Perhaps the Toronto Raptors should only play the second nights of back-to-backs—it seems to work out better for them.
That was, at least, certainly the case against the Sacramento Kings on Friday night, whom the Raptors smacked around to the tune of a 19-point victory that was truly much more devastating than that, when considering garbage time.
The win snapped a three-game Toronto skid and moved its road record to 6-3.
“It's how you bounce back, it's how you recover,” Pascal Siakam said in his immediate post-game interview.
With that, here are two key takeaways from the night that was:
Raptors Takeaways
Siakam, out for blood
Speaking of bounce-back performances, how about Siakam?
After a night in which he was heavily criticized (at least on Twitter) by the fan base and pundits alike for his poor play, he followed up that showing with an absolutely dominant wire-to-wire masterpiece that saw him finish with 32 points, eight rebounds, and two blocks on a volcanic 97.6 true shooting percentage.
“You gotta have a short memory here in this league,” head coach Nick Nurse said. “I know it’s not easy to have a tough game like that but part of it is you communicate it out and you say, ‘You’re not gonna play great every night and when you don’t have a great game you’ve gotta bounce back and you’ve gotta do it with some assertiveness and some belief.’
“I thought [Siakam] came out and he just went to work and looked as good as he’s looked offensively in a long time.”
Despite starting with a couple wonky minutes, Siakam quickly took firm control of how his night was to go—he was assertive and aggressive on offence, looking for his own shot and stepping into each attempt with confidence and certainly, carving himself out a rhythm that carried on for essentially every following possession he was on the floor. Defensively, he looked like his old self, tearing across the hardwood for impossible contests, sticking with his man one-on-one, and jutting into passing lanes for deflections.
“I think for me coming in today I just wanted to focus on my defence,” Siakam said. “I just wanted to have my pressure felt on defence. Pressuring the ball and doing things like that. I think the offence, sometimes I’ll score whatever, and then some nights are going to be tough. But I think I have to keep my consistency on defence and I think we all have do that as a team. I think that’s something I have to get better at and I have to bring that intensity every single night so everyone can follow.”
It was the kind of display that reminded all those who may have forgotten (after all, he’s still working his way back to form following injury) why he’s a former all-star, and why, at his best, he’s still the Raptors’ best player.
Trent + bench
Nurse was cognizant of the fact that he had to make an adjustment to the bench unit after its less-than-stellar showing against the Jazz on Thursday, when it mustered a meagre 20 total points.
That adjustment came in the form of staggering Gary Trent Jr.’s (who has now scored 18 or more points in five-straight games) minutes so that he could play with the bench, and it worked wonders. Having one of the team’s few legitimate bucket-getters on the floor with a group that gives up runs largely due to its inability to score completely shifted the dynamic of the group, not only providing them with enough offensive oomph to stay afloat, but to thrive.
Toronto scored 28 bench points this time around, helping flatten the Kings in some vital moments.
“They got in a groove with four guys off the bench and Gary [Trent] and got clicking pretty good there,” Nurse said. “So chalk that up for one of the good nights where we found a group that could really take it and play extended minutes together.”
Precious Achiuwa returning to the lineup was a significant boost as well, as Nurse opted to keep Khem Birch with the starters and shift Achiuwa to help out off the pine. Which he did wonderfully, adding a real defensive presence around the rim and finding a stride alongside fellow big Chris Boucher.
Previously, Nurse had been staggering OG Anunoby so that he could help carry the bench, but with the rising star lost to injury, he was forced to make a change.
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