MINNEAPOLIS — In the Pacers’ first three games of what has been a star-crossed season, Pascal Siakam has been asked to be three different players, and the assignment changes mid-game as his collection of teammates shrinks.
In Thursday’s season opener, he was expected to operate as part of a four-man collective of core players entering the first game of their partnership. By halftime of that game, that collective shrank by one and Siakam was then expected to operate in a two-man game with a partner who he’d never worked with quite that closely.
By the end of the third quarter of Game 2, that partner joined several teammates on the shelf and Siakam was then being asked to put a team on his shoulders in a way that he hadn’t since he was acquired by the Pacers from Toronto in January of 2024. By Game 3 he was asked to take on heavy burdens on both ends and also help carry a collection of teammates who were either in roles they hadn’t been in in years or hadn’t yet held in an NBA setting.
But Siakam understood each assignment, and the three-time All-Star executed Sunday’s so well that the Pacers almost managed to steal a game they seemingly had little business winning. With seven players ruled out before game time and an eighth ruled out in the third quarter, the Pacers still fought back from an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit to get within two points of the lead with 42 seconds to go before finally losing momentum in a 114-110 road loss to a Minnesota Timberwolves team coming off back-to-back Western Conference Finals runs.
Siakam played 36 minutes and 31 seconds on the second night of the Pacers’ first back-to-back of the season, taking 24 field goal attempts — more than he did in any game last season. He scored 33 points on 11-of-24 shooting, grabbed 10 rebounds, dished out eight assists and recorded three steals. It wasn’t enough for the Pacers to grab a win but it was enough for them to create some positive vibes in an early-season period when everything seemed to be crashing down around them. They are 0-3 after having to reconsider their rotation in and after every game this season, but they have been competitive enough in two of those three games to see the value of continuing to fight.
And on Sunday, Siakam set that standard.
“Pascal’s a total warrior,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “His effort tonight was amazing. It was very tough getting him out of the game. He got very tired because he was putting so much into it the way he played last night. The guy’s a great player. He’s a great player and he’s a great leader. We need his leadership and his skill now more than ever.”
Siakam was aware of that, he said, because he was in such positions in his later years in Toronto when much was thrust onto his shoulders. A late-bloomer of a basketball player who didn’t put any real focus on the game until his late-teenage years in Cameroon, Siakam climbed the ladder as a role player with the Raptors and was still a third or fourth option in 2018-19 when the team claimed the NBA title. After 2019 Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard left for the Clippers, however, Siakam grew to be the Raptors’ first offensive option and averaged more than 37 minutes and 22 points per game in each of his last two seasons in Toronto.
When the Pacers acquired him in January of 2024, he knew his job was to be a running mate for All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton and to alter his style to give Haliburton whatever he needed. He handled the ball less, ran ahead of plays more, took catch-and-shoot 3s and kept the ball moving until the Pacers needed him to make isolation plays out of the post late in shot clocks. He also worked on his conditioning so that he could operate in a near-constant state of transition and also pick up full-court if the player he was defending tried to bring the ball up so the Pacers’ opponents’ point guard could avoid being hounded by Indiana’s Andrew Nembhard for 94 feet. He performed well enough to win his third All-Star nod last season and was named Eastern Conference Finals MVP when the Pacers reached the NBA Finals for the second time ever and the first time in 25 years.
But when Haliburton tore his right Achilles tendon in Game 7 of the Pacers’ loss in the Finals and was ruled out for this season, Siakam knew his role had to change and expand. Then when Nembhard suffered a shoulder strain in the season opener and left the game at halftime, he knew it had to change again. Then when high-scoring guard Bennedict Mathurin — with whom Siakam had started running ball screen actions — sprained his great toe in Saturday’s loss to the Grizzlies, Siakam knew it had to change once more.
“Obviously I’m — I don’t want to say fortunate enough — but I’ve been in a lot of positions in my career and I’ve seen a lot worse,” Siakam said. “I’m blessed to be in this position and have an opportunity to continue to show my talent and fight for these guys and give everything I’ve got every single night. I want to be better for those guys and I want to play as hard as I can, because we got a special group but we’re in a tough position and we just have to rally together even more.”
It’s a particularly tough position because the injuries are concentrated in the backcourt. Last season the Pacers arguably had the best collection of point guards in the NBA with Haliburton leading the league in assist-to-turnover ratio, Nembhard giving the Pacers a secondary ball-handler and one of the toughest on-ball defenders in the league and veteran T.J. McConnell bringing perpetual motion on both ends to make Indiana the most physically exhausting opponent in the league.
Now none of the three are healthy as McConnell suffered a left hamstring strain in the first preseason game of the year and he’s out at least two more weeks. Also, rookie combo guard Kam Jones hasn’t practiced yet because of a stress reaction in his back and fellow rookie combo guard Taelon Peter suffered a groin strain in Saturday’s game after a strong preseason. The Pacers also signed or attempted to sign three veteran point guards — Monte Morris, Delon Wright and Cameron Payne — and none of the three worked out with Morris’ signing falling through because of a calf strain and Wright being waived after ahead injury suffered in a preseason collision. Mathurin isn’t a point guard, but he can handle the ball, certainly drive it and he averaged 31 points in the season’s first two games.
With all those players out, the Pacers essentially have three remaining players who can handle the point and none of them would be considered optimal choices. Ben Sheppard is in his third year in the league but he’s operated almost exclusively as an off-the-ball wing since playing some point at Belmont in college. Two-way contract guard Quenton Jackson is high energy but occasionally overly aggressive — a better fit for shooting guard. RayJ Dennis — also on a two-way contract — is the lone healthy true point guard on the roster, but the undrafted 24-year-old had played just 70 total minutes in 11 NBA games prior to this season.
However, Siakam helps all of them because he can bring the ball up and facilitate or he can be a go-to target to score. He can be a ball-handler or a screener in pick-and-roll actions and he has more gravity than any other player the Pacers have. So when he plays well, it makes life easier on those guards.
“It’s huge,” Dennis said. “Obviously, he’s a great player and we need it from him. We’re kind of a little short-handed right now and we need it from him and he’s always up to do it.”
Siakam’s performance made Sheppard and Dennis seem more comfortable than they did in Saturday’s game. Sheppard didn’t shoot the ball well, making just 2 of 9 field goals and missing all five of his 3-pointers, but he had two assists against two turnovers and the Pacers were even in plus-minutes in his 32 minutes. Dennis had 12 points, five assists and three steals in 27:28. The only time he scored more points or played more minutes in an NBA game were in last year’s regular season finale when the Pacers were sitting their starters, having clinched home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
“They busted their butts,” Carlisle said of Dennis and Sheppard. “They did everything they could.”
With Sheppard and Dennis a little more under control and Siakam scoring and helping facilitate, the offense operated more smoothly than it did in Saturday’s 128-103 loss to Memphis. The Pacers committed too many mistakes –turning the ball over 16 times — and their 17-point, 5-of-22 third quarter put them in a bind, but they were able to find answers and had two 30-plus point quarters.
And on the defensive end they also played tough. It helped that Timberwolves All-NBA guard Anthony Edwards went down with a hamstring injury in the first quarter, but they still had to deal with Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo, Rudy Gobert and others. and they harassed them into 14 turnovers and turned those into 15 points.
“The effort was tremendous,” Carlisle said. “… Can’t ask for more in terms of effort and the spirit that we got tonight. We’ve got to keep duplicating that.”
It won’t get easier to duplicate that. Forward Obi Toppin, who scored the seventh-most points off the bench of any NBA player last year, left in the third quarter of Sunday’s game with hamstring soreness. With center Myles Turner having departed in free agency and Haliburton, Mathurin, Nembhard, McConnell and Toppin all hurt, the Pacers ended Sunday’s game missing six of their top eight scorers from last season.
“I’m praying and hoping that we catch a break,” Siakam said, “and go out there and have guys coming back a little bit so we can show a little bit of who we are. It’s kind of hard to do that right now.”
As of Sunday they still had reason to hope that every injury but Haliburton’s will be resolved in the short or medium term, but they’ll still be short-handed for at least several more weeks, meaning Siakam and his teammates will continue to have to alter their approach to make it work.
“I told the guys, nobody is going to feel sorry for us,” Siakam said. “It’s the NBA. It happens. You have a great year last year and you go in and you’re having a tough time. .. It’s why you get paid the big bucks. You have to adapt to every situation. For me I just want to continue to do that for my team.”
Get IndyStar’s Pacers coverage sent directly to your inbox with our Pacers Update newsletter.
