Pascal Siakam gets brutally honest about Indiana’s “ridiculous” situation

Teams need a lot of luck on their way to the NBA Finals. The Indiana Pacers they were certainly last season’s team of destiny — only to have it all come undone in Game 7 of the NBA Finals after Tyrese Halliburton tore his Achilles in the first quarter of their eventual loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. That seems to have set off an unfortunate chain reaction for the Pacers, as they seemingly couldn’t get lucky on the injury front.

Entering Monday night’s matchup against the rival Milwaukee Bucks, they were missing five key guys from last season’s runner-up team. Joining Halliburton for repairs were TJ McConnell, Andrew Nembhardt, Benedict Maturin and Obi Taupin. Any other team would have given up. But not this Pacers team. Led by Pascal Sakakthey overturned a double-digit deficit in Game 4 against the Bucks, only for Giannis Antetokounmpo to drain at the buzzer and hand the Pacers a 117-115 loss.

The Pacers have now lost six of their first seven games of the season, and there has been no shortage of attempts. They really wanted to earn this win against the Bucks, but the basketball gods don’t seem to have their backs anymore. And all Siakam could do was power through pain.

“It’s almost funny. But it’s not funny,” Siakam said, according to Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star. “You want to feel good about the effort, but the result isn’t there. It’s a tough, tough time for us as a team. We just have to keep going. … It’s hard to be positive, but we have to.”

This season seems like a lost one for the Pacers. However, fans should continue to count on them to give their all until the very end.

Pascal Siakam has the unenviable task of leading the depleted Pacers

The Pacers are building a viable roster out of the rubble caused by their injury woes. The good news is they have multiple All-Star Siakam leading the way. But there are so many question marks up and down the roster that it’s imperative that Siakam be at his best every night just for Indiana to have a chance to win.

The likes of Aaron Nesmith, Jaraca Walker and Isaiah Jackson will need to step up quickly to avoid burning Siakam this early in the season. One of the Pacers’ guards (Quenton Jackson, Ray J. Dennis, Talon Peter) should also land them a starting job for now.