Giannis Antetokounmpo scores career-high 64, then scraps for game ball from Pacers

Giannis Antetokounmpo scored a career-high and franchise record of 64 points, as the Bucks defeated the Pacers 140-126 on Wednesday. However, after the game was over, a scuffle broke out between the two teams, which stemmed from a disagreement concerning Giannis not getting the game ball. As it appeared, the Pacers’ staff took what was perceived as the game ball to give to rookie Oscar Tshiebwe, who scored his first career point on a free throw.

Pacers coach Rick Carlisle referenced the dispute to reporters.

“What happened after the game was unfortunate, there was a misunderstanding about the game ball,” Carlisle said. “It was Tshiebwe’s first official NBA point, so we always get the game ball. We were not thinking about Giannis’ franchise record.” 

Giannis surpassed Michael Redd’s 57-point Bucks’ franchise single-game scoring record while scoring 64 points on 20-of-28 shooting from the field and 24-of-32 shooting from the free throw line. In addition, the Greek Freak contributed 14 rebounds, three assists, four steals, and one block. On the other hand, Tshiebwe had one point and one rebound in six minutes of playing time. 

Feeling it was unjustifiable to take his record-breaking game ball, an animated Giannis stormed the Pacers’ locker room. Meanwhile, seemingly complications arose of who should have the ball, as there was leaked audio of the Pacers’ players refusing to comply, “You want the ball? You’re not getting back the ball.” That is when, Giannis was seen coming out from the tunnel yelling at Tyrese Haliburton, “Go get the [explicit] ball! You need to go get it.”

Not to mention, during all of this, Bucks’ players were also supposedly being aggressive trying to help retrieve what they thought was the ball used during the game, which resulted in a bunch of chaotic postgame commotion.

To clarify, there was confusion surrounding who had taken the game-used ball, as it was later revealed a Bucks’ official actually grabbed the real game ball from the referee at the buzzer initially, according to video and eyewitness accounts, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. 

Carlisle elaborated on the squabble that took place, “So we grabbed the ball, and a couple minutes later several of their players ended up in our hallway and there was a big… fracas,” the Pacers’ coach expressed concern. “I don’t think any punches were landed, but my general manager got elbowed in the ribs by one of their players… and he certainly has a bruised rib, who knows if it’s anything more than that.” Pacers GM Chad Buchanan appeared to have suffered a blow to the chest area after the game, but there are no details yet surrounding the severity of his injury.

With all that being said, there was even more controversy about if the actual game ball was recovered in the end, “I have no idea, I’m not going to lie. I have the ball, but I don’t know if it’s the game ball, it doesn’t feel like the game ball to me,” Giannis stated after a reporter asked to confirm if he had the official game ball from tonight. “It feels like a brand new ball, I can tell, I played 35 minutes today, I know how the game ball felt, the ball which I have, I’ll take it and give it to my mom for sure, but I don’t know it’s actually the game ball, but it’s OK, life continues.”

To point out, there may have even been another deserving player of the game ball, as tonight Damian Lillard passed Kyle Korver for fifth all-time on the NBA career 3-pointers made list (2,451)… Giannis jokingly said after the game, “I’m chasing him, I’m 2,000 threes away.” 

“Dame was fifth of all time, I scored 60,” Giannis said. “The ball that they gave us, I offered it to Dame… At the end of the day, I don’t think it’s fair for anybody and look I understand when you score your first point in the NBA, you want to have the ball, but at the end of the day we are talking about the guy who just skipped Kyle Korver in the all-time list, and in my opinion we should all stop what we are doing and appreciate greatness.” 

Dame was asked about the game ball situation and provided insight to their motive, “You know they took the game ball,” Lillard stated. “That type of stuff happens in the NBA, when people get offended by how it happened. Maybe they felt like he [Giannis] should have been out of the game, and that he was trying to get points or whatever. So they did something like that, they took the ball and said our rookie scored his first NBA points, and it’s like this dude just scored 60. But that’s part of the league, the gamesmanship, the pettiness. It happens. I didn’t think it was that deep, but it just turned into a lot of commotion.”

With the win, the Bucks avenged their NBA In-Season Tournament semifinal loss to the Pacers

“Good team, they played extremely hard and are very well coached,” Antetokounmpo said. “And we know we are going to see them in January again, and we know that they are going to play at their best, and if we are not ready they are going to beat us like the last two times out.” 

After already playing each other three times in a little over a month, the two teams will face off again on January 1 and January 3. The standings now show Milwaukee (17-7) as the second seed, while Indiana (13-9) is currently the fifth-seeded team in the Eastern Conference.