Pascal Siakam's 36-point paint domination shows how he's changed the Pacers' approach

LOS ANGELES — When Sunday's game started to feel like it was getting away from the Pacers, when the Lakers' march to the free-throw line became constant and Indiana couldn't stop LeBron James or Anthony Davis from getting to the rim without fouling, they treated Pascal Siakam like their only hope of survival.

From the 7:33 mark of the third quarter until center Myles Turner's 3-pointer with 4:05 to go in the period, no one else on the Pacers' roster took a shot. On seven straight possessions Siakam found a way to get a field goal attempt in the lane, either through a post-up or a drive. He scored on the first five of those possessions with a layup, a hook that turned into an and-1, a 5-foot pull-up fadeaway, another layup and then a dunk when he got behind the Lakers' defense after a made basket.

Those buckets were part of a third quarter in which Siakam scored 19 of the Pacers' 31 points and made nine of their 14 field goals, attempting 14 of their 24. He didn't dent the Lakers' lead as they scored 44 points in the quarter, but he made sure Los Angeles didn’t create so much distance between them and the Pacers that a comeback was impossible. The Pacers mounted a ferocious 46-point fourth quarter rally that fell short in a 150-145 defeat at the Crypto.com Arena, but they would have had no chance of keeping it close if not for 36 points from Siakam, the most he's scored in his 31 games in a Pacers uniform.

"Any time we were struggling to create shots, he was great," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. "He created something, got to the paint, kicked it out, got it in the basket, got an and-1. He was tremendous."

The 6-8, 230-pound Siakam is an established three-level scorer. He entered Sunday's action shooting 32.9% from 3-point range in his career and 37.8% from beyond the arc in his time with the Pacers and he has an exceptional mid-range game, hitting 43.7% of his career attempts from 10-16 feet and 37.3% from 16 feet to the 3-point line according to Basketball Reference. But on Sunday he was devoted to getting the ball to the paint and to the rim.

Just four of Siakam's 29 field goal attempts came from outside the lane, including just one of the 16 field goals he made — an 18-foot runner off one foot with the shot clock running out after a scramble for the ball with 3:50 to go in the fourth quarter. Everything else he made came within 8 feet of the basket.

"Just easy points," Siakam said. "Just being aggressive. Continuing to attack the paint. That's when we're at our best when we attack the paint. ... We were down obviously. There were some calls. Some questionable stuff. I was just trying to get back into the game, trying to attack the paint as much as I can. To me, I feel like every time down the floor I can always do that."

Indeed, over two months with the Pacers and through his career, Siakam has shown that he can, in fact, almost always find a way to get a bucket in the lane when he wants to. His 7-3 wingspan allows him to rise up and score over bigger defenders, his ball-handling skills are astounding for a man with his size and length. He has spin moves that are apparently unstoppable and almost flawless touch and feel for the backboard when he's in close.

That skill set has given the Pacers a weapon they didn't have before and given them another option they can rely on when their frenetic pace and run-and-gun style isn't quite producing its desired results, specifically, when they struggle to hit 3-pointers. He has helped buoy them through the loss of two of their other most potent offensive weapons — sharpshooter Buddy Hield to a February trade and bucket-getting guard Bennedict Mathurin to shoulder surgery earlier this month — as well as Haliburton's struggles with his January hamstring strain and post-All-Star break shooting slump.

Siakam's addition may not have produced the leap the Pacers were hoping for in the standings, but it most certainly would have been a much more devastating dip without him. The Pacers are 16-15 in their last 31 games and are clinging to a 1/2 game lead over Philadelphia and Miami for the all-important sixth position in the Eastern Conference standings, which would keep them out of the play-in round. In his time on the roster, Siakam leads the Pacers in scoring with 21.4 points per game and rebounds with 8.0 per game. He's also averaging 4.1 assists per game, the best figure on the team among non-point guards. He's shooting 55.4% from the floor — the best of any Pacers player averaging at least 8.0 field goal attempts per game — and 36.9% from 3-point range.

"He’s a phenomenal player to have, a phenomenal person to have on our team," forward Aaron Nesmith said earlier this month. "Any time you have a slow offense and we need help getting a basket or a bucket, you can just throw it up to him and he’s going to make something great happen."

Opponents can sense that they're dealing with a much different team now. They still have to be prepared for tempo as the Pacers continue to lead the NBA in scoring with 123.1 points per game and rank second in the league in pace and fourth in the NBA in fast-break points. But Siakam makes it so that even if they play well in transition defense and take Haliburton out of what he wants to do, the Pacers can score on them anyway. The Pacers lead the NBA in points in the paint with 57.9 per game and they were at the top of that list long before Siakam came to Indiana, but more of their rim scoring came either in transition or through pick-and-roll actions than throwing the ball inside for an isolation post-up, which is something Siakam excels at.

"They're able to play a little bit of smashmouth basketball in my opinion," Lakers coach Darvin Ham said even before Siakam scored 36 on his team. "Pascal is a guy who plays downhill, plays toward the rim. No one can ever seem to stop him from going right. He's an All-Star player. If they can't play fast or the pick-and-roll may not be working, he's a guy that can iso and draw a lot of attention. He also can play-make. That's the element to me. He makes them more diverse."

As potent a weapon as Siakam is, it has been a challenge for the Pacers to fully incorporate him. Prior to his arrival, they relied on a sense of controlled chaos to wear teams down with constant movement and passing. They didn't call a lot of plays, but their spacing and movement was generally able to quickly produce either or a dunk or layup or an open 3-point look early in the shot clock. They generally spread out the scoring and they generally didn't hone in on getting one player the ball.

Siakam can play in that style, but he's at his most effective when the game slows down in isolation, and for as fast as the Pacers play, he knows the game will slow down, especially when the playoffs begin and every possession takes on greater importance. Even now he thinks his teammates are still learning how to get the most out of him in those scenarios.

"I can always get to that painted area whenever I want to," Siakam said earlier this month. "I think all the guys just, the effort of just looking there and trying to make sure we make those plays, the mismatches and all that. So I think we just have to continue to get better at that. Sometimes we play so fast that it’s just we get the open shot that we get in the offense. Sometimes it’s just putting an emphasis on wanting to get to the paint and again, that’s what I’m here for."

Carlisle acknowledged that he and his staff also had to work to figure out how to include Siakam into the offense. His time in Toronto obviously gave them some clues, but he much more frequently initiated the offense with the Raptors, especially since the departure of Kawhi Leonard, and he often brought the ball up or caught it on the perimeter early in the offense. Siakam still does those things from time to time, but Haliburton is running the show.

"Some of it were things the coaching staff had to see and make minor adjustments to how we attack, what our spacing is, those kinds of things," Carlisle said. "Pascal had the ball in his hands more in Toronto. That's a pretty significant adjustment. A lot of players really struggle with that, but he understands and he's been really forthright in meeting us in the middle with that."

And he can also run and play a critical part in making the uptempo offense work. If Siakam gets a defensive rebound, he's free to take the ball down the floor himself and he's trusted to make decisions when he does. Carlisle challenged him to rebound better, and his 8.7 rebounds per 36 minutes with the Pacers would be the highest figure of his career stretched out to a whole season.

"The way he rebounds the ball and gets it out in transition and finds people and gets it up the floor, he gets it over half court in two dribbles," Carlisle said. "You look back in history at how many guys in history who could really do that, Magic Johnson, LeBron, there have been others with that size and those kinds of ball skills. (Scottie) Pippen used to be able to do that a little bit. There are others, I don’t want to forget names but that’s just to name a few. There’s a reason this guy has been a multiple-time All-Star and multiple time all-league player."

So the Pacers have simply been trying to blend what he can do in with what they can do.

"He just fits the way we play," Haliburton said. "I think we've done a good job of not changing the way we play to the way he's accustomed to playing. He's more of a post guy, an iso guy. We didn't have that element before and we're doing a good job of implementing that into what we're already doing and playing at such a high pace. I think the match has fit really well. We just keep changing things and how do we maximize that."

But sometimes, like on Sunday night, they have to recognize that he's the hot hand and that giving the ball and letting him work is their best hope.

"When the game slows down, he just adds a completely different element to the game," Haliburton said. "If I don't have it going or we like the matchup better, we can go to him and he can make plays."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pascal Siakam's paint domination has changed the Pacers' offense