NBA Champion, Superstar - Pascal Siakam Headed back to the ECF

[tanuki1031]

He said he wanted them to foul but Pascal made the decision not to because he didn't want to give up a 4 point play.

I hadn’t heard that, so I stand corrected. In that case it’s probably more on Pascal, but in this specific situation he still may have been right. The closeout was good, despite not getting a hand up (again trying to avoid the foul/4 pt play). Brown made a very tough shot.

If you can close out that hard, you are close enough to foul them so they have no chance to make the shot. Then simply trust in the 22.7% chance that a 61% FT shooter won't hit all 3. Maybe he hits it and it's a 4 point play, but I'll take that chance over what happened. You still have 6+ sec and a time out to get back down and score for the win. It's not like they were already down 3 and fouling into a 4 point swing. They had the lead, this is playing scared.

Pacers were absolutely playing scared. We know it because we've seen the same loser tactics with the DD/Lowry playoff teams.

The foul/no foul decision is fine. I don't think nearly enough attention is being given to Siakam's inability and unwillingness to go over screens. A little more effort/awareness to get over the White screen (White!) and Brown doesn't have the freedom to catch that pass.

Needed to keep his hand on Brown's hip and chase, not release and try a football juke under White who was moving with his ass sticking out. Any call there works in your favour - offensive foul = your ball, defensive foul = 2 FTs up 3. Worst case Siakam is bumped with no call and Brown gets a clean catch and shot, which is exactly what happened anyways by Siakam voluntarily not going over the screen.

[tanuki1031]

There is no universe in which Brown doesn't throw his hands up and get a continuation and three shots there. Come on.

Siakam did everything humanly possible to stay on the ground and not get an and-1 called on him there.

If he did that on the Raptors 100% he would have jumped at Brown immediately or get called for leaning in and his chest brushing against Brown's lower body.

Siakam's recovery and control in that instance should be applauded. Him not fouling was a Carlisle decision, can't put that on him.

[MiamiSPX]

That loss was in no way on Siakam. Did he have some gaffes that led to the loss? Yes, but pretty much every single Pacer contributed to that loss down the stretch, including Carlisle. It was a collective meltdown.

Everyone keeps saying we haven't seen the Celtics at their best, and while I tend to agree, it's been over 10 games now lol. Maybe this is their best.

[DatHomieYouHaTe]

There is no universe in which Brown doesn't throw his hands up and get a continuation and three shots there. Come on.

He cannot throw his hands up if you wrap him up.. just hug him with arms and all..

[Fairview4Life]

There is no universe in which Brown doesn't throw his hands up and get a continuation and three shots there. Come on.

He cannot throw his hands up if you wrap him up.. just hug him with arms and all..

He absolutely can throw his arms up and if you're holding on to him he will get to shoot 3 shots.

[ATLTimekeeper]

There is no universe in which Brown doesn't throw his hands up and get a continuation and three shots there. Come on.

He cannot throw his hands up if you wrap him up.. just hug him with arms and all..

As soon as you attempt that the hands are going up. Most wrap ups are off rebounds or from behind. If you see a guy coming at you to hug the shot is going up.

[Scase]

I hadn’t heard that, so I stand corrected. In that case it’s probably more on Pascal, but in this specific situation he still may have been right. The closeout was good, despite not getting a hand up (again trying to avoid the foul/4 pt play). Brown made a very tough shot.

If you can close out that hard, you are close enough to foul them so they have no chance to make the shot. Then simply trust in the 22.7% chance that a 61% FT shooter won't hit all 3. Maybe he hits it and it's a 4 point play, but I'll take that chance over what happened. You still have 6+ sec and a time out to get back down and score for the win. It's not like they were already down 3 and fouling into a 4 point swing. They had the lead, this is playing scared.

Pacers were absolutely playing scared. We know it because we've seen the same loser tactics with the DD/Lowry playoff teams.

The foul/no foul decision is fine. I don't think nearly enough attention is being given to Siakam's inability and unwillingness to go over screens. A little more effort/awareness to get over the White screen (White!) and Brown doesn't have the freedom to catch that pass.

Needed to keep his hand on Brown's hip and chase, not release and try a football juke under White who was moving with his ass sticking out. Any call there works in your favour - offensive foul = your ball, defensive foul = 2 FTs up 3. Worst case Siakam is bumped with no call and Brown gets a clean catch and shot, which is exactly what happened anyways by Siakam voluntarily not going over the screen.

The screen was one of my gripes, I still think fouling him likely would have led to them being in a better position to win, but I can see the arguments that are being made for/against fouling.

The screen though, that was just bad. People can blame TJ for not rotating, but the second he does that, white has a clear path to the basket and likely gets an and 1, or the defence collapses and it's kicked out for a 3. Not to mention, TJ is 6'1, JB is 6'6, he's not bothering that shot no matter what.

TJ sagged way off white and Siakam had a clear path to go right to the corner, but he tried to go over the screen and got caught.

That loss was in no way on Siakam. Did he have some gaffes that led to the loss? Yes, but pretty much every single Pacer contributed to that loss down the stretch, including Carlisle. It was a collective meltdown.

Everyone keeps saying we haven't seen the Celtics at their best, and while I tend to agree, it's been over 10 games now lol. Maybe this is their best.

I don't think anyone is blaming it entirely on Siakam, but he had some pretty critical failures in key moments. But this is also a thread specifically about Siakam, so I don't expect people to be in here talking about Hali falling over like a 90 year old woman and losing the ball.

Siakam played really bad defence on that last play, and then spun into 2 defenders in the paint and got stripped with 40sec in the game and down 4 points. It was just a bad move. He's not the reason they lost, but he is a big part of it.

What's wild to me is that they didn't go to Turner more, IMO he's been the second best player in the playoffs for the pacers, and he was having a great game.

[ATLTimekeeper]

Turner doesn't have any go to moves, so you can't go to him late. They were having good success isolating Horford with both Siakam and Nembhard. It's unfortunate that Hali was shooting straight barf at the end of the game, and that they felt compelled to give him the last shot. He just won't dip a toe in the paint for the team, and might have felt lucky because he had several hail marys drop for him that game.

I don't see any problem with Siakam getting stripped going to the paint. He drew some contact and forced the officials to make a decision after the Pacers offense was running cold. It was minor contact and a clean strip, but you never know with officials and the Pacers were due a call.

[Scase]

Turner doesn't have any go to moves, so you can't go to him late. They were having good success isolating Horford with both Siakam and Nembhard. It's unfortunate that Hali was shooting straight barf at the end of the game, and that they felt compelled to give him the last shot. He just won't dip a toe in the paint for the team, and might have felt lucky because he had several hail marys drop for him that game.

I don't see any problem with Siakam getting stripped going to the paint. He drew some contact and forced the officials to make a decision after the Pacers offense was running cold. It was minor contact and a clean strip, but you never know with officials and the Pacers were due a call.

Turner is shooting I think it's 2nd best from 3 in the entire playoffs, he doesn't need a go to move, they just need a basic play run to get him open.

Siakam going to the paint isn't the issue, him spinning blindly into 2 defenders is. There was no contact, he spun the ball directly into JBs hands and it was an absolutely clean strip.

He started his drive with 21 sec on the shot clock and it was already in JBs hands dribbling down the court literally 2 seconds later. It was a 4 point game with 40+ seconds at that point, I get the idea of score a quick 2, but there was zero movement from the offence because there was never any time for them to do anything.

The ball was inbounded, he held it for 2 seconds standing there, got a weak screen from hali as he rolled to the 3p line, and then just immediately ran into the paint. Had he been a bit more patient he could have drawn a second defender and had someone open. Instead he spun into 2 people, the defence didn't even need to react.



Nembhard or TJ should've been elsewhere, but it looked like no one on the team knew what he was doing. Even after the weak screen, it looked like Hali was expecting the pass. Looks like he just yolo'd it without the team having a clue what was going on. The drive itself isn't the problem, but rather how it was done. But we've seen this for many years from Siakam, I would just hope that a new team/system would change that.

[JJ From Deep]

Superstar - no.

Star and great second banana - yes.

Which then begs the question...can Hali be THAT guy?

[AndreasLeftCalf]

Pascal's cooking tonight!!

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Pascal coming up huge again In the biggest games. No one thought he would bring his team to this level, let along show out big time in the ECF.

Remember, this Indiana team hasn't even been together a year, and Boston's been together forever. This Indiana team will surpass the Celtics in the next couple years with Pascal, Hali, Turner, and all the bench depth.

Pascal. Superstar.

[greekman]

pascal reminds me of derozan. will put great stats and keep the team in the game but at closing time fails to deliver.

[YogurtProducer]

Wonder what criticism the haters are cooking up tonight

[Nebuchadnezzar]

pascal reminds me of derozan. will put great stats and keep the team in the game but at closing time fails to deliver.

Pascal delivered an ECF birth in half a season the Pacers, what more do you want? You know 4 out of 30 teams make it to the conference finals right? So if Pascal brought the pacers here and "didn't deliver" what does that mean for the superstars on the 26 other teams? By your logic Pascal delivers more than all those stars.

[TheRaptor!]

Superstar - no.

Star and great second banana - yes.

Which then begs the question...can Hali be THAT guy?

Hell NO

[greekman]

pascal reminds me of derozan. will put great stats and keep the team in the game but at closing time fails to deliver.

Pascal delivered an ECF birth in half a season the Pacers, what more do you want? You know 4 out of 30 teams make it to the conference finals right? So if Pascal brought the pacers here and "didn't deliver" what does that mean for the superstars on the 26 other teams? By your logic Pascal delivers more than all those stars.

beating the knicks without anunoby, brunson, hart ?

[hype_2004]

He's arguably playing his best basketball in this Celtics series and arguably the best player for both teams. As expected he plays big when there is no pressure to perform, the Pacers are the dogs and Pascal is playing with something to prove.

[Scase]

pascal reminds me of derozan. will put great stats and keep the team in the game but at closing time fails to deliver.

Pascal delivered an ECF birth in half a season the Pacers, what more do you want? You know 4 out of 30 teams make it to the conference finals right? So if Pascal brought the pacers here and "didn't deliver" what does that mean for the superstars on the 26 other teams? By your logic Pascal delivers more than all those stars.

beating the knicks without anunoby, brunson, hart ?

Dont forget randle.

[Mikistan]

He's arguably playing his best basketball in this Celtics series and arguably the best player for both teams. As expected he plays big when there is no pressure to perform, the Pacers are the dogs and Pascal is playing with something to prove.

Except for on D...