The Athletic NBA Daily
Haliburton 4-point play drops Bucks + Cavs win 15th straight, again
Wed, 12 Mar 2025
Tyrese Haliburton hit the go-ahead free throw with 3.4 seconds remaining to complete an improbable four-point play and lift the Indiana Pacers over Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milawaukee Bucks. Dave DuFour and Zena Keita react to the Cleveland Cavaliers second 15 game winning streak of the season, Zion Williamson’s triple double trend, and the Clippers slip down the standings. Then, the Athletic’s Eric Nehm joins the show to talk about that game winning play from the Pacers, the Bucks offensive stagnation, and what needs to change before the playoffs.Read Eric's article on the Bucks/Pacers: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6196567/2025/03/11/pacers-bucks-tyrese-haliburton-comeback/Host: Dave DuFourWith: Zena Keita & Eric NehmExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson Moody Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What happened in the Pacers vs. Bucks game?
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily. Coming up, the Cavs win 15 straight again. Zion gets another triple-double. And Eric Name is here to talk about the Bucs, who are super down bad after that horrific four-point play to lose last night. Good morning, everybody. Good morning, Zena.
Good morning, Dave.
How are you? It's a good morning for everybody if you're not a Milwaukee Buck. How about the freaking Pacers? Tyrese Halliburton just has a knack for hitting these tough shots. Another game winner drawn up. Actually, it wasn't a game winner the first time, so... In case you guys didn't see it last night, we got to talk about this just right off the jump because it was an amazing play.
Chapter 2: How did Tyrese Haliburton's four-point play change the game?
The Bucs have a 114-111 lead on the Pacers. You know, I'm getting my notes together. I'm thinking, OK, we got Eric. We're going to talk about how the Bucs have won nine of their last 12. They're on this great run. OK, and now we're talking about a Bucs three game losing streak because Tyrese Halliburton
And the Pacers, they run an inbound play that is the football play that they ran against the Boston Celtics in the playoffs last year. It's the exact same play. Tyrese Halliburton runs an excellent underneath wheel route, catches the ball on the run, shoots a fading three-pointer, and he's fouled by Giannis Kovacic. with 3.4 seconds left, completes the four-point play.
Giannis gets the inbound on the ensuing possession. They didn't have a timeout. He runs down to court and takes his first shot of the fourth quarter. It's a three-pointer, grazes the rim. But, man, what a shot by Tyrese Halliburton.
Unbelievable shot, unbelievable poise, especially when you're up in the air and fading to the side. I just cannot believe that Giannis did not allow him to land. It was just like one of those moments where you're like, whoa, no, no, no.
And also the amount of space that Tyrese Halliburton had to be able to maneuver in that corner between Brooke Lopez being on top of the ball, the person that was taking the ball out of bounds and jumping in. to the opposite side, as opposed to where Tyrese Halliburton was going. He jumped opposite, as opposed to ball side.
And then that allowed a little bit more space, so just enough time for Tyrese to catch the ball. And then Giannis wasn't close enough. As tall and as long as Giannis is, he still wasn't close enough to touch Tyrese Halliburton immediately as he got the ball, which allowed him to get the shot up and then a foul because he couldn't land.
And shout out to Tyrese Halliburton for hitting that three, I mean, the four-point play.
The free throw.
hitting the free throw because they iced him. As they were viewing that play, it took a significant amount of time to see if his feet were inside the court in order to get up. And also, were they in that three-point range? So, oh, what a tough, tough finish for the Bucs. And ultimately, you know, it's a tough day overall.
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Chapter 3: What are the key stats from the Cavaliers' winning streak?
Yeah. And that Darius Garland flurry to start the fourth quarter. That's the sort of stuff that this is where, you know, him and Donovan Mitchell, I think that they feed so well into each other. And you see a game like this with no Mitchell. And, you know, it probably would have been a little bit of an easier night had he been out there.
But to get away with that, I'm like, this is the important stuff that that they need to do. I mean, it feels like they I looked ahead at their at their schedule.
and i just don't know necessarily like when the streak is going to end um you know so they've won now 15 straight they've got a orlando who we keep talking about got offensive problems they got the clippers coming up who they they lost a game you know which we'll get to in a second to the pelicans and they've been scuffling a little bit especially their last 15 games they've got the kings who are up and down they've got the sons who are struggling they've got utah
I mean, we're talking about they've got a real good chance at going to 20 straight, which is so funny. I actually if you do the math, they've won 42 games. If you just have those three big streaks, that would be the third most wins in the league tied with the Denver Nuggets just in three winning streaks. Whoa. They just won so many games. You know, this is kind of how it works out.
Yeah.
They're having an incredible season. Yeah. Speaking of domination. Yeah. Shout out. He's going to win coach of the year by a mile. Speaking of dominating. Hey. The Pelicans, they got to win. They're doing okay in the tank race.
Wait, are you saying domination?
Well, the domination was from Zion Williamson, who recorded his second triple-double in the last five games, and he had never had one in his career before that. Now, look, I think that when you watch him now, and we're saying post-trade deadline, clearly he's the guy. He's done this point Zion thing for a while, but what we're looking at right now is I think
We're seeing a guy who is healthy, number one. He looks great physically. Had an amazing dunk in this game, of course, because it's Zion. But he now has a clarity of role where it is just there is no question that the ball is supposed to find him and that he's supposed to create for himself and others.
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Chapter 4: How is Zion Williamson performing this season?
you do scouted even if you are you know aware of what their playbook looks like uh you probably haven't spent a whole lot of time on it so the bucks had a time out left they could have called the time out they did not um once you're there essentially what the bucks had said was like that's not something that we switch you just keep running through make them call a foul but whatever may be like just stay connected to your man um that is not what torian prince did torian
Prince remained on the left side of the floor as Tyrus Halberd went across and attempted to communicate and say, switch, switch, switch. But when there's three other players across the floor, who's switching on you? Which one of us? And then if one of us does and they... then run to the left corner instead of the right corner, who am I with? And none of those questions were answered.
Too many guys inside the three-point line, man. You're up three. What are you doing? Also correct. I think another way to defend that is they can do whatever they want in the backcourt. Toss it back there for all I care. Whatever. We're not coming back there. We're just going to line ourselves up on the three-point line, and we're not going to let you shoot a three.
If you want to go inside, you can do that as well. So there's a lot of things that they could have done
whatever they did was not right uh that is not how they handled it uh and then on top of it i think there's there's even more questions that i asked dr rivers after the game about it right um so you give it up or so one you decide not to call time up before to to prepare yourself for this unusual play that you haven't seen before okay that's fine um you try to switch your way through it that's not what you wanted to do uh you tried to run your way through it you didn't do that successfully you give up the three
After the three, Halliburton kind of hits Giannis. It didn't feel super illegal to me, but there isn't the full landing space. How do you define a landing space when you're running full speed three-quarters court and falling out of bounds or falling towards a defender? Whatever it may be, I don't know.
It's harder to find, but the Bucs decide to challenge it to see if they can make it be a tied game. Well, if you don't get that challenge correctly and you lose that challenge, you lose your timeout, you lose the ability to advance the basketball. So then you've got to go 3.4 seconds full length of the floor.
And again, when I asked Doc Rivers about that, he said, you know, our bench was pretty confident that Tyrese Halliburton stepped out of bounds when he gathered. So they weren't even... They weren't even worried about, you know, whether or not Giannis fouled. They were of the belief that Halliburton stepped out of bounds on the near side corner on his gather before he let it go.
Turned out that the officials did not agree with that. That is not what they found.
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Chapter 5: What went wrong with the Bucks' defense on the final play?
That's right. NBA Cup last year. They played each other a million times last year. So five times during, well, four times during the regular season, plus the NBA Cup game. So five times during the regular season last year. Add on six more games in the postseason, so 11 times. And now all of that leads up to Saturday, right?
They're going to play Saturday. Back in Fiserv Forum.
And we get to do it all over again. So, yes, the beef continues. It has been lovely. It has been just a wild storyline over the last year between these two teams. And we just get to keep writing more chapters of it.
Now, people listening to this might be like, man, that crazy play. Like, that's awful that the Bucs lost on that play. But there was way more to this game that went wrong for the Bucs rather than just that play. One, fast break points. 31 fast break points for the Pacers to just three for the Bucs. And then the bench, Indiana Pacers bench outscoring the Bucs bench 42 to 30. I mean, this...
was bigger than just that play in terms of their offense, in terms of their pace, in terms of just keeping up with the Pacers. And you can't blame Bobby Portis. The Bucs have been pretty okay without him in his absence. What happened tonight and just their ability to match up with the Pacers?
I think it's really kind of a disappointing performance from them in that they did many of the things that they struggled with last season against the Indiana Pacers. You mentioned the fast break points, excuse me. Well, an easy way to give a fast break points is turn the ball over a whole bunch. And the Bucs committed 15 turnovers tonight.
And that is something that plagued them last year in the playoffs. And to me specifically tonight, it was the types of turnovers. It was let's throw it backwards. And oh, my gosh, TJ McConnell picked that off. Of course he did. He lives for that.
He does it every day long.
He did it to you six games in the playoffs last year, five more games in the regular season. You know, he's going to do that. Don't throw it backwards. That is going to get picked off. And you just kind of saw a number like, you know, the Bucks had an inbounds play out of a timeout. They drop an ATO. They're trying to get the ball inbounds.
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Chapter 6: What are the implications of the Bucks' recent performance?
Chapter 7: Can the Cavaliers sustain their winning streak?
Tell me what went wrong.
Yeah, I mean, the Bucs have a three-point lead after some Damian Lillard free throws with 3.9 seconds remaining. Rick Carlisle draws up a play that they used in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals last year against the Boston Celtics. It was funny, as I saw them line up, I knew exactly what was coming because I watched the exact play in Gainbridge Fieldhouse last Eastern Conference Finals.
I covered that game and saw it happen. That time, Aaron Neesmith missed the three. This time, Tyrese Halliburton hits the three. But essentially, for those attempting to imagine this play in their head, you are looking at... an NFL four-wide set. You have all four guys in the backcourt lined up across the court, sideline to sideline, and then they're just going to run crossing patterns.
You're going to get everyone running towards the frontcourt, running towards the inbounder, and all you're trying to do is crisscross, mess people up, and get Whatever shooter you're looking for to run to the near side corner, nearest to the inbounder. The Pacers executed it to perfection.
Miles Turner, Aaron Neesmith were kind of the two guys that Tyrese Halliburton credited after the game for getting them open, but they run their crossing patterns. Tyrese Halliburton comes all the way across the floor, and he manages to be wide open in front of the Bucs bench, hits the three, followed by Yanis Dedekumbo on the play.
four-point play, and not only do the Pacers tie the game, they win the game with that play. And, I mean, as far as what went wrong, I mean, I think in that situation, if you aren't 100% sure... what you're doing defensively, it's so unusual. I would guess the Bucks have never defended that. I think the Pacers, they've ran that play. I know those two times because I was in attendance.
I think two or three more times they've ran that play in the last year or so. So you don't see it. It's not normal.
you do scouted even if you are you know aware of what their playbook looks like uh you probably haven't spent a whole lot of time on it so the bucks had a time out left they could have called the time out they did not um once you're there essentially what the bucks had said was like that's not something that we switch you just keep running through make them call a foul but whatever may be like just stay connected to your man um that is not what torian prince did torian
Prince remained on the left side of the floor as Tyrus Halberd went across and attempted to communicate and say, switch, switch, switch. But when there's three other players across the floor, who's switching on you? Which one of us? And then if one of us does and they... then run to the left corner instead of the right corner, who am I with? And none of those questions were answered.
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Chapter 8: What are the future challenges for the Pacers and Bucks?
Giannis is putting up MVP numbers, improved numbers from last year, one of the most efficient seasons of his career. He's 30 points per game, 30-11-6, doing the same thing that he did last year. That's insane, right? That alone should be enough. But not only do they have that, Dave. They have...
Dame Lillard putting up 25 and seven in the third or fourth most efficient season of his entire career. And that is a top 75 all NBA eight time career. So it's a pretty impressive career and it's still one of his best seasons. And not only is it that the Milwaukee Bucks are second in the NBA in three point shooting percentage. when I put all of those things, I stack all of those things up, right?
That screams amazing offense. That should be a top five offense. That should be a top three offense. And this season, the bucks just haven't been able to, I don't system.
There's too many times where I'm watching them set up a Brooke Lopez post up. There's just an, and against miles Turner even, and Brooke is good in the posts, but it just, it, it slows their offense down to a crawl to get these post-ups, man. Bobby Portis does the same thing when he's out there.
100%.
You get the ball across by 10%. 20. Jokic has these coaches posting up guys at the freaking scorers table to try to slow them down.
But like this is a lead NBA offense. You get the ball over as quickly as you can. You get yourself as much time as possible to work on the shot clock in your area in an attacking position. That's what you do.
And repeatedly when you watch the Milwaukee Bucks play, whether it's Giannis bringing the ball to the floor, whether it's Dane bringing the ball to the floor, the Bucks are going to cross probably around 18. And that already takes away your very first action. So you're limiting the number of actions that you can get into. You're limiting how hard you're making the defense work.
And this has been a problem for the Bucs all year. And part of that is, of course, you have a guy like Damian Lillard that does like to play at a slower pace. That is going to be. You have a guy like, as you mentioned, Dave Brook-Lopez. Believe it or not, a 36-year-old, but a little bit older. And he's 7 feet tall and 280 pounds. This is going to take him a little while to get up the floor.
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