Pacers' Tyrese Haliburton wins playoff series after unfathomable Bucks mistake by Gary Trent Jr.

Billy Heyen

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Pacers' Tyrese Haliburton wins playoff series after unfathomable Bucks mistake by Gary Trent Jr. image

All the Milwaukee Bucks needed was for Gary Trent Jr. to catch the basketball.

He'd already played a heroic overtime, drilling four 3-pointers to send the Bucks on their way to extending the series with an OT win in Indiana.

But when the Bucks tried to break a Pacers trap and throw the ball to Trent near the left sideline, where Indiana surely would've fouled him, the ball slipped through his hands, and then through his legs.

The Pacers, down by a point, then called Tyrese Haliburton's number, and he soared through the lane for a driving layup and a one-point victory.

Moving on: Indiana. Going home: Milwaukee.

The Pacers will get the top-seed Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The Bucks will head into an offseason filled with Giannis Antetokounmpo trade rumors.

It's a brutal way for Milwaukee's season to end.

It's a momentum-seizing way for the Pacers to try and go upset the Cavs.

And it's a darn shame for Trent, who played one of the best games of his life only for it to literally slip through his hands at the most crucial moment.

Sports often features those cliches, the thrill of victory and agony of defeat.

On Tuesday night in Milwaukee, the Pacers and Bucks certainly fit both of those ends of the spectrum.

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Billy Heyen

Billy Heyen is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who has written about many sports and fantasy sports for The Sporting News. Sports reporting work has also appeared in a number of newspapers, including the Sandusky Register and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle