Bucks, Pacers have confrontation over game ball after Giannis Antetokounmpo scores 64

Immediately following the Milwaukee Bucks’ 140-126 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night, Thanasis and Giannis Antetokounmpo rushed down the tunnel that led to the Indiana locker room at Fiserv Forum. Giannis was in search of the game ball following his record-setting 64-point performance.

Bucks teammates Jae Crowder, who is injured and was in street clothes, and Cameron Payne followed them down the tunnel. After the game Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said his team had taken one of two game balls for Oscar Tshiebwe, who scored his first NBA point.

"Man wanted that ball," Payne said. "Following my team, helping my teammate out. It's just a lot of commotion, honestly. He wanted his ball, man. That's what it looked like, they took the ball. That man had 60. Dame (Lillard reached fifth) all-time in threes. And they on the road.

"You ain't gotta (be) mad about the loss or anything. They just beat us in the In-Season Tournament. It's just basketball. Gotta show 'em love. We at home. If y'all was at home we can't do that, you feel me? Just a little bit of that."

Bucks head coach Adrian Griffin said he was not out on the court when his players darted down the Pacers' tunnel and was made aware after the fact. He said he will talk with general manager Jon Horst about the matter. The team is off Thursday. When the Antetokounmpos returned to the court, Giannis started a heated exchange with Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton, who was visibly confused by what was happening. Haliburton had been speaking with Damian Lillard when that exchange began.

Tyrese Haliburton on being confronted by Giannis Antetokounmpo

"From my understanding there was just a misunderstanding after the game. For some reason he wanted to confront me. I was just standing out there. We beat them twice, so they came out with some fire today and they took care of business. They're a great team and they did what they had to do today. It's just competing at the end of the day. I think it was some high emotions, lot of testosterone going around out there. Like I said, just competitors competing at the end of the day."

Damian Lillard on the Bucks-Pacers postgame altercation

"That's a first. I've never seen all that type of (expletive) happen. Yeah, I wasn't really sure what was going on. I know that it was a physical game. There was a lot of back-and-forth, a lot of stuff was happening out there. It was a lot of talk in the last game and this game. And it was just, to me, just banter. It was a hard foul on Giannis that kind of turned it up a little bit. (Bobby Portis) was turned up tonight.

"And, after the game I thought the game was over. I was staying close to halfcourt so I could kind of have a pulse on what they was saying because I knew they bench was mad. I was kind of like in the middle because I wanted to just be aware of where people was at 'cause I knew it was heated. They took the game ball. And, that type of stuff happens in the NBA when people get offended by how it happened. Maybe they felt like he should've been out of the game and 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. It's like, you know, this dude just scored 60 you know what I mean? But that's part of the league. That's the gamesmanship, that's the pettiness. It happens. I didn't think it was that deep but it just turned into a lot of commotion and a lot of stuff. So, everybody's safe so I guess that's the positive. Nobody got hurt."

Pacers coach Rick Carlisle on the 'fracas ... melee, whatever'

"What happened after the game was unfortunate. There was a misunderstanding about the game ball. It was Oscar Tshiebwe's first official NBA point, so we always get the game ball. We were not thinking about Giannis' franchise record, so we grabbed the ball.

"A couple minutes later several of their players ended up in our hallway and there was a big, a big ... I don't know what to call it, a fracas, a melee, whatever. I don't think any punches were landed but my general manager (Chad Buchanan) got elbowed in the ribs by one of their players. So, he certainly had a bruised rib and who knows if it's anything more than that. Unfortunate situation.

"We don't need the official game ball. There's two game balls there. We could have taken the other one. It didn't need to escalate to that. Really, you know, unfortunate. Third game we've played these guys in 2½, 3 weeks, so things are heated with the competition. I understand all that. But, for it to come into the hallway, it didn't need to happen that way."

But who really has the ball?

Carlisle said he could not name the Bucks player who made contact with Buchanan, and Giannis Antetokounmpo said after the game he did not see that contact occur. After his postgame news conference, Carlisle was in the hallway with assistant coach Lloyd Pierce, who was holding a ball. The Pacers coaches said they took the reserve ball from the scorer's table and that someone else had taken the official game ball.

"The thing with the ball, we don't care that much about the official game ball and that kind of stuff," Carlisle said. "Anyway, unfortunately that will be a bigger story."

In the Bucks' locker room, Giannis Antetokounmpo also had a ball but remained unconvinced it was the game ball he was looking for.

“I have no idea," he said. "I’m not gonna lie. I have no idea. I don’t know. I really don’t know. I don’t know. I have a ball but I don’t know if it’s the game ball. It doesn’t feel like the game ball to me. It felt like a brand new ball. I can tell. I played 35 minutes today. I know how the game ball felt.

"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. 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.”

Antetokounmpo scored 64 points, breaking the Bucks' individual single-game scoring record that had been held by Michael Redd with 57. Earlier in the game Lillard became the No. 5 3-point shooter in league history, passing Kyle Korver.

“I knew they had the game ball," Antetokounmpo said of why he rushed after the Pacers. "I didn’t think they had the game ball. I knew they had the ball.

"First of all, I don’t know how it works. I assume I cannot just walk in any arena that I play in and just take the ball. Dame was fifth of all time. I scored 60. At the end of the day, like, the ball that they gave us, I offered it to Dame. I scored 60. He’s scored multiple times 60, he’s scored 70, and he should have the ball. At the end of the day I don’t think it’s fair for anybody.

"I understand, look, I understand when you score your first point in the NBA you want to have the ball or whatever the case might be, but at the end of the day you’re talking about the guy that just skipped Kyle Korver in the all-time list and in my opinion I feel like we should all kind of stop what we’re doing and appreciate greatness. As Kyle Korver said in the video how many people can say they’re top five in something that they do? He made the most threes in NBA history. I’m right there. I’m chasing him. I’m 2,000 threes away.

"But yeah, I don’t know, at the end of the day, good team, they played extremely hard. They have a great coach, they’re very well coached and we know that we are going to see them in January again and we know that they’re going to play at their best and we gotta be ready. If we’re not ready they’re going to beat us like the last two times that we saw them.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bucks and Pacers get in bizarre scuffle over game ball