INDIANAPOLIS — In mid-January of 2024, the Pacers were good, but they weren’t great.
At the time, Indiana owned the NBA’s No. 1 offense — a hyper-efficient attack driven by the pedal-to-the-medal pace-pushing and all-seeing facilitation of Tyrese Haliburton. But while that attack boasted plenty of five-out, bombs-away panache, it lacked a second high-level shot-creator capable of getting the Pacers a good look when everything else had broken down. Indiana needed that elite offense, too, to make up for a dreadful bottom-five defense — a small, often scrambled unit that routinely struggled to match length, strength and athleticism with top-flight big wings.
That all added up to seventh place in the East: a team within striking distance of home-court advantage, and capable of overwhelming opponents as they did on their way to the in-season tournament finals, but not one that seemed set to go the distance.
But where were they going to find an All-Star-caliber big wing who could cook in isolation, who would fit seamlessly in the Pacers’ uptempo approach, who wouldn’t butt heads with Haliburton, and who shot it well enough to dovetail in Indiana’s five-out offense? Not to mention a dude who could bolster the defense, providing both the size and physicality to more honestly guard bigger opponents and the off-ball savvy to increase Indiana’s ability to muck things up in the gaps?
The answer, it turned out? Toronto.
“He’s the kind of player that would go to any team, at any time, and would blend in in a matter of … days, really,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said of forward Pascal Siakam before Game 1 of the 2025 Eastern Conference finals against the Knicks. “And you know, that’s one thing that makes him special and unique. More time with the team, more time with the group, is always something that is going to increase how comfortable he is and how comfortable his teammates are with him.
“But really, since Day 1 that he got here, it was like he’d been here a while.”
The Pacers have gone 88-60 with Siakam in the lineup, regular- and postseason combined, since his arrival 16 months ago — a .595 winning percentage, a 49-win pace. They’ve outscored opponents by 551 points in the 4,849 regular- and postseason minutes Siakam has played in 148 games as a Pacer — a good mark, but not a mindblowing one in a world where guys like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokić and Jayson Tatum have been posting single-season plus-minuses well over plus-600. Stretching back to last season, Indiana has outscored opponents by 6.4 points per 100 possessions when Haliburton and Siakam share the floor. Again: good, but not mindblowing.
Siakam didn’t transform Indiana into a no-doubt-about-it juggernaut. What he did, though, was raise both the Pacers’ floor and their ceiling, giving Carlisle a tactical answer to just about any question an opponent can pose — an invaluable resource this time of year — as well as a respected, decorated veteran whose voice would carry in a young locker room.
“He’s been here before, so he’s a calming presence for us and a leader for us,” Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard said after Indiana’s Game 2 win. “We all kind of rally behind that, and he kind of calms us all down.”
Nembhard offered that assessment after Siakam had calmly, patiently destroyed New York’s defense to the tune of a playoff-career-high 39 points in 33 minutes. He punished the Knicks from every spot on the court — 9 for 12 in the paint, 3 for 6 from midrange, 3 for 5 on above-the-break 3-pointers — in a masterful performance that gave the Pacers a commanding 2-0 lead heading home for Game 3 on Sunday.
“For 48 minutes, it just seemed like he took control of the game,” said Game 1 hero Aaron Nesmith.
“It’s why we brought him here,” Haliburton added. “It’s what he’s here to do.”
The Knicks showed their cards early in Game 2. On Indiana’s opening possession, they reacted to a Haliburton-Myles Turner pick-and-roll by switching the ball screen and allowing center Karl-Anthony Towns to defend Indiana’s All-NBA point guard one-on-one on the perimeter — a strategy New York head coach