Candace Buckner

candace.buckner@indystar.com

MILWAUKEE – In a surprise development, Indiana Pacers coach Frank Vogel announced Wednesday that all five starters will not play in tonight's game against the Milwaukee Bucks.

None of the starters – some wearing street shoes or flip-flops inside the BMO Harris Bradley Center for the early session – participated in the shootaround and had their third straight day off since the team's embarrassing loss to Atlanta on Sunday night.

"The starters are not going to play tonight, all five of them," Vogel said. "We're going to rest them and try to heal up some various bumps and bruises involved with all five guys. We're not playing well as a basketball team right now, our starters aren't playing well, our bench is not playing well. We want to try to get the starters on track by getting their legs back under them and getting them healed up. We want to get the bench back on track by giving them extended minutes in tonight's game.

"That's the plan."

The development of resting starters is in response to the Pacers' lackluster play in March. The team finished 8-10 and lost its season-long grip on the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference to the Miami Heat.

On Tuesday night, the Heat lost to the Brooklyn Nets, allowing the Pacers to climb to within a half-game of the lead. With a win in Milwaukee and a Heat loss tonight in Memphis, the Pacers would once again control the top spot. Vogel, however, said he has been thinking about resting his starters for weeks and the result of the Heat-Nets game would not cause a change of course. Indiana meets Miami for the fourth and final regular-season matchup on Friday.

"Look, we spent all year with one goal (but at) some point you've got to shift your focus when things aren't going your way," Vogel said. "You (can't) pay attention to what everybody else is doing. Fixing your team (is) the only thing that's on our minds right now. We'll do this tonight. The plan for the starters was two days off (Monday and Tuesday), shooting and conditioning today.

"They'll practice tomorrow and they'll all play in Miami. We may rest some bench guys against Miami. The thought process behind all five guys is, if you sit one or two guys per game then nobody ever finds a rhythm. Finding a rhythm is just as important as getting our guys rest, (that's) part of the solution. So they'll rest this game and they'll all play together and look to find the rhythm Friday night."

If ever there was a perfect time for the Pacers starters to take a night off, this is it.

The Milwaukee Bucks own the league's worst overall record at 14-63 and also possess the second-worst mark at home with only nine wins inside the BMO Harris Bradley Center.

According to a Bucks official, the Pacers requested a two-hour window to practice on Wednesday morning. The Pacers will start the lineup of Donald Sloan, Evan Turner, Rasual Butler, Luis Scola and Ian Mahinmi.

The Pacers properly communicated that it would rest the players publicly and to the league office and will not be fined. San Antonio was fined $250,000 by the NBA in December of 2012 for not bringing Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Danny Green to a game in Miami.

"The result here is dictated by the totality of the facts in this case," Stern said in a statement at the time. "The Spurs decided to make four of their top players unavailable for an early-season game that was the team's only regular-season visit to Miami. The team also did this without informing the Heat, the media, or the league office in a timely way. Under these circumstances, I have concluded that the Spurs did a disservice to the league and our fans."

Only three players can be inactive at once so at least two of the Pacers' five starters will be eligible to play. However, Vogel, in a confident and serious tone, shared his reasons why none of the starters will play in Milwaukee.

"I've been teasing with it the whole month of March and every time I choose to not rest them and play our guys, (they) play poorly and we have consequences to it," he said. "The way we've been playing over the last month is concerning. The way we played against Atlanta was disturbing and something needs to be done. We're going out to try to win this basketball game. We still have our sights on the No. 1 seed but the most important thing for our team is fixing our team and this is a plan to try and do that."

Call Star reporter Candace Buckner at (317) 444-6121. Follow her on Twitter: @CandaceDBuckner.