INDIANAPOLIS — The lights dimmed at Gainbridge Fieldhouse and the people rose to their feet. The first name introduced in warm-ups was the man who just arrived, the one they've been waiting for.

They rose just like Pascal Siakam imagined they would when he toured the building the day before, back when nobody was in those stands.

The two-time All-Star power forward made his home debut with the Pacers in Tuesday night's 114-109 loss to the Nuggets.

When the Pacers needed someone other than the injured Tyrese Haliburton to try to match Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and the defending champion Nuggets in crunch time, they looked directly to their newest star.

So there Siakam went in the fourth quarter, driving on that court he met the day before, right into the belly of the beast. With the score tied 107-107, this 6-8, 245-pound man essentially played point guard, backing down a harassing Murray into the paint until he flipped the ball out to a teammate for an open 3, but the ball clanked off the rim.

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The next possession, Siakam drove deeper into the paint to meet a double team and swung the ball out to an open Myles Turner for 3, but that shot also missed the mark.

The next time down, he pulled off a similar drive before thrusting the ball to Aaron Nesmith for a wide-open corner 3, but it also couldn't find the net.

"His drives and his post-ups are going to draw attention," said Pacers coach Rick Carlisle, who was ejected in the third quarter. "... Sometimes you're going to miss ... but it's all stuff that gets you excited to compete."

The fourth time down, Siakam took matters into his own hands, going up hard against Jokic, corralling his own rebound and finishing to cut the deficit to two.

Jokic, a two-time NBA MVP, answered with a dagger 3-pointer with 4.7 seconds remaining. It left the Pacers hanging their heads but also staring at a formula etching itself into those hardwood floors.

The plays they want are there. In them, and in Siakam, they can squint and see a possible way without Haliburton creating all the magic.

"He just brings a different element and dynamic to our team," point guard T.J. McConnell said.

"... He's won a championship and played at the highest level in this league for a long time, so he's seen all different kinds of matchups. He knows what to expect and he makes the right play."

This is the Pacers searching for a way — in an NBA that demands more than one star and in a week without the one they normally count on. Haliburton sat out the first of what is supposed to be a three-game absence with a hamstring injury he's been dealing with for a couple weeks.

That injury disrupted the organic growth they were hoping to see with a young team rising to playoff contention and with the All-Star power forward they just pushed the chips in to acquire. Indiana sent out two first-round picks along with a conditional first-round pick to the Raptors to add Siakam, a 29-year-old who was averaging 22.2 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.9 assists a game.

They saw in him a player with the kind of all-around skill set that can help elevate a team into the postseason, the way he did for 53 playoff games with the Raptors.

Instead, by Tuesday, they had Siakam operating on just a few hours of sleep this week and minimal practice time in order to get to know the players around him. Those became the players he was trusting in crunch time with passes amid double teams. Those circumstances tugged at his instincts and trust in the place that bet on him, two forces that are evolving in front of his eyes.

"I'm still learning about the team and finding out when to be aggressive," said Siakam, who finished with 16 points, 10 rebounds and four assists on 7-of-16 shooting. "To be honest, I just read the game, like whatever the game gives me — that's the type of player I am anyway. Literally, we had wide-open shots, and I want those guys to take those shots a thousand times."

He's still in the homecoming phase, so he's seeing the best in everything. In those eyes, if the Pacers can just add a little bit of chemistry, plus a second high-level creator like Haliburton, to lay the seeds and watch them grow...

"I think we have an opportunity to be special," he said.

The Pacers are finding their way as Siakam does. A 29-year-old who had only known one NBA home as of a week ago crossed the international border to his second. This week, the journey took him to a tour inside an empty Gainbridge Fieldhouse, where he stood at mid-court and looked up and down the rows and to those orange rims at each end that will in time become levers to make this place erupt.

"New home, man," Siakam said as he spun in place. "We've got to make sure we bless it with a lot of buckets."

Tuesday night was the beginning of the partnership between this man and this building. They're betting much on each other, not only in the draft picks the Pacers sent out but also in the contract extension they hope to give him when his deal expires after this season.

It was the start of something, and in those crunch-time passes and catches and the rise of the crowd, he felt that vision in his heart, even if not yet in his ear drums.

It felt easier to reach out and grab on the day of his tour, when the hoops were pulled down to the ground. He stuck his oven-sized mitt inside the orange rim and pulled it back out, peered up at the stands and imagined a few things in this new place he'll now call home.

"I blessed it, man," the newest Pacer said with a smile.

Contact Nate Atkins at natkins@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @NateAtkins_.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pacers: Pascal Siakam's home debut showed the playmaker he can be