Indiana @ Milwaukee preview

Last Meeting ( Jan 8, 2018 ) Milwaukee 96, Indiana 109

The Indiana Pacers and Milwaukee Bucks are in the middle of a crowded Eastern Conference playoff race, but both are trending in the wrong direction. The Pacers will try to snap a two-game slide while the Bucks hope to avoid a fourth consecutive loss when the teams tangle Friday night in Milwaukee.

Indiana dropped consecutive road games to Dallas and Atlanta - a pair of 19-43 teams - and sits in fifth place in the East but is just two games up on the eighth-place Miami Heat entering Thursday's action. "Once again, we got out-worked tonight," coach Nate McMillan told reporters after his team committed 24 turnovers in Wednesday's 107-102 loss to the Hawks. The Bucks' slide is even more jarring, as it includes a 23-point loss to a struggling Detroit Pistons team on Wednesday in which All-Star Giannis Antetokounmpo left with an injury around his right eye. Milwaukee pulled into Thursday a game up on the Heat and four ahead of the ninth-place Pistons.

TV: 8 p.m. ET, FS Indiana, FS Wisconsin

ABOUT THE PACERS (34-27): Indiana received some solid production from reserves Lance Stephenson (18 points) and Domantas Sabonis (14 points, 12 rebounds), but they combined for 10 of the team's 24 turnovers. "We wanted to be the aggressors but they came out harder than us," Sabonis told reporters. Victor Oladipo scored 22 points but made just 1-of-9 3-pointers and is 8-for-43 from beyond the arc over a seven-game stretch.

ABOUT THE BUCKS (33-28): Antetokounmpo, who had 11 points in 30 minutes prior to the injury, is set to be re-evaluated Thursday. "When I look straight, it's cleared up. When I look down, things are moving," he told the media after the loss to Detroit. "Hopefully, when I sleep tonight and wake up tomorrow morning it's [better]. Right now, I'll be fine." The 23-year-old had 31 points and nine rebounds in a 122-101 rout of Indiana at home Jan. 3.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Sabonis averaged 20.5 points on 72 percent shooting in the first two meetings with the Bucks.

2. Milwaukee SF Khris Middleton is 32-for-34 from the line over his last four games.

3. Pacers SF Bojan Bogdanovic had a game-high 26 points in the loss to Atlanta and he shot 52.3 percent from the floor in February.

PREDICTION: Bucks 103, Pacers 99