Securing a victory against the Indiana Pacers meant a lot to Myles Turner’s Milwaukee Bucks teammates. 

Turner, who spent the first 10 years of his NBA career in Indianapolis, left the Pacers for the Bucks during free agency back in July. This was his first time taking to the court in Gainbridge Fieldhouse, not donning a Pacers uniform. 

Thus, when Giannis Antetokounmpo hit the game-winning jumper to beat the buzzer, 117-115, Bucks players like Kyle Kuzma were excited, as it meant getting Turner the win over the team he was playing for just a few months ago. 

Kyle Kuzma Responds to Beating the Pacers for Turner

“Any time you always play a former team, your new team, it’s always important in NBA locker rooms to win that game for your brother, your teammate,” Kuzma said during a postgame interview. “And we’re just happy that [Antetokounmpo] hit that shot, because we did not want to lose this game for [Turner].”

Turner was a seminal piece of the Pacers’ franchise – the staple on a Indiana team that fell one game short of an NBA Championship against the Oklahoma City Thunder in June. After seeing him take the microphone and address the fans after the Pacers had won the Eastern Conference Finals, leaving in free agency came as a surprise to many. 

However, Turner joined the Bucks nonetheless, and tallied nine points and seven rebounds in what was undoubtedly an emotional game for the veteran center.

AJ Green's Defense of Myles Turner

“[Turner] is a great dude, a great teammate,” guard AJ Green said. “He gave a lot to [the Pacers], this city, and to come back here and be able to get a win for him — I know he wanted it and we wanted it for him, and we were able to get it done.”

It appears as though Turner’s transition to a new franchise in the Bucks has been pretty seamless. 

With scoring threats up and down Milwaukee’s roster, not to mention a perennial MVP candidate in Antetokounmpo, Turner was never going to need to dominate the box score on that end of the floor for his new team.

But through seven games, he’s averaging just under 10 points per game, notably dropping a season-high 17 points against one of the Western Conference’s top teams in the Golden State Warriors en route to the Bucks’ 120-110 win on Oct. 31.