Latest news with #COVID-interrupted
New York Times
2 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Pascal Siakam perfect for Pacers: How his NBA journey focused his drive
There has always been more to Pascal Siakam than just his long, graceful strides. Getting out in transition is what stood out about Siakam as a rookie, when an injury to Jared Sullinger made him an unlikely starter for the first half of the season for the Toronto Raptors. It is what stands out about him now, as he finishes so many sublime Tyrese Haliburton-orchestrated fast breaks for the Indiana Pacers. Over his nine-year career, he has been steadfast in meshing that stamina with skill development. Advertisement Crucially, as he improved, the tirelessness remained. In his final two years as Raptors coach, Nick Nurse was Thibodeauian in his reliance on his starters. Deep in the fourth quarter of a late-January 2022 game against the Miami Heat, Siakam was nearing 40 minutes for the night. Jimmy Butler attacked the rim in a close game, with Siakam sliding over as the backline defender to block him with two hands. Butler is strong, and the force of the drive knocked Siakam backward to the baseline. The ball fell back into Butler's hands, who attempted to drop it in the hoop. Siakam lunged forward, and swatted the ball away for possession. Siakam went on to play 17 more minutes that night in a triple-overtime win. He was a block and a steal away from a rare 5×5 game. What jumps out from that night, other than his game-high 56:31 of playing time, is that protecting the rim is way down the list of things Siakam does well. That is Siakam, though: He is better than you think at everything, even if he's not a star in any category besides playing in transition and durability. (Since 2018-19, when Siakam won Most Improved Player and helped the Raptors win the title, only Jayson Tatum and Nikola Jokić have played more than Siakam's 19,807 minutes, playoffs included.) By developing those skills over his nine-year career, Siakam has turned himself into the ideal second star for the uptempo, rollicking Indiana Pacers. He won MVP of the Eastern Conference finals on Saturday when the Pacers closed out the New York Knicks. Freed from the need to take the pull-up 3s that were required of him when he was the primary scorer at the end of his Raptors tenure, Siakam is a player without a notable weakness. Tyrese Haliburton powers the Pacers when they are at their high-speed best, with Siakam fitting in well because, after all these years, he still runs the floor better than the majority of players his size. Advertisement When the Pacers aren't humming, though, Siakam sets a sturdy floor for his team, with his ability to hit tough shots keeping the Pacers afloat, most notably evident in Game 2 against the Knicks. He's not Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or former teammate Kawhi Leonard from the midrange, but good enough — 45.6 percent accuracy on the 250 shots he took this year from between 10 and 16 feet, including tough turnarounds — to salvage wayward possessions. It was a journey there. In his first All-Star season, the COVID-interrupted 2019-20, he took just 108 shots from that range, shooting 32.4 percent. He mostly used his footwork and spins to get to the rim from the post. Two years later, he had settled into the mid-to-high 40s on much higher volume from midrange. So it has gone for so much of his game. • Siakam attempted just 17 3s in his two years at New Mexico State, and only seven in his rookie season. In his second season in Toronto, the Raptors insisted he take more, even as he had a two-month stretch in which he shot 4 for 58 (including 25 straight misses at one point). A year later, he shot 36.9 percent on 2.7 attempts per game, making the Raptors' offensive system just a little more viable. He plateaued and occasionally dipped when asked to create those looks for himself, but he has hit 38.8 of his 526 attempts in Indiana. • While Siakam's 3 was a problem when he occupied a primary role in Toronto, his playmaking grew exponentially. Siakam entered the league as a play-finisher. He showed some intuitive passing in his second season as part of the Raptors' league-best second unit — Fred VanVleet, Jakob Poeltl and Delon Wright also graduated from that lineup to more substantial careers — but really flourished as his usage grew. In his second All-Star season in 2022-23, he was fifth among all forwards, averaging 5.8 assists per game, with 2.46 assists for every turnover, a pristine number. Siakam doesn't have to carry that load with the Pacers, but he still facilitates or initiates the seemingly random movement on which they thrive. It always felt unfair that Siakam wore so much of Raptors president Masai Ujiri's comments calling that year's team 'selfish.' Advertisement • Siakam's defense has never been a problem, but it has evolved as he has. In his early years, he didn't have the strength to battle with the likes of Blake Griffin, as was the case in a memorable late-season game in the second season. He is not burly, but Siakam has grown a wiry strength. Still, it is that tirelessness which is at the heart of his defensive contributions. Siakam can scramble, contest 3s and recover like few other forwards thanks to his stamina and length. That was key as the Raptors used an unorthodox style to put together the second-best defense in 2019-20 despite the loss of Kawhi Leonard, and it is perhaps the biggest reason the Pacers went from cute early-season story last year to serious contender. While Aaron Nesmith is the team's sturdiest one-on-one defender, likely to get the bulk of the Gilgeous-Alexander assignment, Siakam provides so much of the connective tissue that makes the system work, especially as the Pacers try to keep Myles Turner close to the paint. The Siakam/Raptors relationship ended sourly. Part of that was because Siakam and his co-leader, VanVleet, put in so much work to go from peripheral players to cornerstones, and had trouble abiding those they did not believe were doing the same. It was a messy ending, as most are, but that same maniacal devotion to his craft helped put the Raptors in a position to win and nobly try to defend a title in the first place. It's paying off in Indiana, now. 'I enjoy the process of getting better, knowing that before I couldn't do something and now I can do it,' Siakam said before that ill-fated 2022-23 season, reflecting on 14 post-pandemic months that slowed his developmental ascent. 'That process of the game is so important to me. And having the opportunity to do that while healthy, it was amazing. I just get lost in it.' That mindset never propelled him to MVP contention, as he desired. It never put him in a position to earn a supermax, which stopped him from being a potential career centerpiece for one franchise. Now he will get to see Haliburton try to do that in Indiana. It did, however, turn him from a role player to a central figure on several great teams. Draymond Green, not one for self-flagellation, recently said on TNT that his effort against Siakam in the 2019 NBA Finals was one of only two times he felt he lost his individual matchup. (He cited his performance against Minnesota's Julius Randle this year as the other.) Siakam's efficiency wavered in that series, but he bookended it with 32 points on 14-for-17 shooting in the opener and 26 on 10-for-17 shooting in the clincher. He scored the most important basket in that game, beating Green with a quick change of direction. As he enters the finals six years later against a historically great defensive team and excellent individual defenders, remember that he has been in this precise role, in this approximate situation, and succeeded before. When the Pacers traded for Siakam two Januarys ago and later re-signed him, he was seen as the type of star for whom the Pacers had to settle. Indianapolis, being a non-glamour market, would never get a superstar to pair with Haliburton, so they had to search elsewhere. Siakam would have to be good enough. Across the board, he has been.
Chicago Tribune
4 days ago
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Alex Caruso is back in the NBA Finals with the Oklahoma City Thunder — this time with fans
Alex Caruso is the only Oklahoma City Thunder player with NBA Finals experience. That said, even he has no idea what this year's series will feel like. Caruso was on the Los Angeles Lakers team that beat the Miami Heat in the 2020 finals in the bubble in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The games were played all in one place, with almost no fans and with an atmosphere that in no way will compare to what awaits when this year's finals start Thursday night in Oklahoma City. 'The finals in the bubble still had the tangible feel of a finals,' Caruso said. 'You knew what was up for grabs. That adrenaline before the game, obviously, I don't think it would probably be the same adrenaline level that you feel with fans, just being on the other side of it now. But understanding what's at stake was still very apparent.' The Thunder will take on the Eastern Conference champion Indiana Pacers. Game 1 is in Oklahoma City, where the Thunder are 43-7 this season, including the playoffs. They're 80-19 overall — including both the postseason and a loss in the NBA Cup title game — and that's why Caruso doesn't feel the need to do a whole lot of how-to-handle-the-finals coaching. 'You don't have to do anything special. You just have to be who we are,' he said. 'That's worked for us throughout this whole year. So I'm just continuing to emphasize with the guys, just do what we've done all year. Compete at a high level, play together, play as a team. When we do that, we're pretty good.' At 31, Caruso is the oldest player on the Thunder roster — even though more than 80 active NBA players are older than him. The NBA said the Thunder are the second-youngest team to make the finals in the last 70 seasons, with an average age of 25.56. That's about a half-year older than the Portland Trail Blazers were in 1977. 'We've got one of the youngest teams in the league still,' Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. 'And these guys are growing at a really rapid rate. And we've had a lot of individual players really grow quickly and grow in impactful ways in a short period of time.' But they rely on Caruso in many ways as well. A team loaded with young talent — led by MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren — is willing to listen and learn, which is where Caruso comes in. 'There's never a second where he's not fully engaged in the competition,' said Daigneault, who coached Caruso with the G League's Oklahoma City Blue in 2016-17 and now coaches him with the Thunder. 'And I think that right there, the contagiousness of that and the consistency of that, is really the impact. 'It doesn't matter if it's a drill in shootaround or whether it's a side out-of-bounds play on a short shot clock. That guy, Alex Caruso, is completely engaged in that moment.' And Caruso will be completely engaged in the finals, with hopes of getting a second ring — and a first parade. The 2020 finals ended in October because of the COVID-interrupted season, and training camps resumed just a few weeks later. There was no traditional offseason after the Lakers won the title, and Caruso laments missing out on some of the fun. 'There's parts of winning a championship that I didn't get to experience through that first championship,' he said. 'I never got to go on a parade. The turnaround for the next season was like a month. I went to Cabo for a couple of days and then started working out again because the next season was about to start. 'There's a little bit of enjoying the success that I didn't get to necessarily participate in. But I've got another chance to get it done and try again with fans and with a parade and all that.'
The Age
24-04-2025
- Sport
- The Age
AFL round seven LIVE: History favours Demons in crucial Anzac Day eve clash with Richmond
Latest posts Latest posts 6.31pm The match in a nutshell What to expect: No person will be more relieved than Richmond coach Adem Yze when the first bounce kicks off tonight's Anzac Day Eve clash at the MCG between the Demons and the Tigers. He will finally be able to concentrate on footy after a week dominated by Noah Balta's court case coverage. The Tigers will miss Balta, who was strong in their win against the Gold Coast, and as a result the playing group might be distracted. Expect Melbourne to go hard to establish an early lead in a match that will largely be determined in the midfield. What history says: Melbourne have owned Richmond since 2020. They have won their past five clashes, four of them on Anzac Day Eve. The last time the Tigers beat the Demons was July 5, 2020, during the COVID-interrupted season. What the stats say: This year, Melbourne have averaged almost 23 more disposals a game than Richmond (326.7 to 340), been inside 50 almost 10 more times a game (51.5 to 41.8) and have racked up six more contested possession a game (130.8 to 124.8). Both sides have similar numbers in clearances (Melbourne 34.2 to Richmond 35.8), marks (Melbourne 91.3 to Richmond 89.5) and turnovers (Melbourne 63.8 to Richmond 63.2). The Demons have averaged 68.6 points a game this season, but averaged 81 points a game at the MCG. They have only passed 100 points once. The Tigers have not kicked more than 100 points in nay game this year, while averaging 70 points a game across their six matches and 86 points a game at the MCG. What the coaches say: Loading Simon Goodwin: 'Our defence hasn't been at the level we're capable of. Our focus is really on getting back to that. The players' buy-in (to defence) was high last week, but Fremantle still kicked 97 points—so we know there's still plenty of work to do.' Adem Yze: 'I'm not sure who we are going to play on Kozzy Pickett because he played like a star (against Fremantle). He is a talented kid, and we might have to put two or three players on him.' What the experts say: All 14 members of The Age's expert tipping panel are predicting a Melbourne victory. Their average winning margin is 15 points. 6.29pm Saints resigned to King's long-term AFL absence By Roger Vaughan Ross Lyon is resigned to St Kilda star Max King being sidelined until late this season, again stressing that it's short-term pain for a long-term career. Pointing to GWS' Coleman medallist Jesse Hogan and retired Brisbane Lions premiership star Joe Daniher, Lyon said King is another key forward who will need time to overcome injury before he hits his peak. Similarly, Lyon said before training earlier today that they will be careful with young gun Mattaes Phillipou, who is on the verge of playing again for the first time this year after recovering from a stress reaction in his leg. Asked when Phillipou might be ready an AFL return, Lyon replied it was a 'really good question'. Phillipou, King and Dougal Howard (shoulder) are all yet to play this season, with Howard set to return on Saturday against the Lions at Marvel Stadium. King needed more surgery last week after a setback in his recovery from a pre-season knee injury. He was at the club this morning, with a bandage on his right knee. The Saints said last week that King's likely time out would be six weeks and Lyon expects an AFL return will not happen quickly after that. 'It's going to be a fair period of time – you're not going to see Max until the late end of the season,' Lyon said. 'And that's OK. Is it disappointing for Max and us? Yes. But we have a power forward and he had a great summer. The knee is structurally sound, so it gives him a clear runway, whenever that is.' As he did last week, Lyon said St Kilda would be patient in managing King. 'You look at Daniher, you look at Hogan – Max is 24,' Lyon said. 'When you think of Daniher and Hogan, they hit their peak around 29 to 31, because of all their challenges. 'Gee whiz, if Max could have a good run at it, I think he's going to hit his straps well before 29.'
Sydney Morning Herald
24-04-2025
- Sport
- Sydney Morning Herald
AFL round seven LIVE: History favours Demons in crucial Anzac Day eve clash with Richmond
Latest posts Latest posts 6.31pm The match in a nutshell What to expect: No person will be more relieved than Richmond coach Adem Yze when the first bounce kicks off tonight's Anzac Day Eve clash at the MCG between the Demons and the Tigers. He will finally be able to concentrate on footy after a week dominated by Noah Balta's court case coverage. The Tigers will miss Balta, who was strong in their win against the Gold Coast, and as a result the playing group might be distracted. As a result, expect Melbourne to go hard to establish an early lead in a match that will largely be determined in the midfield. What history says: Melbourne have owned Richmond since 2020. They have won their past five clashes, four of them on Anzac Day Eve. The last time the Tigers beat the Demons was July 5, 2020, during the COVID-interrupted season. What the stats say: This year, Melbourne have averaged almost 23 more disposals a game than Richmond (326.7 to 340), been inside 50 almost 10 more times a game (51.5 to 41.8) and have racked up six more contested possession a game (130.8 to 124.8). Both sides have similar numbers in clearances (Melbourne 34.2 to Richmond 35.8), marks (Melbourne 91.3 to Richmond 89.5) and turnovers (Melbourne 63.8 to Richmond 63.2). The Demons have averaged 68.6 points a game this season, but averaged 81 points a game at the MCG. They have only passed 100 points once. The Tigers have not kicked more than 100 points in nay game this year, while averaging 70 points a game across their six matches and 86 points a game at the MCG. What the coaches say: Loading Simon Goodwin: 'Our defence hasn't been at the level we're capable of. Our focus is really on getting back to that. The players' buy-in (to defence) was high last week, but Fremantle still kicked 97 points—so we know there's still plenty of work to do.' Adem Yze: 'I'm not sure who we are going to play on Kozzy Pickett because he played like a star (against Fremantle). He is a talented kid, and we might have to put two or three players on him.' What the experts say: All 14 members of The Age's expert tipping panel are predicting a Melbourne victory. Their average winning margin is 15 points. 6.29pm Saints resigned to King's long-term AFL absence By Roger Vaughan Ross Lyon is resigned to St Kilda star Max King being sidelined until late this season, again stressing that it's short-term pain for a long-term career. Pointing to GWS' Coleman medallist Jesse Hogan and retired Brisbane Lions premiership star Joe Daniher, Lyon said King is another key forward who will need time to overcome injury before he hits his peak. Similarly, Lyon said before training earlier today that they will be careful with young gun Mattaes Phillipou, who is on the verge of playing again for the first time this year after recovering from a stress reaction in his leg. Asked when Phillipou might be ready an AFL return, Lyon replied it was a 'really good question'. Phillipou, King and Dougal Howard (shoulder) are all yet to play this season, with Howard set to return on Saturday against the Lions at Marvel Stadium. King needed more surgery last week after a setback in his recovery from a pre-season knee injury. He was at the club this morning, with a bandage on his right knee. The Saints said last week that King's likely time out would be six weeks and Lyon expects an AFL return will not happen quickly after that. 'It's going to be a fair period of time – you're not going to see Max until the late end of the season,' Lyon said. 'And that's OK. Is it disappointing for Max and us? Yes. But we have a power forward and he had a great summer. The knee is structurally sound, so it gives him a clear runway, whenever that is.' As he did last week, Lyon said St Kilda would be patient in managing King. 'You look at Daniher, you look at Hogan – Max is 24,' Lyon said. 'When you think of Daniher and Hogan, they hit their peak around 29 to 31, because of all their challenges. 'Gee whiz, if Max could have a good run at it, I think he's going to hit his straps well before 29.'
