Bucks End Drought by Surprising Pacers

The Milwaukee Bucks found their offense and shed a decade of playoff frustration.

Ray Allen and Sam Cassell scored 20 points apiece as Milwaukee beat Indiana, 104-91, Thursday night, the Bucks’ first playoff victory since 1990.

“We know we have a long journey ahead of us. We’re taking small steps at a time,” Allen said. “You look at Indiana, they look forward to getting to the finals every year. Now it’s time for us to go out and get some wins.”

The Bucks evened the best-of-five Eastern Conference series at one game apiece, taking the home-court advantage away from the rattled Pacers as the first-round series heads to Milwaukee for games on Saturday and Monday.

“Our defense has been going pretty good for us. We’re playing strong and aggressive,” Cassell said. “If we stop teams while we’re scoring points, that’s our best. . . . It was good ball movement, just good ball movement.”

The Pacers, sluggish after five days since their last game, shot 39%.

“We can’t point fingers at anybody. We just have to come back and play strong,” Pacer Coach Larry Bird said. “I was really concerned with our execution, but that wasn’t our problem. They outshot us, they did exactly what they wanted to do.

“Everybody was frustrated tonight. I was frustrated. The team was frustrated. What we have to do is come back strong. We’re not going to give up.”

The Bucks had lost four straight playoff games to the Pacers, including last year’s 3-0 first-round sweep. But the poor shooting in Sunday’s 88-85 loss was forgotten in a hurry. The Bucks never trailed, made 15 of 21 shots in the first quarter, built the lead to 27 points late in the second period and to 31 in the third quarter.

The Pacers, losing by the largest margin since a 19-point defeat to Chicago in the 1998 conference finals, never caught up.

Pacer center Rik Smits, who had 12 points in the first half, was ejected after putting an elbow to Ervin Johnson’s head as they fought for a rebound midway through the third quarter.

“I tried to box him out and my elbow got a little high,” Smits said. “Looking at the film, I don’t think it’ll be a suspension.”

Johnson said it was “just part of the game.”

“He grazed me across the face or neck, whatever you want to call it. I don’t mind the bumps, I don’t mind the fouls. I just don’t like people taking cheap shots,” he said.

Jalen Rose, who had 26 points in the Pacers’ Game 1 victory, had only 11 points. Reggie Miller, the Pacers’ clutch player in so many playoff series, picked up three fouls and a technical within one minute late in the third quarter and finished with 10 points.