A new NBA conspiracy is born: Welcome to Gameballghazi

Giannis hammers the Pacers, so they return the favor and then possibly steal a symbol of his greatness. PLUS: Draymond Green is gone for an unknown amount of time.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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Last week, the Pacers edged the Bucks in the NBA Cup semifinals, with Tyrese Haliburton putting a flourish on the episode by mocking Dame Time. Those teams met again on Wednesday, and something tells me the Bucks had a little extra fire in their bellies.

Well, Giannis Antetokounmpo did, at least. And he leveraged that into the greatest scoring performance of his career: 64 points on 20/28 shooting from the floor and 24/32 shooting from the line. Yes, 32 free throws and 28 shots.

The Pacers really couldn’t do anything with Giannis. I mean, obviously. So in the fourth quarter Aaron Nesmith decides to just grab him across the torso to prevent himself getting dunked on, which turns into what is basically a tackle, which lights Bobby Portis the hell up.

Bobby goes after Nesmith so demonstrably that the Milwaukee crowd starts chanting his name. Meanwhile, Thanasis Antetokounmpo gets up to run onto the court after the takedown, only for Jae Crowder to hold him back.

In any case, that’s a Flagrant 1 on Nesmith and technicals on him and Portis. But we aren’t done.

Giannis sets his personal record and a franchise record for most points scored in a game. (He may have stayed in a blowout to rack up the stats a little too long for the Pacers’ tase.) You probably want to commemorate that. Meanwhile, Pacers rookie Oscar Tshiebwe scored his first career NBA points (well, point — he made a free throw in garbage time). You probably want to commemorate that. And lo!, another conflict.

What happened is that after the whistle a Pacers assistant coach absconded with the game ball and took it to the Pacers locker room. Giannis wants the ball and so a few Bucks personnel (including players) go off to collect it. Security personnel keep them in the hallway in fron of the visitors’ locker room; Rick Carlisle says someone from the Indiana front office was elbowed in the fracas.

Giannis, meanwhile, is running back and forth from the hallway (where progress is not being made) to the court, where he’s yelling at Tyrese Haliburton and Pacers assistant Lloyd Pierce, who are parlaying with Khris Middleton and Damian Lillard. (If we’re tagging ourselves, I’m Malik Beasley; I’m there if you need me, but I don’t really know and/or care what this is all about.)

Eventually Giannis got a ball. Is it the ball? He’s not so sure.

Longtime readers know I am not prone to conspiracy. However …