Haliburton's Comeback Gives Pacers a Preseason Edge Over Bucks

Indiana's preseason matchup with Milwaukee is mostly about Tyrese Haliburton's return from a torn Achilles.

MIL @ IND Oct 16, 2026 at 11:00 PM UTC

The score matters little in a preseason game, but the Pacers' home meeting with Milwaukee carries real interest because of Tyrese Haliburton. He tore his right Achilles in Game 7 of the NBA Finals and missed the entire 2025-26 season. Every Indiana storyline this fall begins there.

He is back in game action now. In the preseason opener against Minnesota, Haliburton played 16 minutes and finished with seven points, six assists, two blocks and a steal. That is a limited workload, but it is an encouraging first outing. His availability against Oklahoma City was unconfirmed beforehand, which made that game the first test of how his body handles back-to-back preseason appearances. Expect his minutes to stay controlled again, with his floor-spacing passes and tempo-setting coming in short bursts rather than long stretches.

The context explains why those bursts matter. Indiana went 19-63 without him, a franchise-worst record that shows how much the team leaned on him. ESPN's Basketball Power Index projects the Pacers for 42 wins and a 10th-place finish in the East, a modest outlook that gives the group some underdog motivation. Even in an exhibition, that can show up in effort and crispness, especially at home with their point guard back in the rotation.

My lean is Indiana. The supplied reporting says far more about the Pacers' rhythm and Haliburton's return than about anything Milwaukee brings, and preseason rotations can be unpredictable. Even so, a motivated home team with its playmaker easing back in has the clearer edge. I expect a tight game that Indiana controls in the stretches when Haliburton is orchestrating.

Prediction: Pacers 111, Bucks 106.

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