Audio and video from after Bucks game suggests Pacers knew the gravity of taking game ball

Game Ball Gate is barely 12 hours old, but it's already taken several twists and turns.

Video that apparently shows the aftermath of Wednesday night's heated tilt between the Milwaukee Bucks and Indiana Pacers seems to back up what Giannis Antetokounmpo said after the game, when he emphatically stated that the Pacers had taken the game ball back to their locker room.

Antetokounmpo scored a franchise-record 64 points in a 140-126 victory, the same game that Damian Lillard moved into the NBA's top five in career three-pointers made. Antetokounmpo said afterward the game ball he was ultimately given by the Pacers did not feel like a game-used ball.

"The ball that I have, which I’ll take and I’ll give it to my mom for sure, I don’t know if it’s actually the game ball," Antetokounmpo said. "It's OK. Life continues. I don’t even have the game ball from — which hurts me — I don’t have the game ball from Game 6 of the NBA Finals. I don’t have the game ball from that either. It’s just unfortunate. I never seen this before.”

Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said in his postgame press conference that the team wanted to give the ball to rookie Oscar Tshiebwe, who scored his first official NBA point with a free throw in the fourth quarter. Tshiebwe also hit a free throw against the Lakers on Dec. 9 in the final of the NBA In-Season Tournament, but stats from that game don't count as a traditional regular-season game.

Carlisle later indicated that he believed the team had procured the "reserve" ball and a security guard had the real ball.

In viral video capturing the moments after the game in the Fiserv Forum tunnel, tracked down and strung together with TV footage by popular video account LegendZ Productions, Pacers players seem to be aware of what it would mean to keep the ball.

"Keep the ball" one player yells, with other audible exclamations including, "You're not getting the ball" and, "Don't give him the ball."

The video also includes a heated sideline exchange between Giannis Antetokounmpo and Pacers star (and Wisconsin native) Tyrese Haliburton, where a lip reading suggests Giannis shouted at Haliburton that he needs to go retrieve the ball from the locker room.

Warning: the embedded clip includes strong language.

Television footage after the game also shows Pacers assistant coach Mike Weinar holding a ball and walking away to the locker room with it, despite protests from Antetokounmpo, who then pursues Weinar back into the tunnel.

Carlisle said in the tunnel, general manager Chad Buchanan got elbowed in the ribs by a Bucks player.

Thanasis Antetokounmpo held back in his own viral video

Emotions were already running high for the teams after a fourth-quarter altercation that wound up with Bobby Portis getting assessed the first of two technical. Portis wasn't the only player who jumped to attention when Aaron Nesmith committed a flagrant foul against Giannis; brother Thanasis Antetokounmpo had to be restrained on the sideline in a video that also went viral.

Nesmith was also assessed a technical foul. A little over a minute later, Portis was given his second technical foul and ejected after tangling up with Obi Toppin battling for an offensive rebound.

The Pacers, who defeated Milwaukee 128-119 in Las Vegas in the In-Season Tournament semifinals and won both of the first two meetings with Milwaukee this season, will face the Bucks again on New Year's Day at Fiserv Forum, followed by a meeting two days later in Indianapolis. Bring popcorn.

Haliburton walked in with an Oshkosh North jacket

It's wild that Haliburton, an ascendant NBA star from Oshkosh, finds himself in the role of Wisconsin sports villain.

Members of the Oshkosh North basketball team attended shootaround earlier in the day and spoke with Haliburton, who led North to a state championship during his high school days.

Haliburton checked into Fiserv Forum wearing his Oshkosh North letterman's jacket, as well.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: In Giannis game ball conflict, video suggests Pacers knew they had it