Pacers' Pascal Siakam subtly calls out team over lack of support
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Indiana Pacers star forward Pascal Siakam called out the rest of the team after the tight loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. After surprisingly making the Conference Finals last year, the Pacers have struggled with inconsistent form this season. At 15-16, head coach Rick Carlisle’s team has had a disappointing start for a team that retained its elite, young core from 2023. These struggles have been highlighted by a concerning first 31 games from star point guard Tyrese Haliburton, who is looking to regain his All-NBA form.
Siakam, however, went off on a problem that has plagued the Pacers over the past two years, rebounding. The battle on the boards has been Indiana’s biggest weakness this season again. The team currently ranks 27th in the league in rebounding rate. Siakam got honest about the issue in a postgame interview with Pacers reporter Tyler Smith.
“Myles (Turner) is rebounding his butt off. I’m trying to go in and help him. It’s got to be a five-man job. We know how much better of a team we are when we do that.”
The Indiana Pacers are trying to keep up with the top teams in the East
While the Pacers have gotten off to a poor start, they have been trending in the right direction recently. The team has won five out of its last six games, including three impressive road wins against the Phoenix Suns, Sacramento Kings, and Golden State Warriors. However, the team is only in eighth place in the East because many of the conference’s contenders heading into the season are creeping up the standings again.
After a dreadful start, the Milwaukee Bucks recently won the In-Season Tournament. The Cavs, Celtics, Knicks, and Magic are the top four seeds and are in very solid form. Even the Philadelphia 76ers just picked up a big Christmas Day win over Boston and are in Play-In territory. The East is increasingly getting more crowded, and many teams will leave the postseason disappointed due to their high expectations.
Indiana could be one of those teams if it does not improve on the glass. While the Pacers’ opponent on Thursday, the Oklahoma City Thunder, has the worst rebounding rate in the league, the Thunder also rank first in defensive efficiency. The Pacers do not. They are currently 22nd in that metric. The combination of not getting stops nor rebounding is a deadly combination for a team with championship aspirations.
Indiana is currently less than two games out of the seed it thrived in last year, No. 6. It’s not so much about seeding. It’s more about cleaning up the habits that doomed this team last year and have continued to plague it this year. The Pacers have a ton of elite athletes on their roster who could be elite rebounders. While the overlying issue of Tyrese Haliburton’s inconsistencies is eye-opening, the underlying problem that Pascal Siakam is referring to will give this team a ceiling that it doesn’t want to have heading into April.
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