Pacers forward Pascal Siakam was named MVP of the Eastern Conference Finals as Indiana closed out New York in Game 6 Saturday night. Siakam prevailed in a close race, topping teammate Tyrese Haliburton by a 5-4 margin in voting by a panel of media members (Twitter link).
Both players were outstanding in leading Indiana to its first NBA Finals appearance in 25 years. Siakam averaged 24.8 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.5 assists throughout the series and delivered 31 points in Saturday’s closeout game.
Haliburton posted 21.o points, 6.0 rebounds and 10.5 assists per game during the series and finished Game 6 with 21 points and 13 assists.
“First of all, shoutout Indy, man,” Siakam said during the trophy presentation (YouTube video link). “It’s been such an amazing experience for me so far from the first day I landed here, like the love’s been amazing. (General manager Chad Buchanan), (president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard), just unbelievable, man. First-class organization, I’m just so happy to be here. And tonight, after a bad Game 5, we wanted to bounce back. I have 100% belief in my teammates. Whenever we’re down, we always find a way, and we did that tonight.”
The Eastern Conference Finals MVP trophy, which is named in honor of Larry Bird, was introduced three years ago. It was won by Boston’s Jayson Tatum in 2022, Miami’s Jimmy Butler in 2023 and Boston’s Jaylen Brown in 2024.
The Pacers will continue their pursuit of their first NBA title when the Finals begin Thursday night in Oklahoma City. The complete Finals schedule can be found here.
its just beautiful as a pacers fan. we have little to celebrate in 50 yrs in the nba. 1 finals appearance, 0 rings. the malace in the palace, alot of other disappointments, falling short. this run has been insane, and amazing, thank you PACERS. so much fun. nobody gives them a chance ever. go get the chip!!! LFG!!
Congrats, they are a fun team to watch. The finals should be fun to watch. Good luck
I wanted the Knicks but the Pacers are having a great season. Really just glad it’s not Boston.
My head says OKC, but my heart says Pacers get a ring. Hope you get it done.
Yup…Pacers did hick, Siakam legit, thunder in 6…
He deserved it, he showed up in big moments when they needed him the most.
Super star only one I saw in this series , agree with my man Brabo.
These guys are fun to watch and play a beautiful style of basketball. If you are a Western Conference fan, or just a casual fan, get on the post-season bandwagon. Their depth and length and athleticism are their superpowers. They play a fun, fast-paced game with lots of motion and not a lot of dribbling. It is a team without a lot of egos, just guys who understand the system and know what they need to do within it. Even their playoff rotation is 9-11 guys deep, which helps them run the opposition ragged. Rick Carlisle is a great coach, too. Plus, Indiana is a great hoops state so the fans are top notch.
As a Warriors fan, I respect the heck out of Pacer nation for turning up…home games look like Roaracle in its prime…good luck to Indy!
It will be super interesting Finals with 2 deep teams that love to run and feast off turnovers.
OKC should prevail, but it might take 7 games.
Knicks did better than what everyone thought so they have nothing to be ashamed of. Pacers got hot at the right time and was the best team in the east. Its going to be a fun series because you have 2 very offensive teams that play at a fast pace. The best part is one of the cities is going to win their first championship.
Probably one of the worst takes ever on NBA trade rumors.
why can you explain your comment or go silent?
The Knicks need to fire Thibs and get a legit PG.
If they fire Thibs, then it would probably just mean elevating Rick Brunson. I don’t see them moving on from the star player’s dad so the question is just “do you want Rick Brunson to be an assistant coach or head coach?”
The elder Brunson could stay on as an assistant under a new HC… it’s not “elevate him or keep Thibs”.
Sure, I agree in theory. But that kind of arranged marriage doesn’t work very often, and it seems like it would be risky.
In doing so, there is a risk that either they would be saying “we trust you to coach the team, but some decisions about your coaching staff are not yours to make” or they’d be saying to Jalen “we’re hoping this works out – fingers crossed – but it’s more important to us to fire Thibs than it is to keep you happy.” In either case, it seems like a risky way to start a relationship with a new coach, and possibly that it will end up alienating their star player. They made this bed for themselves when they signed a coach’s kid and there are definitely some potential pitfalls.
I totally understand what you’re saying!
But, any coach that would go into that arrangement has probably been a previous head coach and was asked to keep someone from the prior staff… happens practically all the time. While it usually isn’t a parent of the star player, it’s not uncommon to keep someone (an assistant) from the previous staff.
Brown was “asked” to keep Christie in SAC.
Whoever gets the Phoenix job will have to keep Fizdale.
Worse case scenario, you get fired with a ton of guaranteed money owed you.
But, you take that pay day regardless of who they ask you to keep on.
Thibs is just fine, not sure why they would fire him after this season. Last year he led them to the 2nd round this year the 3rd round or ECF. Indiana lost in the ECF last year and is heading to the finals this year, the Celtics lost in the finals and then the ECF before putting it all together and winning a chip last year….there is usually (not always) a learning curve and growing through a defeat in previous years before a team puts it all together. The Knicks don’t need to change a lot on the roster or coaching staff, just a little fine tuning and they are a threat to be right back contending next year. I think Thibs has out performed expectations the past 2 seasons, not sure why they would fire him.
Knicks had a 1st round exit level team who made the ECF. The Pacers are playing championship level basketball, using bigs correctly around a shorter mercurial guard.
As a Warriors fan, if you think Kerr is better than Carlisle, you don’t know ball. Small ball is pure incompetnece. Benching Kuminga for Gary Payton 2 (a scrub) during the playoffs is why Kerr deserves to be fired. Warriors should have been in the WCF but weren’t 100% because Kerr refusing to build any type of offense without Curry. He doesn’t care about winning. Fire Steve Kerr now. Replace him with Andre Iguodala ASAP.
Spicy P has always played pretty well, bet more teams wish they got involved in the trades when he was offered.
That said, OKC in 5. Haliburton has yet to play consistently well against OKC in his career.
true, ty hasnt had great success vs OKC
good thing indy isnt built around just ONE player
in fact, its why they’ve made it this far
they are not the cavs who cant W without donovan. bucks who cant W without giannis. knicks who cant W without brunson. C’s who cant W without tatum. GS who cant W without steph. hali might have 1 or 2 less than average games but someone else can step up, whether thats siakam or nesmith or turner or nemhard. anything can happen
Upsets don’t really happen in NBA Finals much, anything can happen is usually saved for 1 and done games. Just don’t see Pacers besting them 4 times without injuries happening. Last true upset was probably Dirk Mavs and that is just because they played Big 3 Heat.
im tired of people saying over and over and over that “indy cant win” for 2 straight yrs now. they cant beat bucks, cant beat knicks, cant beat cavs, cant beat knicks again…
i count atleast 3 upsets in the last 9 finals
cavs over GS
raptors over GS (who had siakam)
bucks over suns
Indy could win if OKC has injuries to players. That is how the raptors and cavs won. Bucks over Suns was not a big upset.
Cavs have the greatest player in this generation not an upset. Draymond also got suspended.
GS lost KD and Klay both dealt with injuries.
People had the Bucks winning it all, Suns were the slight underdogs.
Again if injuries happen then Pacers have a chance.