Haliburton and Kawhi miracles just two of many crazy shots Pascal Siakam's been part of

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Pascal Siakam has a pretty good basketball resume: Champion; Eastern Conference Final MVP; Two-time All-NBA; Most Improved Player. But he’s also been on the court for some historic, and pretty rare moments.

Other than legendary clutch dagger wielder Robert Horry, it’s hard to come up with a player who has been on the floor for as many massive shots as Siakam over his time in the league.

When Tyrese Haliburton’s long two-pointer fell in Game 1 Thursday just ahead of the buzzer, giving Indiana its first lead of the game and the win, it was an all-time experience for just about everyone. Just not Siakam.

After all, he had an on-court view for an even bigger shot six years ago, one of the biggest in NBA history.

That would be Kawhi Leonard’s buzzer-beater over an outstretched Joel Embiid, which rattled around four times before dropping and eliminated the Philadelphia 76ers. It was one of the few series-enders at the buzzer in league history and helped propel the Raptors to the championship.

It’s hard for that one to be topped and the only way Haliburton’s dagger in Game 1 has a chance to do so would be for the Pacers to go on to win as well. Either way, Siakam’s the only player that was there for both of them.

Of course Siakam was also there for Haliburton’s other three shots in these playoffs that either won or forced overtime, as well as his layup to knock out the Milwaukee Bucks.

Haliburton also sank the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 2 of the second round after another huge comeback, forced overtime in stunning fashion in the conference finals against the New York Knicks and eliminated Milwaukee in Round 1 with a layup.

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Incredibly, Siakam has also been out there for two other classics, even if they weren’t quite as important in the long run:

A year before Kawhi’s heroics, long-time Toronto tormentor LeBron James made it look easy, dropping a running, one-handed shot at the buzzer to put Cleveland up 3-0 in a series where the Raptors had homecourt advantage.

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And a year after Kawhi, there was OG Anunoby’s “I don’t shoot trying to miss” moment in the Bubble off a great pass from Kyle Lowry, which won Game 3 against Boston in the playoffs.

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STATS PACK

There’s not shortage of interesting stats from Game 1. Here’s a sampling:

– Indiana became the first team since 2014 to win a Finals game without anyone scoring 20 points (Siakam had 19, just under his career Finals average of 19.7 per game in seven outings).

“Elite role players, call it,” Myles Turner told reporters in Oklahoma City on Saturday.

“We have two All-Stars on our team, but at the same time they will be the first to tell you that it can be anybody’s night at any given time. We are just really following that philosophy.”

– Indiana was only 21-20 on the road in the regular season, barely above .500, yet, when things get exponentially tougher in the playoffs, is now 7-2 away from home.

– Indiana has not lost consecutive games since March 10.

– Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is just the ninth player to attempt 30 shots in a Finals game since 2000 (he hit 14-of-30).

And one from ESPN’s Zach Kram: “The Thunder threw just 208 passes — the fewest for any team in any game all season (and the second-fewest in a playoff game since 2013-14).”

@WolstatSun