Monday night was like something out of a movie. The Indiana Pacers, wearing their Hoosiers-inspired Hickory jerseys, played the role of the heroes, seemingly incapable of doing wrong the basketball court.

The Milwaukee Bucks had a part, too. They played the role of the hapless opponent for most of the night, there solely to get embarrassed to the delight of the home crowd.

And embarrassed the Bucks were in a 109-96 loss at the hands of the Pacers on at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Milwaukee trailed by 20-plus points for most of the night, only getting close in the fourth quarter thanks to a burst of life from their bench – the first such show of intensity of the night.

Still, that was too little, too late as the Bucks never got closer than nine points, doing so with less than a minute left.

The game got off to a reasonable start, with the teams trading baskets and leads over the opening 4 1/2 minutes. Then came the Milwaukee turnovers. Back-to-back giveaways – a bad pass by Eric Bledsoe and a lazy one from Giannis Antetokounmpo – led to five straight Pacers points and a timeout from Bucks coach Jason Kidd.

The Bucks responded with a four-point spurt to pull within one when Khris Middleton knocked down a floater with 6:08 remaining the first quarter. That was as close as the game would be for the rest of the night.

Indiana turned right around with a 20-0 run over nearly six minutes and Milwaukee didn't make another field goal in the opening period. That run was aided by five Bucks turnovers – Milwaukee had eight in the first quarter leading to 13 points – and a pair of blocks by the Pacers.

Among the Milwaukee turnovers there were high passes, low passes and telegraphed ones, too. There were players falling asleep and getting the ball pilfered from behind, pockets picked and a moving screen.

When the Bucks weren't giving the ball away they couldn't do much of anything positive on offense, making just 5 of 18 shots (27.8 percent) while the Pacers could do no wrong, making 17 of 24 shots (70.8 percent).

By the end of the first quarter, the Pacers owned a 37-16 lead. They pushed it higher in the second, leading by as many as 27 points and taking a 64-38 margin into the half.

Kidd leaned heavily on his starters through the first three quarters, paying Antetokounmpo and Middleton 30-plus minutes each before sitting both for the whole fourth quarter. During that time, Milwaukee didn't get a single point off the bench.

No matter what the Bucks did they couldn't stop the bleeding. During the third quarter, Milwaukee never cut Indiana's advantage below 20 points.

Antetokounmpo finished with season-lows in both field goals (3) and attempts (8), scoring 17 points thanks to 11 of 14 shooting from the free throw line while committing four turnovers. His 17 points marked Antetokounmpo's second time scoring under 20 points this season, with the other coming in a 14-point outing on Nov. 1.

Neither of Milwaukee's other two go-to scorers got going, either. Middleton had a team-high 19 points while Bledsoe struggled with 11 points on 5 of 13 shooting, including 1 of 6 on 3s, and four turnovers.

As a team, the Bucks were flummoxed by the Pacers' intensity on defense throughout the night and struggled to keep their shooting percentage over 40 percent until their bench unit brought a spark in the fourth quarter.

Milwaukee narrowly averted a season-worst shooting night from 3-point range thanks to Sterling Brown and Sean Kilpatrick. They entered in the fourth and made four 3s between them on six tries, helping the Bucks end the night 7 of 27 from long distance.

Brown finished with 11 points on 4 of 4 shooting (three 3s) and Kilpatrick added seven.