Indiana made a blockbuster deal to bring in Pascal Siakam at midseason. Siakam showed why Tuesday night.
Indiana’s All-Star forward poured in 37 points on 16-for-23 shooting as the Pacers soundly defeated the Bucks, 125-108, to tie their first-round series at 1-1.
Siakam also added 11 rebounds and six assists and didn’t commit a single turnover in the process.
It’s exactly what Indiana envisioned when it traded Bruce Brown, Jordan Nwora and three first-round picks to get Siakam from the Toronto Raptors.
In a series where their All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton hasn’t been scoring — he’s tallied 21 points in two games — Siakam has delivered games of 36 and 37 points to carry Indiana’s offense.
To be fair, Haliburton did have 12 assists, including a lob to Siakam from roughly 35 feet away.
It helped that for the second straight game, Damian Lillard was a non-factor in the second half. After scoring 35 points in the first half and zero in the second of Game 1, Lillard had 26 in the first half of Game 2 and only eight in the second, shooting 3-for-9.
Meanwhile, Siakam shot 8-for-9 after the break for 16 points, and Myles Turner drilled three second-half threes on his way to 14 second-half points.
Siakam has been good all series, but the biggest difference from Game 1 was Indiana’s outside shooting. The Pacers didn’t make a three-pointer for the first 21 minutes of Game 1 and finished shooting 8-for-38 from deep.
In Game 2, they went 16-for-36, getting triples from seven different players.
Indiana moved to 4-2 on the season against the Bucks, who are hoping to get Giannis Antetokounmpo back soon.
Until then, Milwaukee will need to find a way to slow down Siakam because if Haliburton starts shooting better, the Bucks are going to be in trouble.