The Toronto Raptors have been having a fireplace sale.
And the Knicks and Indiana Pacers have been the highest clients.
About halfway by the 2023-24 season, the Knicks acquired ahead OG Anunoby — now their go-to defender — from the rebuilding Raptors for a package deal headlined by RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley.
Lower than three weeks later, the Pacers acquired fellow ahead Pascal Siakam from Toronto for a return that included three first-round picks. Siakam gave the ascendant Pacers a longtime scorer with championship pedigree, having served because the second choice on the 2019 Raptors workforce that gained the NBA Finals.
Now, Anunoby and Siakam are matched up towards one another within the Japanese Convention Finals.
“It’s amazing that we’re both in a position where we get to compete at this level coming from Toronto,” Siakam mentioned after Recreation 2. “It just gives you extra motivation to just continue to compete at a higher level. I know how hard of a competitor he is.”
Anunoby has been Siakam’s main defender within the sequence, and vice versa.
Siakam scored 17 factors on 7-of-16 capturing within the Pacers’ 138-135 time beyond regulation win in Recreation 1 as Anunoby largely held him in examine.
However in Indiana’s 114-109 win in Recreation 2, no person on the Knicks, together with Anunoby, had a solution for Siakam. Siakam demonstrated an array of offense strikes en path to a playoff-career-high 39 factors on 15-of-23 capturing in solely 33 minutes. He scored Indiana’s first 11 factors.
Within the first two video games, Siakam shot 5-of-11 when defended by Anunoby, together with 2-of-4 from 3-point vary, based on the NBA’s head-to-head monitoring.
“He was the guy that got us going and got us through some difficult stretches,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle mentioned of Siakam after Recreation 2. “It’s hard to score that number of points in a game like this, where you always have a physical matchup defensively and there’s a guy crashing and flying at the basket. But he did a phenomenal job.”
Anunoby was additionally a part of Toronto’s 2019 title workforce however didn’t play through the championship run after present process an emergency appendectomy that April.
He was solely 26 when the Knicks traded for him, and after reaching free company final summer time, Anunoby re-signed on a five-year, $212.5 million contract.
Anunoby scored 16 factors in each Video games 1 and a pair of and shot 5-of-8 when guarded by Siakam.
Siakam is three years older than Anunoby, and he, too, was on an expiring deal when the Pacers acquired him. However Indiana recognized him as a lacking piece to offer manufacturing and management for a younger roster.
The Pacers returned to the playoffs for the primary time in 4 seasons final 12 months and surged to convention finals. Siakam then led the Pacers with 20.2 factors per recreation this previous common season.
“I’ve always been an enormous fan of his, how versatile he is both offensively and defensively,” Carlisle mentioned of Siakam earlier than Sunday evening’s Recreation 3 in Indiana. “He had a lot of big games with [Toronto]. He had a 30-point game in the Finals, one of the games back in ’19, so his experience has been very important to us.”
The Pacers additionally envisioned Siakam as part of their future, as they signed him to a four-year, $189.5 million most contract final offseason.
It’s paying off now.
“That’s why we brought him here,” Pacers level guard Tyrese Haliburton mentioned after Siakam’s Recreation 2 eruption. “That’s what he’s here to do. He can get a bucket in so many different ways.”
