NBA playoff takeaways: Thunder dominate Grizzlies again, while Pacers edge Bucks

New York Times

23-04-2025

By Will Guillory, Darnell Mayberry, Eric Nehm, Shakeia Taylor and Jenna West
The Indiana Pacers and Milwaukee Bucks kicked off Tuesday's NBA playoff slate, with the Pacers taking a 2-0 series lead thanks to their 123-115 win.
Pascal Siakam paced Indiana with 24 points and 11 rebounds, and Tyrese Haliburton added 21 points and 12 assists. The Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo led all scorers with 34 points, but it wasn't enough for Milwaukee to keep up with the Pacers.
Advertisement
Shortly after Indiana's win, the Oklahoma City Thunder dominated the Memphis Grizzlies 118-99 in Game 2 of their series. The Grizzlies struggled to keep up with the Thunder, the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, for a second straight game.
The Thunder didn't simply hold serve in the first two games. After a 51-point win in Game 1, Oklahoma City outclassed the Grizzlies with a wire-to-wire victory in Game 2, which left fans wondering whether the Grizzlies can do anything to make this a competitive series as it shifts to Memphis for Games 3 and 4.
The Thunder have held the lead for all but 3:02 of the 96 minutes over the first two contests. They've done it despite MVP finalist Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scoring only 42 points on 14-for-42 shooting and going 4 of 17 on 3-pointers. But Oklahoma City's team defense has been the same dominant unit it was throughout the regular season. Against the Thunder's length, the Grizzlies are struggling mightily to generate consistently clean looks. Memphis starters shot 3-for-21 in the opening quarter Tuesday.
Oklahoma City has won six games against Memphis this season by a combined 145 points, a 24.2-point differential. — Darnell Mayberry, NBA staff writer
After their Game 1 loss, it was difficult to expect things to get any worse for the Grizzlies. While there were some signs of progression and a few areas to build optimism, it still feels as though the team has a steep climb ahead of them before anything they do can even force the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference to even break a sweat. One promising development for the Grizzlies was All-Star forward Jaren Jackson Jr. having a big turnaround after his four-point performance in Game 1.
Advertisement
In Tuesday night's loss, Jackson finished with 26 points on 10-18 shooting. His bully ball created some quality looks for the Grizzlies. Still, Memphis failed to score 100 points for the second game in a row. In total, the Thunder and the Grizzlies have played six times this season, and all six games ended in a double-digit victory for the Thunder.
Ja goes behind the back and JJJ hits the triple 🙌
Grizzlies cut it to single digits on TNT! pic.twitter.com/rpZHJU0DPV
— NBA (@NBA) April 23, 2025
Memphis should get a jolt of energy from its home crowd when the teams meet for Game 3 on Thursday. Ultimately, it feels like a matter of time before the Thunder puts the Grizzlies down for good. — Will Guillory, NBA staff writer
Andrew Nembhard, who seemed to be in a slump before the series, was once again active and important in Indiana's win. In just over 33 minutes of play, he was 6-for-10 from the field and 3-for-5 from three, including a dagger three-pointer with 1:11 left in the fourth quarter after the Bucks had pulled within eight after being down by as many as 16.
For the second game in a row, the Pacers had balanced scoring with six players in double figures: starters Siakam, Haliburton, Myles Turner, Aaron Nesmith and Nembhard, along with Obi Toppin, Bennedict Mathurin, TJ McConnell and Jarace Walker.
Haliburton flushes it… followed by Turner with two hands!@Pacers flying around in Game 2 on NBA TV 🛫 pic.twitter.com/UGmKltSzBe
— NBA (@NBA) April 23, 2025
In his first game back after missing the last 14 regular-season games and Game 1 of the playoffs, Lillard was expected to make a huge impact on Milwaukee's offense against Indiana. Instead, Nembhard, Lillard's primary defender, swarmed him all night, and the Bucks star didn't score in the second half until 2:33 left when he hit a three-pointer as the Bucks tried to fight their way back into the game to avoid going down 2-0 in the series.
Advertisement
Lillard, who appeared frustrated throughout the game, ended the game with four personal fouls. — Shakeia Taylor, NBA staff writer
For a second straight game, the Bucks fell behind the Pacers in the first quarter and never found their way back into the game. While Milwaukee managed to play Indiana close for the first six minutes in Game 1, the team went down early in Game 2 and never got closer than two points the rest of the game as the Pacers led wire-to-wire in their second win of the series.
Bucks coach Doc Rivers ripped his team's offensive execution after Game 1, but the Bucks have had few answers for the Pacers defensively this series. With Damian Lillard back in the lineup, the Bucks tried Taurean Prince and Kyle Kuzma at the point of attack on Haliburton, and it did not go well as Haliburton was able to get to the basket and nearly double his scoring total from Game 1.
With a 0-2 deficit heading to Milwaukee, the Bucks have a lot to fix. Their point of attack defense has not been good enough the entire series, no matter what matchup, defensive set-up or strategy they've tried. Offensively, they committed too many turnovers (16) to stay with the Pacers, despite shooting 48.9 percent from the field.
Antetokounmpo was dominant once again with 18 rebounds and seven assists, and Lillard put up 14 points, three rebounds and seven assists in his return, but it wasn't enough. Considering Milwaukee has led for roughly two minutes total in the first two games, the Bucks will need to be much better on both ends of the floor to get a win in Milwaukee. — Eric Nehm, Bucks beat writer