4 Takeaways From Pacers’ 128-127 Overtime Loss to Bucks in Preseason Finale

Pascal Siakam missed both of his shots from the field in the first quarter Friday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. He made all 8 he took in the second.

Siakam scored 22 of his 24 points in that quarter, and the Indiana Pacers went to halftime of the preseason finale ahead of the Milwaukee Bucks 71-56. Indiana's starters did not return.

Milwaukee won 128-127 in overtime.

Pacers assistant coach Lloyd Pierce ran the bench. Pacers coach Rick Carlisle was in Charlottesville, Virginia, for an event involving his daughter, according to The Indianapolis Star.

Indiana finished the preseason 1-3. Friday was its second straight overtime game after a 114-112 loss at Oklahoma City on Tuesday, when Tyrese Haliburton scored 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting in his first game at Paycom Center since tearing his right Achilles in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals.

Here are four takeaways from the Pacers' preseason finale.

Siakam's only first-quarter points came at the free throw line.

In 20:54, he went 8-of-10 from the field, 5-of-7 from 3-point range, and 3-of-3 at the line, with 4 rebounds and 3 assists.

Some nights the shots fall and some nights they do not, and it does not matter to Siakam.

"Coming in, we got to figure each other out. We got to continue to have Ty back," Siakam said. "He's a big part of what we do. He's just trying to figure out a way to have him get back on the floor, figure out Zu. So mostly for me, preseason is just getting in shape, trying to figure out my teammates' tendencies and things like that."

"I put a lot of work into my game. I'm really never worried about anything," Siakam continued. "I just go out there and play the game. I know that when you play the game the right way, you always get rewarded. So I just try to play. And then LP running a play for me, but I thought I got a couple of clean looks that went in and out. I'm never worried because I feel like I work on this stuff, so it just took a little bit of just going out there. I got it. I gotta get in game shape, right? I feel like you work out all day every day, but once you get in the games, today was a good example of just going out there, playing extended minutes and seeing how we can last. I expect one of those moments to happen all the time for me."

The Pacers scored 42 points in the second quarter and led by as many as 19.

Milwaukee started Ryan Rollins, Tyler Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kyle Kuzma, and Myles Turner.

Tyrese Haliburton had 17 points, 3 rebounds, and 6 assists in 20:18, shooting 7-of-14 from the field and 3-of-6 from deep.

Andrew Nembhard scored 11 on 5-of-8 shooting with 7 assists. Ivica Zubac, whom Indiana acquired from the LA Clippers in February, finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Kelly Oubre Jr. scored 4 points on 2-of-5 shooting.

Haliburton said the Pacers keep adding sets as the preseason goes on, including plays to get Siakam and Zubac going.

"I thought we were good. I thought we were good," Haliburton said. "I thought the ball was hopping, flying around. I think the more time that goes on, the more where I think we're unlocking each other offensively, figuring out where guys want to be. As time goes on, we're putting in more and more sets, more hot sets that we like to just kind of flow into. Plays to get P going, plays to get Zu going, plays to get — I thought Drew was great tonight. I thought Kelly was great tonight. So the ball's just flying around. I think offensively we are who we are."

"We're going to be one of the best offensive teams in the league with our personnel," Haliburton added. "We just got to be better defensively. I thought that second quarter there was definitely a drop-off of just trying to trade baskets so we could get back on offense, so we gotta do a better job there. But I thought offensively we were really good in that first half, so lots [to] build off of, and it's gonna be an exciting year."

Milwaukee scored 35 points in the second quarter.

Through four quarters, the Bucks had 18 offensive rebounds to Indiana's 8 and a 23-6 edge in second-chance points.

Turner, who spent his first 10 NBA seasons with the Pacers before signing with Milwaukee in 2025, had 13 rebounds and 3 blocks in 23:11.

Haliburton put the boxing out on the guards first, himself included.

"I think that's the way you can get caught up in is leaking out," Haliburton explained. "But I feel like we gave up a lot of offensive rebounds because of that tonight. Zu is the best rebounder we've ever played with, does a lot of great things there, but we got to hold our own, especially us guards — me, Drew, [Aaron], Kelly — all of us got to do a better job boxing out, allowing him to get those rebounds, then we can run."

"I feel like we can get to defense to offense pretty quick with still boxing out," Haliburton detailed. "So we've got to do a better job there. I know that's going to be a lot of film tomorrow, and rightfully so it should be. So we know we've got to be better there."

Pierce said the second-quarter defense came down to a few uncharacteristic plays, including the Pacers leaving the strong-side corner.

"Sometimes things can go a little easy your way," Pierce said. "We were rebounding the ball well after the first quarter, pretty much for the first 18 minutes. And then we were getting out and running. And I think we started to make some plays that were uncharacteristic. We left the strong-side corner a couple times, and they got a couple threes, one they made, one they missed."

"And so those are the areas where, even when you're rolling, you still have to be disciplined," Pierce noted. "And we were undisciplined in the second part of the second quarter. And we cleaned it up later, but you want to avoid that when you can, and when you have it going as well as we had it going, you want to avoid that altogether."

Milwaukee outscored Indiana 34-22 in the third quarter and trailed 93-90 going into the fourth.

Kel'el Ware's dunk tied it at 117 late in regulation, and the Bucks took the extra period 11-10.

Herro scored 25 points on 10-of-16 shooting and went 5-of-7 from 3-point range. Rookie Brayden Burries had 14 points and 7 rebounds off the bench.

Haliburton and Rollins each drew a technical foul with 10:45 left in the first quarter.

Aaron Nesmith (hamstring), T.J. McConnell, Jarace Walker, and Johnny Furphy were inactive for Indiana. Furphy tore his right ACL in February.

The Pacers open the regular season Wednesday, Oct. 21, at New Orleans, with tip-off set for 8 p.m. ET at Smoothie King Center.

Their home opener is Friday, Oct. 23, against the Dallas Mavericks at 7 p.m. ET.