rolled past No. 5 seed Milwaukee 117-98 on Saturday<\/a>. The Pacers led 69-43 at halftime and cruised from there.<\/p>\nThings could be much different if Bucks star Damian Lillard returns after missing Game 1. The nine-time All-Star hasn\u2019t played since March 18 as he recovered from deep vein thrombosis in his right calf. He was on the bench in the opener and even got a technical foul for jawing with Indiana\u2019s Pascal Siakam and Tyrese Haliburton. He is listed as questionable for the game.<\/p>\n
Bucks coach Doc Rivers wouldn\u2019t say Monday if Lillard would return. Haliburton said the Pacers are ready if he does.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can happen at any time \u2014 I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if it happened tomorrow,\u201d Haliburton said. \u201cSo we\u2019ve got to be prepared for whatever that is, understanding that in the playoffs, it ain\u2019t about individual performances, it\u2019s about winning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Milwaukee Bucks at Indiana Pacers<\/p>\n
When\/Where to Watch: Game 2, 7 p.m. EDT (NBA TV)<\/p>\n
Series: Pacers lead, 1-0<\/p>\n
BetMGM Sportsbook says: Pacers by 4.5.<\/p>\n
What to Know: Though Lillard is likely to be limited if he plays, it would be worth watching whether his presence would help Milwaukee turn things around after the embarrassing 19-point loss in Game 1. Lillard\u2019s presence is needed for a team that went 9-for-37 from 3-point range in the opener. He averaged 31.3 points per game in last year\u2019s first-round playoff series against Indiana. Perhaps that\u2019s why Pacers coach Rick Carlisle, who is planning for Lillard\u2019s return, acknowledged Saturday that Game 2 will be \u201cmonumentally\u201d tougher than Game 1. Still, the Pacers are a perfect 7-0 in postseason home games when All-Star Tyrese Haliburton plays, and Indiana has won four of its last five playoff games against Milwaukee.<\/p>\n
Memphis Grizzlies at Oklahoma City Thunder<\/p>\n
When\/Where to Watch: Game 2, 7:30 p.m. EDT (TNT)<\/p>\n
Series: Thunder lead, 1-0<\/p>\n
BetMGM Sportsbook says: Thunder by 14.5.<\/p>\n
What to Know: Including the regular season, Oklahoma City has won all five games against the Grizzlies by double figures this season. Oklahoma City dominated Game 1, despite NBA scoring champion Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scoring only 15 points. Aaron Wiggins scored 21 points to lead the Thunder in Game 1 and he didn\u2019t even play in the first quarter. He was the 11th player to enter the game for Oklahoma City. Thunder players are disappointed that their primary defensive stopper, Lu Dort, was not a finalist for Defensive Player of the Year, and the perceived slight seems to have motivated them. Memphis will need more out of its top scorers. Ja Morant scored 17 points on just 6-for-17 shooting in the opener and Jaren Jackson Jr. scored four points on 2-for-13 shooting.<\/p>\n
Minnesota Timberwolves at Los Angeles Lakers<\/p>\n
When\/Where to Watch: Game 2, 10 p.m. EDT (TNT)<\/p>\n
Series: Wolves lead, 1-0.<\/p>\n
BetMGM Sportsbook says: Lakers by 5.5<\/p>\n
What to Know: After a tumultuous regular season that surprisingly ended with 50 wins and a Pacific Division title, the Lakers will be in big trouble if LeBron James and Luka Doncic can\u2019t answer Minnesota\u2019s impressive performance in the series opener. The Wolves hit a franchise playoff-record 21 3-pointers while carving up the Los Angeles defense inside and out, and Doncic\u2019s 37 points weren\u2019t enough to overcome a passive 19-point effort by James and a poor all-around game from Austin Reaves. JJ Redick\u2019s top job might be finding a way to slow Jaden McDaniels, who took advantage of Minnesota\u2019s size mismatches across the front line to score 25 points on 11-of-13 shooting.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP Sports Writers Greg Beacham, Mike Marot and Steve Megargee contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nba<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) \u2014 The Oklahoma City Thunder, Indiana Pacers and Minnesota Timberwolves will try to avoid complacency…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3795],"tags":[1289,1013,7,579,125,2660,294,588,126,1331,377,6684,185,150,368,1622,293,177,4070,152,577,6,446,11,586,475,179,279,1714,209,66,575,483,278,580],"class_list":{"0":"post-149597","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-memphis-grizzlies","8":"tag-aaron-wiggins","9":"tag-austin-reaves","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-ca-state-wire","12":"tag-damian-lillard","13":"tag-doc-rivers","14":"tag-grizzlies","15":"tag-in-state-wire","16":"tag-indiana-pacers","17":"tag-j-j-redick","18":"tag-jaden-mcdaniels","19":"tag-jaren-jackson","20":"tag-lebron-james","21":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","22":"tag-luka-doncic","23":"tag-mark-daigneault","24":"tag-memphis","25":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","26":"tag-memphisgrizzlies","27":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","28":"tag-mn-state-wire","29":"tag-nba","30":"tag-nba-basketball","31":"tag-nba-playoffs","32":"tag-ok-state-wire","33":"tag-oklahoma-city","34":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","35":"tag-pascal-siakam","36":"tag-rick-carlisle","37":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","38":"tag-sports","39":"tag-temetrius-morant","40":"tag-tn-state-wire","41":"tag-tyrese-haliburton","42":"tag-wi-state-wire"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}