Pascal Siakam Could Wreck the Thunder’s Title Hopes

The Indiana Pacers managed to steal Game 1 and home-court advantage in the NBA Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

While Tyrese Haliburton was the hero once again, hitting the game-winner for the Pacers, it was Pascal Siakam who led the team in scoring.

Out of all the players, only Siakam and Alex Caruso have Finals experience.

Pascal Siakam Could Wreck the Thunders Title Hopes Siakam was only 24 years old when he made his first NBA Finals.

He was in his third year at the time, and while Kawhi Leonard led the Toronto Raptors to a championship, Siakam was also great.

In Game 1 of the 2019 NBA Finals , he exploded for 32 points on 14-17 shooting.

This time, he only scored 19 points, but did it on 7-15 shooting.

The more important part of his game is that he had 10 rebounds, including four offensive boards, and one was crucial with less than 50 seconds to go.

Siakam grabbed the offensive rebound and made a two-point shot to get the Pacers within one, 110-109.

Looking at Siakam and his previous NBA Finals experience, he had only one bad game, Game 2.

In all the other games, he shot better than 40% and topped 50% three times in the series, averaging 19.8 points overall.

Siakam is a Matchup Problem for the Thunder The Thunder love to start their two big-man lineups, and a lot of their playmaking and flow comes from passing between Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein .

Yet, in Game 1 , they went away from their standard play.

Even before the series started, it seemed like they gave up on trying to defend Siakam with one of their bigs.

OKC started Chet and brought Hartenstein off the bench.

It looked like the Thunder were already making adjustments without even trying to use their normal lineup against Siakam.

As a result, they lost the rebound battle.

The Pacers grabbed 56 rebounds, while the Thunder only had 39.

No Thunder player had double-digit rebounds, while three Pacers had 10+, including Haliburton.

Siakam and Myles Turner had four and five offensive rebounds, respectively.

Can the Thunder Defend Siakam? In the last two seasons, the Thunder and the Pacers have gone 2-2 in their regular-season matchups .

Siakam had only one bad game, and that was this season when he had 11 points on 4-11 shooting in a loss.

Yet, even in that game, he had nine rebounds, two on the offensive side.

In the three other games, he went 50% or better from the floor, including 8-10 last season for 21 points.

Hes averaged 18 points and 8.8 rebounds in the past four regular-season games against OKC.

The challenge for the Thunder is that Siakam is either taller than their defenders or quicker.

He is 6-foot-8, and the Thunder do not have a standard wing taller than 6-foot-6.

Kenrich Williams is 6-foot-7, but he has played less than 10 minutes in the playoffs.

Jalen Williams is 6-foot-6, Lu Dort is 6-foot-4, Cason Wallace is 6-foot-4, and Caruso is 6-foot-5.

Siakam can shoot over any of them.

And if they start a big on him, he is quicker and more athletic than both Holmgren and Hartenstein.

If the Pacers are going to have any chance in this series, it will come down to Siakam outplaying his matchup.

They are already up 1-0, and the bad news for OKC is that in the previous two series, Indiana went up 2-0 after stealing home court.

While the Pacers have been the underdog , they seem to thrive in that situation.

This article first appeared on Last Word On Sports and was syndicated with permission..

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