Pacers Report Cards: Grading every Pacers player's second-round performance
By Mueez Azfar
Pascal Siakam
Stats: 7 Games, 32.4 MPG, 20 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 3 APG, 0.9 SPG, 0.4 BPG, 1.1 TOV, 3 FPG 52.8/40/71.4 Splits on 58.2% TS
This is exactly why the Pacers traded for Pascal Siakam. Entering the playoffs, Siakam was seen as the team's most valuable asset, just as valuable as Haliburton or even more valuable to some. Sure enough, his performances in the first round showed as much, as he was the steady hand that kept Indiana grounded. To beat the Knicks, however, the Pacers would need more consistent play out of him, especially against better defenders such as Josh Hart and OG Anunoby.
After a relatively modest start to the series, scoring 19 points in Game 1 and 14 points in Game 2, Siakam turned it up a notch in the first Pacers win of the series, scoring 26 points on 9/14 shooting. While he followed that up with another modest 14 points, he didn't need to score much in Game 4 considering the beatdown the Pacers were laying on the Knicks. Siakam would need to save his scoring outbursts for the rest of the series, which is exactly what he did.
In the final three games of the series, Siakam averaged 22.3 points on 51% from the field and 50% from deep. Siakam even improved on the weakest aspect of the game, the part that played a big part in costing the Pacers Game 3 of the series, which was his free throw shooting.
After shooting 60% from the line in the first 4 games of the series, Siakam improved to the tone of 84.6% in the final three games which helped patch up the holes in his game and make Indiana's wins a little easier.
Of course, Siakam delivered in the final game as well. Being the only Pacer to play significant minutes in a Game 7 up to that point, Siakam used his veteran savvy to abuse matchups such as Josh Hart to the tune of 20 points on 8/15 shooting and 2/3 from deep.
Prior to the final four games, there were talks on whether or not Pascal Siakam was worth giving a max extension to, but his final few games proved that he is absolutely worthy of a max and the Pacers will do whatever possible to keep him on the team.