Explain One Play: How the Pacers put Pascal Siakam in "line" to fire

Yes, this is another article about Pascal Siakam's shooting development, because there needs to be another article about Pascal Siakam's shooting development 

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

It could've been mistaken for a comedy set, only Los Angeles Clippers head coach Ty Lue certainly wasn't laughing. Toward the end of the second quarter, LA committed six turnovers in a row, with each seemingly becoming more slapstick in nature (i.e. an inbound pass was immediately bobbled out of bounds without any defenders in close proximity!), as the Pacers went on a 11-0 run, tying the game at 58-58, over a span of less than two minutes. Still, the disaster piece from the Clippers was also a masterpiece from Pascal Siakam, who racked up seven of his game-high 33 points during the same stretch, with the temperature on his jump-shot exceeding that of Lue's valiant attempts to remained even-keeled even as the camera repeatedly panned to him for closeups of his reactions to the meltdown.

For the Pacers, the hot streak wasn't just a game changer, in reference to how a 22-point deficit was transformed into a 119-112 win, it was also reflective of the year-long change in Siakam's game, going back to when he was wandering against a team from the desert last January.

It was only his sixth game since being traded to Indiana, and there hadn't been much opportunity for practice time after returning from a west coast trip. So, when the ball went out of bounds, he took on the responsibility as the inbound passer. It was easy to understand why. Before the ball was even handed to him, he was glancing over his shoulder at Andrew Nembhard, looking for instructions as to where to go and when.

Understandably, Siakam didn't know all of the plays quite yet, so the least damaging place for him to be was out of bounds. Normally, that sideline out of bounds play, which the Pacers refer to as "line," progresses as follows. The small forward in the back of the line circles out to the opposite corner. Meanwhile, a guard pops out to the wing to receive the pass, like so.

From there, the inbound passer cuts to the top of the key across a pair of staggered Iverson-like screens to draw attention away from the actual endgame of the play, which is for the second screener to dart over a screen from the first screener in the opposite direction toward the sideline for a shoot or drive decision.

In that case, Obi Toppin put the ball on the deck and got fouled under the basket. Either way, Siakam was only a function of the play, the play wasn't specifically functioning for him. Once he got a feel for the playbook, and if he was on the floor when the ball was being taken out in the deep corner (which is when the Pacers will usually make the call for "line"), he started being put more directly in the (ahem) "line" of fire. But, he would rarely actually fire from the line.

Just look at this possession against Dallas. Even when his defender slides under the screen from Turner, he doesn't glance up in the direction of the rim.

Or, how about this response against his former teammate. Scottie Barnes is playing off from him here, and he still doesn't rise up to shoot.

That's a change from earlier in the season prior to the trade, when Toppin was given space to shoot in that same position.

Now, it's a year later and checkout the difference. After the Clippers had committed their sixth turnover, errantly loosing the inbound pass in the (Aha!) deep corner, look at who is screening for whom. With the Pacers closing out the half going small, Obi Toppin is on the floor at the five, and still, it's Siakam who is receiving that off-ball screen to cut back toward the sideline. Only, this time, when his defender gets snagged by the screen, he only has eyes for the rim. He isn't just in the "line" of fire, he also fired from the line.

Granted, he didn't quite actually fire from the line, as that was later to deemed to be a two instead of a three, but the fact that he let the ball fly still speaks to his metamorphosis, even at age 30, since joining the Pacers. It isn't just that he made a tweak to his shot, or that opposing defense have started to respond to his shot, it's also that he's ready and willingly responding by shooting, including off movement.

Over the next three possessions, when the Clippers finally managed to maintain possession of the ball, Siakam rotated to the rim as the low-man to alter James Harden's shot at the rim. At the other end of the floor, he backpedaled to the top of the key to knockdown a relocation three, and then, as the first player back following the make, he blocked old teammate Norman Powell, rotating to trap the box after Bennedict Mathurin had given up a straight-line drive on the perimeter.

In some respects, if the Clippers were a slapstick comedy act during this stretch, then Siakam was a dazzling one-man show, neither letting the ball come to rest on offense or allowing himself to find rest on defense, as he demonstrated the ability to still put on a show even when he wasn't doing it all as one man against one man. Of course, there was still plenty of that in the form of high seals against a variety of mismatches; however, what that game-changing span magnified about the ongoing change in his game is perhaps best summarized by what was said in real-time by the Clippers broadcast just before he relocated to knockdown a three with under a minute to play in the half:

"The Pacers are brimming with confidence now. They're going to be sad to see this second quarter end."

With a disaster piece abruptly turning into a masterpiece for the Pacers and a masterpiece just as quickly turning into a disaster piece for the Clippers, it was a fair sentiment. And yet, from not knowing a play and/or shooting out of a play a year ago to blowing kisses to the sky after knocking down a shot with confidence out of the same play roughly 13 months later, the second quarter didn't end -- neither in the context of this game nor in the ongoing beginning of what Siakam's game keeps becoming.