Siakam hands Pacers’ 1st victory

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Pascal Siakam sank the go-ahead three-pointer in the final seconds and the injury-hit Indiana Pacers won their first game of the National Basketball Association (NBA) season, defeating Golden State 114-109 on Saturday.

Cameroonian playmaker Siakam scored 27 points, Aaron Nesmith had a game-best and career-high 31 points and Quenton Jackson added a career-high 25 points to help snap Indiana’s five-game losing skid to open the campaign.

The Pacers, down 104-93 midway into the fourth quarter after Stephen Curry scored three of his 24 points for Golden State, closed the game on a 21-5 run to defeat the Warriors (4-3).

“We just played hard-nosed basketball,” Siakam said. “We’ve got to get back to being us. We’ve got to play hard. It has got to be tough on teams to play us. For those minutes, we made it tough on them.”

Siakam, who played on Toronto’s 2019 NBA championship squad, gave Indiana a 112-109 lead on a three-pointer with 37 seconds remaining.

“Just trying to play hard, be in position to help my team,” Siakam said. “Everybody fought for the rebound. I got an open shot. You’ve just got to shoot it.”

Jackson hit a clinching basket with 5.2 seconds to play.

“He was a big part of why we won,” Siakam said of Jackson. “I’m just trying to instill confidence in those guys, to know you’ve got an opportunity. This is the NBA. We took advantage of that tonight, just being aggressive, not thinking about making mistakes or anything like that. Just playing hard, that’s what we needed.”