This is becoming a nice little old-fashioned standoff between the Toronto Raptors' media relations team and Shams Charania.

In one corner there's Shams, highly regarded and well thought of for constantly breaking NBA news accurately for The Athletic and Stadium. He reported earlier Tuesday that the Toronto Raptors had fined Pascal Siakam $50,000 after “directing several heated choice words toward head coach Nick Nurse” after their loss on Sunday to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

It's pretty well known that Shams doesn't miss. Now we're left wondering if he did this time.

Because in the other corner is the Raptors' head of media relations, Jenn Quinn, who on behalf of the Raptors is disputing the report that said Siakam was fined $50,000.

Now everyone is left wondering what exactly is going on here. A decent guess is the Raptors were planning to fine Siakam $50,000 and that somehow got leaked to Shams, who then reported it before anything was finalized. The Raptors were then left trying to clean up the PR mess. Or perhaps there will be some kind of punishment coming but it's not exactly $50,000.

Either way, Toronto is in the midst of a miserable season. The Raptors were expected to be a sneaky contender in the Eastern Conference yet again this year and instead they find themselves at 17-26 and on a nine-game losing streak.

It's no surprise then that frustrations are starting to boil over on the roster.

Siakam hasn't had quite the year he did in 2019-20 when he was named an All-Star, but he's still averaging 19.8 points and 7.3 rebounds per game in 35 starts this year. He did just miss a good amount of time due to COVID-19 issues, and he's trying to find his groove again now that he's back in the lineup.