{"id":142855,"date":"2025-05-31T23:58:01","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T03:58:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=142855"},"modified":"2025-06-01T04:41:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T08:41:11","slug":"pacers-pascal-siakam-ecf-mvp-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/05\/31\/pacers-pascal-siakam-ecf-mvp-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacers All-Star Takes Home ECF MVP Award"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After knocking the New York Knicks down a peg, the Indiana Pacers will be heading to the NBA Finals for the first time since the 1999-00 season.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s an unexpected outcome to many, as the Knicks have been <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/05\/13\/mikal-bridges-validates-trade-with-his-biggest-knicks-moment\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">considered a championship contender<\/a> for months. Conversely, the Pacers are a team that\u2019s respected but not so much that people were predicting a title run. Nevertheless, much like face of the franchise <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/halibty01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tyrese Haliburton<\/a>, they\u2019ve shown themselves to be underrated. At this point, it\u2019s only right to give them a puncher\u2019s chance at defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2025 NBA Finals, though they\u2019ll be facing off against a formidable foe that\u2019s led by reigning league MVP <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gilgesh01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Pacers\u2019 Pascal Siakam Takes Home Eastern Conference Finals MVP Award<\/h2>\n<p>Haliburton was dominant throughout the 2025 Eastern Conference Finals. In fact, he led the team in several categories, including assists (63) and steals (15). Nevertheless, he didn\u2019t come away with the 2025 Eastern Conference Finals MVP award.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Tyrese Haliburton among Pacers this ECF:<\/p>\n<p>2nd in points<br \/>\n1st in rebounds<br \/>\n1st in assists<br \/>\n1st in steals<br \/>\n1st in stocks<br \/>\n1st in threes (tied)<\/p>\n<p>Not enough to win MVP. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/PV7Q7Qugyc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/PV7Q7Qugyc<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 StatMuse (@statmuse) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/statmuse\/status\/1929008119671144531?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 1, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>That honor went to fellow cornerstone <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/siakapa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pascal Siakam<\/a> instead. It was a narrow victory for the three-time All-Star, who received five of the nine votes. However, it\u2019s a fair one, as Siakam\u2019s takeover performances <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/05\/24\/indiana-pacers-2-0\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">was a major factor<\/a> in them shutting the door on the Knicks.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Pascal Siakam received five of the nine votes for Eastern Conference Finals MVP from a media panel covering the series. Tyrese Haliburton received the other four votes. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ZdpvJsRaTf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/ZdpvJsRaTf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBA Communications (@NBAPR) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBAPR\/status\/1929007210652189151?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 1, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In the 2025 Eastern Conference Finals, Siakam averaged 24.8 points and 1.3 steals per game, shooting 52.4 percent from the field. He scored 30 or more points in three of those contests, including Game 6. A multi-faceted forward who the Pacers acquired last January, he\u2019s been key to their accelerated success.<\/p>\n<h3>Speech, Speech, Speech!<\/h3>\n<p>Following the Eastern Conference Finals MVP trophy presentation, he praised the franchise, from the fan base to the front office.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_142857\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-142857\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-142857\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/IMG_6653-300x200.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/IMG_6653-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/IMG_6653-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/IMG_6653-768x512.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/IMG_6653-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/IMG_6653-2048x1365.jpeg 2048w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/IMG_6653-600x400.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/IMG_6653-1200x800.jpeg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-142857\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">May 31, 2025; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; Indiana Pacers forward Pascal Siakam (43) is interviewed by Ernie Johnson after receiving the Larry Bird MVP Trophy game six of the eastern conference finals against the New York Knicks for the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cFirst of all, shoutout Indy, man,\u201d Siakam says. \u201cIt\u2019s been such an amazing experience for me so far, from the first day I landed here. Like, the love\u2019s been amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c(General manager) Chad (Buchanan), (president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard), <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/l-mr8InuQAM\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">just unbelievable, man<\/a>. First-class organization, I\u2019m just so happy to be here. And tonight, after a bad Game 5, we wanted to bounce back. I have like 100 percent belief in my teammates. Whenever we\u2019re down, we always find a way, and we did that tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After knocking the New York Knicks down a peg, the Indiana Pacers will be heading to the NBA Finals for the first time since the 1999-00 season. It\u2019s an unexpected outcome to many, as the Knicks have been considered a championship contender for months. Conversely, the Pacers are a team that\u2019s respected but not so [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":142860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1608,62,12,3],"tags":[1143,407,596,1754,2607],"class_list":["post-142855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pacers","category-basketball","category-nba","category-knicks","category-news","tag-nba-awards","tag-nba-finals","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-pascal-siakam","tag-tyrese-haliburton"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142855"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142862,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142855\/revisions\/142862"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}