Giannis and his Bucks teammates speak on game-winning shot over Pacers
Giannis Antetokounmpo and his Milwaukee Bucks teammates speak on his game-winning shot over Pacers on Nov. 3, 2025 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Giannis Antetokounmpo hit a game-winning shot to give the Milwaukee Bucks a 117-115 victory over the Indiana Pacers.Antetokounmpo celebrated by signaling to the crowd and booing in response to the reception for his teammate, former Pacer Myles Turner.The game was the latest chapter in what has become a heated and physical rivalry between the two NBA teams.
INDIANAPOLIS – Giannis Antetokounmpo backpedaled quickly down the court at Gainbridge Fieldhouse as the arena fell into a stunned silence moments after his fading 16-footer splashed through the net to give the Milwaukee Bucks a 117-115 victory on Nov. 3. As AJ Green ran to celebrate with him, Antetokounmpo turned and signaled to the crowd that he was, indeed, “The Man,” before putting his finger to his lips to shush the crowd.
It wasn’t quite like Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton’s somewhat vulgar celebration of his masculinity when he beat Cleveland with a 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds left in the second round of the playoffs last season, but the message was received.
Antetokounmpo then crossed the court, booing and putting his thumbs down in response to the home crowd’s icy greeting to former Pacers center Myles Turner. It was the second time Antetokounmpo booed and pointed his thumbs down during the game.
“It was just me trying to show camaraderie, encouragement to my teammate,” Antetokounmpo said. “Which, if you really think about it, four or five months ago he was the one blocking my shot, pushing me on the floor. And I’m here, I’m not booing him, I don’t hate him. It’s the complete opposite. I respect him. I respect him when I played against him and now that he’s my teammate it’s a lot love towards him.”
It was an emotional, but pointed, punctuation point to just the latest chapter in what has become the league’s most heated rivalry that is at times smarmy, often feverish and routinely dangerous.
“You could say that, but it’s kind of just being competitive nature, competing the last two years to get to the same place (in the playoffs) and knocked us out, so obviously we should feel some type of way about it and have some extra fire to us when we play,” Bucks guard Gary Trent Jr. said.
AJ Green added: “I think definitely the history. Myles coming back. I just think that’s their identity, their brand, they’re just gonna be relentless, keep coming, keep coming, be physical, play fast. So we gotta expect that and match it.”
The Bucks signing of Turner as a free agent stirred the embers before any games were played, and the intense booing of Turner during his tribute video added some dry kindling before the team’s first regular season meeting of 2025-26 caught fire again.
“I’ve learned that we’re back to rivalry basketball,” Turner said while sitting in the visitor’s locker room for the first time. “It’s a fun space to be in. Antics are antics, but when it comes to the game, when it comes to the emotion of the game, that’s where yo have to lose yourself and that’s what I was able to do tonight.”
It didn’t matter that Haliburton (Achilles), Ryan Nembhard (shoulder), Bennedict Mathurin (toe), TJ McConnell (hamstring) and Obi Toppin (foot) were out. Aaron Nesmith and Isaiah Jackson weren’t, and in general the Pacers are a team that regardless of personnel are going to try and put Antetokounmpo down and get the other Bucks to react unfavorably.
And none of that included a mouse running through the Bucks locker room after the game or their showers flooding into the locker space.
Outside of Antetokounmpo’s gestures, the game included:
Pacers public address announcer Troy Pepper called Bucks guard Ryan Rollins, Ryan “Hollins” all game. “See – you can’t do that,” Bucks guard Cole Anthony said. “You can’t mess dude’s names up who are in the NBA. There’s only so many of us, you know what I’m saying? That’s a little disrespectful. A lot. That boy’s a hooper, though. Call him what you want, he got game.”The Pacers game day operations crew put up “player comparison” screens showing the stats of center Isaiah Jackson and Myles Turner side-by-side. The screens drew cheers as Jackson had more points and rebounds in each instance.Nesmith committing a Flagrant 1 foul on Antetokounmpo on a breakaway, taking the Bucks’ star down from behind.Pascal Siakam sending Antetokounmpo hard to the court on two different occasions, the last of which had Antetokounmpo grabbing at his already tender left knee.Double fouls on the Bucks’ Taurean Prince and Pacers’ Tony Bradley for jostling for position off the ball, which then led to Bradley setting an illegal screen on Prince and sending him to the floor.A technical foul called on the Bucks’ Gary Trent Jr. for complaining to the officials after he hit the deck on a drive to the basket but didn’t get a whistle in his favor.
“I love it,” Antetokounmpo said. “The city, Indianapolis, the state, Indiana, I think they know basketball. We’ve played against one another many times. We’ve won, we’ve lost, we’ve faced them in the playoffs. They was able to beat us twice. They have an incredible team, an incredible coach, they play new-era basketball so you gotta respect it. Whenever you come here in Indiana, Indianapolis, you know you’re going to play a tough game.”
The teams are not scheduled to play one another again until the Bucks return to Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Dec. 23 (there is a chance they meet in NBA Cup tournament play), but while Haliburton will be out the rest of the Pacers no doubt will be ready to add another chapter to this ever-growing novel.
Here is the recent – but long – history between the teams:
2025 playoffsHaliburton hit a game-winner to eliminate the Bucks from the playoffs in the first round on April 29, 2025, and after the game Antetokounmpo got into a physical and verbal confrontation with Mathurin before going face-to-face with Haliburton’s father, John, on the court.The teams combined for 12 technical fouls as the Pacers won the series 4-1.2024-25 regular seasonHaliburton converted a 4-point play in front of the Bucks bench by drawing a foul on Antetokounmpo with 3.0 seconds left. He then pantomimed then-Bucks guard Damian Lillard’s famous “Dame Time” watch celebration by looking down at his wrist after Antetokounmpo missed a jumper at the buzzer.The Bucks won the regular-season series 3-1 and the teams were relatively well behaved with just two technical fouls being issued.2024 playoffs2023-24 regular seasonIn their first meeting of the season on Nov. 9, 2023, the Bucks blew a late lead at Gainbridge Fieldhouse to lose 126-124 without Damian Lillard. Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 54 points for the Bucks and rookie head coach Adrian Griffin was ejected for arguing foul calls with officials.On Dec. 7 in Las Vegas the Pacers edged the Bucks, 128-119, to advance to the NBA Cup championship game – and after a big three-pointer late, Oshkosh native Tyrese Haliburton tapped his wrist like Lillard had done after game-winning shots.Lillard foreshadowed a potential issue between the teams, though, when he said after the game, “I didn’t mind it. It was what it was. I’ve also known that, you know, when you are having your moment, it’s important to be careful, to be humble in your moments because you just never know how the tables are going to turn or when they are going to turn…I respected it. We shook hands after the game. I wasn’t moved by it left or right.”The teams met again on Dec. 13 at Fiserv Forum, and Antetokounmpo broke Michael Redd’s single-game scoring record by pouring in 64 points on 20 two-point field goals and 24 free throws in a 140-126 Milwaukee victory. Antetokounmpo also had 14 rebounds, four steals and a block. Bobby Portis Jr. was also ejected in the game after receiving two technical fouls for protecting Antetokounmpo receiving a flagrant 1 foul by Indiana’s Aaron Nesmith, and Portis also inadvertently broke the nose of Pacers center Isaiah Jackson on a shot attempt. Eight total technicals were whistled in the contest.But after the game, Antetokounmpo went streaking down the tunnel and toward the Pacers locker room in search of the game ball, leading to a mass of Bucks and Pacers players who had to be separated by security and staff. Once back on the floor, Antetokounmpo shouted at Haliburton. The Journal Sentinel reported later the biggest issue for the Bucks was the fact that the Pacers didn’t shake hands after the loss.On Jan. 1 the Pacers still had no answer for Antetokounmpo, who had 30 points, 18 rebounds and 11 assists but Indiana still won the game 122-113. Things got chippy again, as Indiana’s Isaiah Jackson and T.J. McConnell continued to mix it up with Portis. The latter two each earned technical fouls in a bit of foreshadowing for the postseason.On Jan. 3, Indiana scored 47 points in the third quarter to take control of the game in a 142-130 victory. In the least contentious of the regular-season games, only two technical fouls were issued.In their five regular season games, 14 technical fouls were assessed to players and Griffin totaled three.