Pascal Siakam went viral before the Indiana Pacers‘ 108-91 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 6 of the NBA Finals on Thursday. Siakam’s eyes rolled into the back of his head when he was in the Pacers’ pre-game huddle, and he reacted to the clip after the win.
“Myles [Turner] showed me that,” Siakam said. “They said I was a demon? I mean, I wish I had a 30-point game or something like, ‘Yeah, spirit took over.’
“When I try to close my eyes, I’m thinking that I’m closing it, but I’m not closing,” Siakam continued. “… Sometimes I have to remind myself, and I’ll be like this [eyes firmly shut]. My thing is that it used to happen a lot more and I had to remind myself every time like, ‘Okay, close your eyes.’ … At least they’re talking about me a little bit. It’s all good. We’ll take it.”
Here is the clip in case you missed it.
Pascal Siakam just turned into a demon pic.twitter.com/auERO2cbsv
— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod 🇸🇴 (@big_business_) June 20, 2025
That’s a scary sight. As Siakam stated, it was a pity he wasn’t able to have a monstrous outing after this went viral. The three-time All-Star did have a pretty good game, though.
Siakam finished with 16 points (6-14 FG), 13 rebounds, three assists, and one block in the stunning blowout win over the Thunder. The 31-year-old had a team-high 13 points in the first half to help the Pacers get out to a 64-42 lead at the break. The hosts would extend their advantage to as many as 31 points in the second half, and this was a complete beatdown to tie the series at 3-3.
This Pacers team had seemed down and out after losing Game 5. As if going down 3-2 in the NBA Finals wasn’t bad enough, Tyrese Haliburton strained his right calf that night as well.
You feared the worst for the Pacers coming into this game, and the Thunder would even take a 10-2 lead in the opening minutes. A blowout seemed to be on the cards, and that did end up happening, just not in the way that we expected.
The Pacers have shown once again in this series that their making it this far was no fluke. They well and truly belong on this stage and are now on the brink of pulling off one of the greatest upsets in modern NBA history.
The 68-14 Thunder were expected to brush aside the 50-32 Pacers with relative ease in the Finals. This fairytale run wasn’t supposed to have a good ending, and that might end up happening.
While this Pacers team has been all about the collective, they’ll be looking to Siakam, who has averaged 19.8 points, 8.3 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 1.7 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game in the series, for inspiration in Game 7. He, of course, played a key role in the Toronto Raptors winning the NBA championship in 2019.
Siakam was immense in the closeout Game 6 of the Finals against the Golden State Warriors, too. He had 26 points (10-17 FG), 10 rebounds, three assists, one steal, and one block as the Raptors clinched their first-ever NBA title.
Will we get a repeat from Siakam in Game 7 against the Thunder to clinch the Pacers’ first-ever NBA title? Well, we’ll find out soon enough, with the game being held at Paycom Center on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET.
