The Knicks had few answers for Pascal Siakam.
That much became increasingly clear as the Indiana Pacers power forward scored basket after basket in the Eastern Conference Finals, culminating in a 31-point performance in the Game 6 win that ended the Knicks’ season.
Siakam was named Eastern Conference Finals MVP after averaging 24.8 points per game on 52.4% shooting, including 50.0% from 3-point range.
“His ability to run the floor, his ability to play in the paint, his ability to face the basket, to put it on the floor, he’s a tough cover,” Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said after Saturday’s 125-108 loss at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
“Sometimes, you can play him well, and because of his size and his release he can still get a shot up. And it’s always a good shot.”
Indeed, Siakam beat the Knicks in a variety of different ways.
On four separate occasions in Game 6, a surging Siakam beat the Knicks down the court for a lay-up or dunk. One of those dunks came five seconds after Mikal Bridges made a shot on the other end.
Siakam was similarly deadly on the run in Game 2, when he exploded for 39 points on 15-of-23 shooting.
But he also made tough turnaround jumpers over OG Anunoby on multiple possessions in that Pacers win and hit stepbacks over Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns, too.
“He hit some tough shots,” Towns said after Game 6. “He did a great job of pushing his pace and making us have to guard him, and not in a half-court set.
“[Pacers head coach] Rick Carlisle and the team had a game plan to keep it going. Obviously, we did our best to minimize the damage he could do in this series and this game. But sometimes great players can be great players.”
Siakam scored at least 30 points in three games in the series, and Indiana won all three.
He shot at least 50% from the field in four games and made three 3-pointers in three of them.
Siakam finished the series 10-of-24 (41.7%) when guarded by Anunoby, his primary defender, but shot 5-of-10 from 3-point range in that matchup, according to the NBA’s head-to-head tracking.
He shot 13-of-19 (68.4%) against Bridges, 10-of-19 (52.6%) against Josh Hart, and 11-of-28 (39.3%) against Towns.
“It’s been a crazy journey,” Siakam, 30, said after Game 6. “A lot of ups and downs. I know I’m not the guy everyone’s gonna talk about a lot and all that stuff, and I really don’t care about it. I’m just a young kid from Cameroon that moved to the U.S. when he was 18 years old and gave everything to the game of basketball.”
The Pacers acquired Siakam in a January 2024 trade with the Toronto Raptors for a package that included three first-round picks. That deal occurred less than three weeks after the Knicks made a trade with Toronto to acquire Anunoby, who remains close with Siakam.
In Siakam, the Pacers added a two-time All-Star with championship pedigree — he won the NBA Finals with the Raptors in 2019 — to an ascendent young roster.
Trading for Siakam “took things to another level,” Carlisle said Saturday.
“When we brought him here, we envisioned doing something like this,” added point guard Tyrese Haliburton.
Siakam helped take the Pacers to the Eastern Conference Finals last year, then signed a four-year, $189.5 million extension. He led Indiana with 20.2 points per game in the regular season.
After failing to close out the Knicks in Game 5, the Pacers led by only four points at halftime on Saturday.
But Siakam took over in the third quarter, making a 3-pointer on Indiana’s opening possession and adding a three-point play less than two minutes later to fuel a 9-0 run.
That run kicked off a quarter in which the Pacers outscored the Knicks 34-23 and pulled away for good.
“When you have someone who’s actually been in the trenches, who has actually felt what it feels like, it’s so underrated, just the emotions this time of the year,” Pacers center Myles Turner said of Siakam. “You don’t sleep. You lose hair. It’s just what it is. You can’t explain that if you’ve never been here before.”
Haliburton, 25, has also leaned on Siakam’s experience, saying the veteran is “like a big brother.”
Siakam won Eastern Conference Finals MVP over Haliburton, receiving five votes to the point guard’s four.
“Hat’s off to him,” Thibodeau said of Siakam. “He had a big-time series.”
