INDIANAPOLIS — The headlines — most of them, anyway — will be about Tyrese Haliburton.
The Indiana Pacers point guard fought through a calf strain that had threatened the team’s Cinderella season Thursday night, then had his Willis Reed(ish) moment that ignited a stunning 108-91 rout of Oklahoma City in Game 6 of these fabulous NBA Finals. It was high-level hoops theater, to be sure, and had everything to do with the Pacers pushing this loaded Thunder squad to the brink of a colossal upset in Game 7 back in OKC on Sunday.
But as is so often the case with this cockroach of a team (yes, that’s a compliment), with Haliburton’s remarkable penchant for game-winning shots and compelling moments like this health scare that compromised a title push, his exploits tend to overshadow the Pascal Siakam effect that has been there since he arrived here from Toronto two Januarys ago. Game 6 was no different, with Siakam’s 16-point, 13-rebound, three-assist outing the kind of performance that might not have been appreciated if not for his rare appearance on the highlight reel.
For the series, Siakam has quietly become the Pacers’ frontrunner to win the most unexpected of finals MVP awards. He’s averaging 19.8 points, 8.3 rebounds, four assists, 1.7 steals, 1.3 blocks and 1.8 turnovers in the finals, marks that far surpass Haliburton’s production (14.8 points, 6.8 assists, 5.3 rebounds and 3.5 turnovers per), though they can’t touch Haliburton’s flair for the dramatic.
That’s why their shared splash of brilliance late in the second quarter was so perfectly poetic.
The Haliburton steal on the pass from Jalen Williams to Lu Dort. The Globetrotters-esque pass to the streaking Siakam on the right side. The hang time, with the 31-year-old Siakam soaring through the air like he used to so often in those days at New Mexico State, and the dunk through Dort and Williams that put the Pacers up 20 with 40.2 seconds to go before halftime. This was Haliburton and his flair on full display, with Siakam’s speed and athleticism showcased on the back end of their beautiful connection.
Tyrese Haliburton’s no-look dime to Pascal Siakam for the poster in phantom 🤩 pic.twitter.com/iSrrzTCkBp
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) June 20, 2025
“That’s a special moment, especially because we are always getting on Pascal for not dunking anymore; That was cool to see,” said Haliburton, who had 14 points, five assists, one turnover and a plus-25 mark in his 23 minutes. “Honestly, me and Pascal have not spoken about this play yet. I don’t know if we will until this is over. But definitely a lot of fun. And if we are fortunate enough to go on and win this thing, I think that play will be remembered for a long time.”
For good measure, Siakam buried an 18-footer with one second left before the break that pushed the lead to 22 and, in the end, provided enough of a cushion to set up the all-or-nothing finale. But take a closer look at the reaction from their teammates on the bench after Siakam’s dunk, and you’ll start to understand why this dynamic duo is everything to their team.
The part that so often gets forgotten with Siakam, who was taken 27th by the Raptors in the 2016 NBA Draft, is that he didn’t start playing basketball until he was 17. He was a soccer player first while growing up in Cameroon, one who rose to prominence quickly when he moved to Lewisville, Texas, a year later. To think that he’s putting together a resume that could one day land him in the Hall of Fame is nothing short of remarkable.
But when he connected with Pacers assistant general manager Chad Buchanan heading into Game 6, the team’s second-in-command front office executive reminded him that those days of flying high weren’t gone for good. This was a trip down memory lane at the perfect time.
“(Buchanan) showed one of my college highlights the other day, (and it) felt like college a little bit,” Siakam said of the play. “Just baby bounce. But sometimes that happens. I was just trying to bring the crowd into the game.”
Did he ever.
As Siakam’s teammates will tell you, his ability to bring people together for a common cause — be it fans or teammates — has been a massive part of the Pacers’ overlooked program. Let’s hit the rewind button back to September, when they were coming off that Eastern Conference finals appearance that no one saw coming.
Siakam, who greenlit the trade to the Pacers with the intention of signing the extension that became a reality last summer, invited the entire team to his Orlando, Fla., home where he built an NBA-caliber training facility that he was so eager to share. For four days, the Pacers bonded in the kind of way that is clearly continuing to pay dividends.
They played golf — both the Top Golf kind and the actual variety on a normal course. They lifted weights at the hotel, then took a bus to Siakam’s spot before playing pick-up games, working out in his weight room for a second session, then gathering for dinners.
It takes togetherness to make this kind of playoff run, with genuine connections between all the most important players required and a collective belief that you’re doing something far greater than hooping for a massive paycheck. And that, as all of the Pacers will tell you, starts with Siakam.
“(It was) super meaningful,” Pacers forward Obi Toppin said. “Pascal is a great guy. He welcomed all of us with open arms into his space, and he’s been in this position before. Like he’s been in the finals (with Toronto when they won it all in 2019). He’s won the finals. So, he knows what it takes.
“He understood the team that we had last year, (how) we could have been in this position. We could have been in the finals. And so he made us understand that we didn’t want to be happy just losing — or losing in the Eastern Conference finals. He knew what it took to get here. So he instilled that in all of our minds, and we all knew what we had to do to get to this point. So we worked all year to be able to have this success.”
Siakam is the first to acknowledge that he wasn’t a leader on that championship Raptors team. But his style has changed for the better, and the Pacers are reaping the benefits of late.
“I wasn’t a leader then,” he said earlier in the series. “On the floor, I was one of the guys that would go and get things to happen for us. But off the court, I was (in) Year 3. We had so many veterans on our team that had been through way more than I could ever imagine as a player. I was mostly just grateful I had those guys around and leaning into their confidence and the way they played to help me just play my game and be free.
“I think this time around, just having been one of the only guys that has been there or one of the few guys that has been there, and I’m Year 9 or 10 or whatever, it’s like I have way more to say and I can impact not only by saying things but also on the floor. …You have to experience it yourself. I think the most (important) thing is just be yourself and do the things that got us here in the first place.”
Rick Carlisle, for the record, saw Siakam’s rise from a mile away. Long before he came to the Pacers, league sources say Carlisle would routinely compliment Siakam’s game through backchannels in the kind of way that made the trade feel so much more welcoming when it went down. There was a mutual respect there, one that might just pay off in the form of an unlikely title when Sunday rolls around.
“As you watch a guy’s career, as he ascends, coaches take note of the steps that players have had to take to get to where they are,” Carlisle said earlier in the series. “I always thought that the fact that he had to really earn it and that he had continued to get so much better — so much better — and appeared to have this humility about how he approached everything just made him very special.
“So, a year-and-a-half ago now, when we had the chance to trade for him, there was no doubt to me that he would fit into our team and adjust to our system. But frankly, there was no doubt to me that he would fit into any team, any style and play at an extremely high level. And so we’re fortunate to have him. His experience has been a major part of the growth of our team.”
(Photo: Trevor Ruszkowski / Imagn Images)
