Pacers Report Cards: Grading every Pacers player's Conference Finals performance
By Mueez Azfar
Pascal Siakam
Stats: 4 Games, 37.2 MPG, 23.3 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 4.5 APG, 0.5 SPG, 2 TOV, 2.8 FPG 55.3/20/77.8 Splits on 58.2% TS
After essentially proving his contract's worth in the first two rounds, Pascal Siakam faced his biggest challenge yet as a Pacer and perhaps his biggest challenge since the 2019 NBA Finals, the Boston Celtics. For Indiana to even have a chance in the series, Siakam would have to take over at times and show why the Pacers gave up three first-round picks for him.
In Game 1, Siakam showed exactly why he was in Indiana, as he scored 24 points on 12/23 shooting to go with 12 rebounds and seven assists. Siakam was clearly Indiana's best offensive option, as his turnaround jumper could not miss and he was one of the few players who could guard Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown reasonably well when he wasn't using up all his energy on offense.
Siakam's 10 fourth-quarter points almost gave Indiana the game right then and there, but he was also the man who may have lost them the game when he failed to catch an inbound pass with less than 10 seconds left in regulation, although an argument can be made that he was fouled by Jaylen Brown.
Nonetheless, Siakam kept it going and followed up his fantastic Game 1 with an even better Game 2, as he scored 28 points on 13/17 shooting to lead all Indiana scorers. To this day, Rick Carlisle's decision to bench Siakam in the fourth quarter after only two-and-a-half minutes still puzzles Pacers fans, as he showed little signs of slowing down at that point.
Following these two strong performances, Siakam was solid in Games 3 and 4 but mostly took a back seat to a player we will get to soon. Even then, 22 points and 19 points are nothing to scoff at, and Siakam proved once again how valuable he is to the team, getting timely buckets with Tyrese Haliburton out and even making his free throws, a huge problem of his in the first eight playoff games. Once again, the turnaround jumper was unstoppable, and Siakam took advantage of any mismatch he could get on Boston's smaller defenders.
Unfortunately, Siakam perhaps did not get the ball as much as he should have. He was ignored on a few possessions despite having a smaller defender on him such as Derrick White, and perhaps did not take as many shots as he needed to in the closing minutes of games. Either way, Siakam's third playoff series as a Pacer proved yet again why he is worth max money and solidified his spot in Indiana for the long run.