The Pacers still have a game to play before this one. They're at Brooklyn on Sunday, which means Monday in Milwaukee is the second half of a road back-to-back, and their 1-1 record could look different by tipoff. The Bucks, meanwhile, will have had a day at home to rest after losing in Philadelphia on the second night of their own back-to-back. That was the night their usual fast start never showed up.
The Pacers are thin in the backcourt. T.J. McConnell is out with a hamstring, Johnny Furphy is done for the year with a torn ACL, and Rick Carlisle said Sheppard could miss "a few weeks." Aaron Nesmith was listed as probable for Brooklyn with a hamstring of his own. That puts a lot of the ballhandling on Haliburton, and he could be playing his 2nd game in 2 nights early in his comeback. Watch how much Carlisle actually uses him in Brooklyn, because it'll show how much he has left for Monday.
Milwaukee has nobody on the injury report, so the Bucks don't have an injury excuse. The case for them is simple. They're the fresher team at home, facing a tired guard rotation, and Herro and LeVert can score with anybody on the Pacers' perimeter. The case against them is also simple: they haven't held a team under 127 yet. Indiana got going late against Dallas, scoring 62 in the 2nd half after the game was gone, and Haliburton's passing will find every gap in a defense that's still figuring itself out. Tipoff is 7:00 PM CT.