The Indiana Pacers are starting their first-round playoff series with the Bucks on Sunday night. They are trying to keep what they started in the regular season. The Pacers beat them four out of five times. They will have to do the same in the playoffs if they want to advance.
Health is going to be a big thing in this series. We know that Giannis Antetokounmpo was likely going to miss the beginning of the series. He is the best player in the entire series. He's one of the best three players in the league. If he misses time, that's a big story.
We have the initial injury report for both teams in Game 1 of this series. Both teams want to come in as healthy as possible, minus Giannis for the Bucks. It seems that both teams have done that despite both teams having players with some lingering issues.
The Pacers are healthy for Game 1
Indiana has only one player listed as out for the game and that is Bennedict Mathurin, who tore his labrum a few weeks ago. No one else is listed even as questionable for the Pacers, which is a good thing. Tyrese Haliburton seems to be mostly healthy with that hamstring too.
Giannis has been ruled out with his calf injury according to Adrian Wojnarowski. That means the Bucks will be. without their best player for at least the first game of the series. This makes things a lot easier for the Pacers because now they just have to worry about Damian Lillard.
While you never like to see a team have injuries, this is undeniably good for the Indiana Pacers. The Bucks won't be able to operate an effective zone either, which is something they are going to employ in this series to try and slow down a very efficient Pacers offense.
This should be an interesting series for both teams.