By Shakeia Taylor The Athletic
NEW YORK — Pascal Siakam is relatively quiet, choosing to let his game do the talking instead. On Friday night against the New York Knicks, his game was loud in front of a hostile Madison Square Garden crowd.
On a night when it took most of the first half for Tyrese Haliburton to score his first points, Siakam took over offensively for the Indiana Pacers right away and had one of the best performances of his career. Siakam scored Indiana’s first 11 points and had 23 at the half. He finished with a career-playoff-high 39 points to lead the Pacers to a 114-109 win in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals to go up 2-0 in the series.
“Whatever was out there, I just took it,” Siakam said. “I think what makes us special as a team is just that we have different weapons and we’re not consumed with who’s going to do what. You just go into the game, and however the game presents itself, that’s how we go and take it and do it our way. And it doesn’t matter who scores.
“I just try to play my game. Shout-out to my teammates for finding me and making sure that I stayed aggressive the whole game. It’s going to take all of us to get where we wanna get to.”
Siakam had a quiet 17 points in Game 1, but his presence was felt from just about everywhere in the second game of the series.
One of the most important pieces for the Pacers squad, Siakam was on fire, shooting 15 of 23 from the field, 3 of 5 from beyond the arc, and 6 of 8 from the free-throw line. Siakam also added five rebounds, three assists and one steal. This time it wasn’t Haliburton or Aaron Nesmith. When the home crowd got into the game, Siakam hit a shot that would silence them. The Knicks couldn’t stop him.
Siakam came to the Pacers last season ahead of the trade deadline in January 2024 from the Toronto Raptors, where he’d spent more than eight seasons and was pivotal to their 2019 championship, to complement Haliburton.
“That’s why we brought him here. It’s what he’s here to do,” Haliburton said. “He can get a bucket in so many different ways. He started the game high, and we just kept feeding him. I thought he did a great job of making big shot after big shot after big shot, killing momentum.
“I think when you’re in an environment like this, the crowd is getting into it. A lot of those shots can be backbreakers at times. He just kept making big play after big play. He was amazing for us. A big reason why we won today.”
Indiana got out to an early double-digit lead, but the Knicks responded. Much of the game was back and forth with 17 ties and 17 lead changes, and for a while, it looked like it was anybody’s game. Whenever New York would score, the Pacers would quickly get a basket at the other end, killing any hopes of a big run.
“What are we doing?!” a frustrated Knicks fan yelled.
The Pacers outscored New York 14-7 on fast break points and 10 of those belonged to Siakam, who leaked out on defensive possessions and got a running start to beat the Knicks down the floor for quick baskets.
“Special game,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “In the first half, he was the guy who got us going and got us through some really difficult stretches. He picked his spots to be aggressive. He ran great. He did everything. He attacked the rim. He was great (in the) midrange and the 3-point shot was there.”
A leader in the Indiana locker room, Siakam said he’s been “preaching the same thing” to his teammates.
“We can’t ride the waves,” he said. “We can’t get too high with the highs and too low with the lows. I just appreciate the opportunity that I have here to have a bunch of guys (who) want to hear my voice. They want me to say something.”
Indiana shot 51.8 percent from the field and six different Pacers scored in double figures, including all five starters. Big man Myles Turner had 16 points and three rebounds, including one in the fourth quarter off a Jalen Brunson missed 3 that helped seal the game. Despite an off-shooting night, Haliburton still finished with 14 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds.
Indiana played 11 players and the Pacers’ much-talked-about depth was once again key in helping dampen the Knicks’ hopes of breaking their long NBA Finals appearance drought. TJ McConnell scored 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting with three assists and Ben Sheppard’s six points came off two critical 3-pointers, including one in the fourth quarter.
“(I was) just finding my spots and being confident in my shot. Just playing through the flows of the game,” Sheppard said.
This was the seventh consecutive playoff game in which Indiana scored at least 100 points and had at least 25 assists. They also turned the ball over only 10 times. The Pacers are outscoring the Knicks 44-16 off turnovers in the series.
Since the loss to Milwaukee in Game 3 of the first round, Indiana has won six straight road games. The Pacers are just two wins from their first NBA Finals appearance since 2000.
“It’s only going to get tougher for us,” Siakam said.
Indiana, with its 2-0 series lead, has an opportunity to send New York to the brink of elimination in Game 3, which tips off at 8 p.m. (ET) Sunday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.