MILWAUKEE — Jordan Hill had 19 points off the bench and Paul George knocked down four 3-pointers as the Indiana Pacers snapped a three-game losing streak with a 104-99 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night at the Bradley Center.
Hill made eight of 12 shots and was one of six Indiana players to score in double figures.
George wasn’t exactly sharp from the field — he went 1-for-7 from inside the 3-point arc — but finished with 15 thanks to his effectiveness from distance, and also grabbed 10 rebounds.
The Pacers were 10-for-20 on 3-point attempts for the game.
A 14-2 run to open the second quarter pushed Indiana to a 10-point lead at halftime. The Pacers opened the second half with an 11-3 spurt to go up by 19 before Milwaukee, sparked by eight third-quarter points — six of them in a 51-second-span — from forward Jabari Parker, responded with a 12-0 run to get within 10.
Greg Monroe scored 11 of his 16 in the final quarter, but it wasn’t enough for the Bucks, who got within three with 16.4 seconds to play.
George missed a pair of free throws that would have put the game away but Khris Middleton, who led Milwaukee with 23 points, was short on what would have been a game-tying 3-pointer with six seconds to play and forward Solomon Hill sank both his free throws to seal it for Indiana.
The victory allowed Indiana (32-29) to take a half-game lead over Detroit for the seventh playoff spot in the East.
Milwaukee has dropped three of its last four and sits 12th in the conference, six games behind the eighth-seeded Pistons.
NOTES: Patellar tendinitis in the left knee sidelined Bucks PG Michael Carter-Williams for a second straight game. He was a last-minute scratch on Monday and was unable to take part in practice on Tuesday. Coach Jason Kidd hopes to get Carter-Williams back “in the next day or so.” … Pacers SF C.J. Miles did not travel with the team to Milwaukee and missed his sixth consecutive game with a strained left calf. … Pacers G Monta Ellis averaged 23.0 points in his last two games. He returns to Milwaukee, where averaged 18.9 points and 6.0 assists from 2011 to 2013. … Bucks F Jabari Parker was coming off a career-high 36-point effort on Monday night and is averaging 22.8 points in six games since the All-Star break. … The teams had split the season series. They’ll meet once more this season on April 13 in Milwaukee.