. Better yet, he remained engaged on defense, racking up three steals, one of which as a part of that late fourth quarter hurrah.

Player grades for the Indiana Pacers bench against the Bucks

Oshae Brissett: B-

After a mini breakout against the Heat, Brissett once again saw significant court action against Milwaukee. His defense and rebounding remained solid, but failed to swish open threes, converting only on one out of four attempts.

TJ McConnell: B

TJ failed to record one of his vaunted steals, but he finally had his impressive hustle plays in this game, though that one was neutralized by a bad call. The biggest knack for him in this game was his failure to exploit the Bucks’ paint-heavy defense, finishing a team-worst -16.

Jeremy Lamb: B+

Okay, give credit where credit is due. Lamb shot the trey well for the second consecutive game, making two out of four. He was still iffy on D, but hey, he’s been doing what was expected of him recently. He has been listening to fans’ calls in the past two games.

Goga Bitadze: A

Goga didn’t contribute much offensively, but it was expected after being a DNP in the first three games. In his season debut, the Georgian thoroughly stood out on defense and in the intangibles, playing solid face-up and help D against the Bucks while finishing with nine rebounds, seven of those are offensive boards. And he did all these in less than 18 minutes. Great.

Torrey Craig: INC

Craig had a cameo role in this game, only relieving Brissett, whom Rick Carlisle clearly favored against the Bucks.