In many ways, it was the inverse of the Portland Trail Blazers game on Sunday. After having fallen into the bad habit recently of starting off slowly, the Toronto Raptors came out like they meant business against the Charlotte Hornets.
Despite no Fred VanVleet, no Scottie Barnes, no Khem Birch, and losing Justin Champagnie early to an ejection (which also sent P.J. Washington packing), the Raptors were finally the team to deliver the first haymaker, dropping 39 points in the first quarter on the way to a season-high 76 halftime points.
The impetus behind the Raptors’ rollicking start was none other than Pascal Siakam, who, with VanVleet and Barnes on the sidelines, took over the majority of point guard duties offensively, bringing the ball up, directing traffic, forcing the defense into movement, and creating advantages based on wherever the Hornets’ cracks appeared.
“He really seems to have a good tempo to where he’s going,” head coach Nick Nurse told reporters post-game. “He’s really composed. I think the spin moves, et cetera are very under control. There were a couple close ones tonight where they were coming like crazy and he snuck them out to Gary [Trent Jr.] or whoever was out there, but he’s doing a good job.”
Whether it was snagging offensive boards, spraying out bullets to the perimeter after collapsing the defense, picking spots for his own scoring opportunities, or kicking it to screening partners out of the pick-and-roll, Siakam was simply ascendent. He controlled the game with a degree of smoothness that’s difficult to quantify—it wasn’t rigid and suffocating as is the case with some star players. No, Siakam’s governance looked so easy as to almost feel predetermined, as if he had gone through a rehearsal of this exact game before.
“What I like is just the composure ‘cause I think he’s taking it deep to spots when he’s got a size advantage and if he’s getting a shot off, it’s usually a pretty good shot,” Nurse said. “I think he made a couple really tough ones tonight, but he’s been getting to spots where he’s getting clearance and you’re expecting most of those to go in.
“If you can score one-on-one, and do it over and over again, then they’re going to have to send help and you’ve done your job by getting two defenders on you—you just have to find the open man.”
He finished with a near triple-double (24 points, 12 assists, nine rebounds), adding to the argument that he should be an all-star (or even All-NBA) player this season. Since Dec. 28, Siakam is averaging 23.7 points, 9.1 boards, and 6.6 dimes, and the Raptors have gone 9-6 during that stretch.
Pascal Siakam tonight:
24 PTS
9 REB
12 AST (ties career high)He’s averaging 23/9/7 on 49/42% shooting in 2022. pic.twitter.com/2xFj28pMGD
— StatMuse (@statmuse) January 26, 2022
“Right when we decided to sub, someone said, ‘He needs one more [for a triple-double],’ and then they threw it in the back court,” Nurse said. “I was kinda hoping they’d get a shot up and he’d get a shot at it, but they made a back court violation.”
But Siakam couldn’t grab this win alone—playing the role of the Sunday night Raptors, the Hornets did battle back in third, eventually cutting a significant lead to seven (this after Toronto inexplicably went away from utilizing Siakam as the initiator most trips down). However, the comeback wasn’t meant to be, as Trent Jr. ripped off 14 of his season-high 32 points in the frame, hitting a ridiculous number of difficult shots that have seemingly become standard for him.
From there on out, it was curtains, with Siakam, Trent Jr., and the Raptors cruising through the fourth quarter on their way to moving above .500 (23-22) yet again.
This was the type of performance (not just by Siakam, but by the team as a whole) that the Raptors expect to be having on the first night of a back-to-back. They’ll need more All-NBA levels of play from the likes of Siakam as their tough schedule continues, however; should his recent streak be an indicator, though, that shouldn't be much of a concern.
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