The Pacers are coming into this game with a 47-35 record this season and they have been playing very well in their recent games. They have won 4 of their last 5 as well as 6 of their last 8 games and they have some quality wins in that span in games they needed to win to secure their playoff spot in that final week of the season. They have not been as good on the road this season but the Bucks are also a team that they have played very well against all season. They are going up against a Bucks team that is 49-33 this season and they really dropped the ball late in the season as they were holding down the number 2 seed in the Eastern Conference for the whole season but lost it in the last game. They have been awful in their recent games as they ended the season losing 2 straight as well as 6 of their last 8 games, and they lost to some bad teams in the league in that span. The Bucks have had a very interesting season as they were in 2nd place all year and even fired their head coach midway through the season. They played no defense in their games under their 1st head coach so they brough in Doc Rivers to fix that, but that has not gone as planned either. They got off to a very rough start with Rivers coaching and eventually they started to show some results as they went on a hot streak playing some very good defense in that span, but over the last few weeks the team has not been buying in to the defensive gameplan and it has shown in their results as they dropped to 3rd for the playoffs. Rivers does not have a great track record in the playoffs recently either and the Bucks are going to be without Giannis in this 1st game which puts them at a big loss here. The Pacers are 3-1 against the Bucks this season and they can take advantage of the Bucks in game 1 without Giannis. The Pacers will cover the spread in this game.