The NBA’s 79-year saga has never before chronicled a team that embarked on back-to-back Conference Finals trips without a top-three seed, but as the Indiana Pacers have long learned, such journeys are much easier with All-Stars who’ve finished the story from start to finish. Navigating Indiana through once-uncharted waters in more ways than one, Pascal Siakam wastes no time in Game Five’s closeout, ripping down Evan Mobley’s misfired hook shot before immediately becoming the aggressor in the open floor. Too swift for even the NBA’s newly-named Defensive Player of the Year to match step-for-step, Siakam outmaneuvers both of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ frontcourt stars, ultimately using an elusive Euro-step to unlock his path for a finger roll. Siakam’s Game Five highlight reel was one of aesthetic excellence, and the box score — 21 points, eight rebounds, five assists, one steal, one block, and two triples — proved no different, as Indiana dispatched of the East’s No. 1 seed on May 13, 2025. · May 13, 2025