Siakam key to Pacers’ victory

As a former champion on a team without much postseason experience, Pascal Siakam understands what it’s going to take for the Indiana Pacers to advance beyond the first round of the playoffs for the first time in a decade.

Siakam’s certainly doing his part.

The former Raptors forward scored 37 points and the sixth-seeded Pacers overcame another fantastic first-half performance from Damian Lillard to beat the thirdseeded Bucks 125-108 on Tuesday night in Milwaukee and tie their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series at a game apiece.

Game 3 is Friday in Indianapolis.

“We’ve got to be the hungry team,” Siakam said. “We’ve got to be the team that’s coming in and wanting to show something. That’s the attitude that we’ve got to have against those guys, because they’ve done it before.”

The Pacers had plenty of appetite Tuesday as they snapped a 10-game playoff losing streak that began with a Game 7 loss to the Cavaliers in a 2018 first-round series.

The Pacers acquired Siakam in January in part because of his experience as a member of the 2019 Raptors championship team. He followed up his 36-point performance in Game 1 by shooting 16 of 23 from the floor and finishing with 11 rebounds and six assists on Tuesday.

Siakam is the first NBA player to open a postseason with consecutive 35-point, 10-rebound performances since Wilt Chamberlain in 1967.

“His experience in the playoffs is so valuable,”

Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “He’s not a guy that’s going to get rattled by anything. Never has once since January, since we got him. He’s a guy that people confide in and look up to.”

The Pacers needed Siakam to step up because Lillard was once again coming up huge for the Bucks, at least in the first two periods.

Two nights after scoring all 35 of his points in the first half of the Bucks’ 109-94 Game 1 victory, Lillard had 26 by halftime Tuesday and finished with 34.

Lillard didn’t get enough help with the Bucks once again missing two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo due to a strained left calf. Antetokounmpo hasn’t played since he was hurt in an April 9 victory over the Celtics.

Mavs even series: Luka Doncic scored 32 points and the fifth-seeded Mavericks overcame the return of Clippers superstar Kawhi Leonard to win 96-93 on Tuesday in Los Angeles and tie their Western Conference first-round series at a game apiece.

Leonard had 15 points and seven rebounds in 35 minutes of his first game since March 31. He had been out with inflammation in his surgically repaired right knee.

Suns ailing, trailing 0-2:

Guard Grayson Allen aggravate his sprained ankle during the third quarter of the sixth-seeded Suns’ 105-93 loss to the third-seeded Timberwolves in Game 2 of their West series on Tuesday in Minneapolis.

Allen suffered the injury in the series opener — another Suns loss.

Suns coach Frank Vogel said Allen is day to day.

STACY REVERE/GETTY Pascal Siakam shoots over Khris Middleton during the Pacers’ victory over the Bucks in Game 2 of their Western Conference series on Tuesday.