Pascal Siakam scored 34 points on an efficient 11-of-18 shooting from the field as the Toronto Raptors barely hung on to beat the Atlanta Hawks 119-116 on Saturday night.
With the victory, the Raptors improved to 11-4 and have won four of their last five games, including three straight.
Despite the result, however, the Raptors weren’t all that impressive. They didn’t look nearly as sharp as they had looked earlier in the week against the Charlotte Hornets and Orlando Magic, especially against a Hawks club was on the second night of a back-to-back with eight defeats in their last nine games.
Here are a few takeaways from a tepid, but triumphant, Toronto performance.
Undeserved win
Let’s be very clear about something here. Yes, a win’s a win and whatnot, but in all honesty, the Raptors really didn’t deserve to leave Atlanta with a W.
One of the hallmarks of the Raptors dating back to their championship run has been their defensive focus and ability. That was, essentially, nonexistent on Saturday.
The Raptors allowed the Hawks to shoot 52.2 per cent from the field and 41.2 per cent from deep, and saw the Hawks drop 32 dimes on them on 47 made field goals. Even more egregious is that even as the Raptors enjoyed a 12-point lead with 1:59 left to play in the fourth quarter, they allowed Atlanta to go on a 16-7 run to end the game and secured the win after Trae Young missed a desperation triple from just inside half court with four-tenths of a second remaining.
From the outset, the Raptors didn’t look right defensively and, yes, credit to the Hawks who had an hour-long team meeting before Saturday’s contest and played like a team that was determined to put into action what they had been discussing.
Still, inspirational meeting or not, this was a bad Hawks team playing on the second end of a back-to-back against the defending champions.
The Raptors got the win, but that was far from a great performance.
Siakam stars
If you’re looking for some positives, look no further than that line from Siakam.
After a trio of relatively off games by his now remarkably lofty standards, Siakam bounced back in a huge way, showcasing his full repertoire in his bag, from crossovers and drives to the bucket that allowed him to take nine free-throw attempts, to mid-range pull-ups and the quickly-becoming-signature above the break pull-up triples – he was 4-for-6 from deep.
And as poor as Toronto was as a whole defensively, Siakam had moments of defensive brilliance such as a big block on freight train-like Hawks forward De’Andre Hunter late in the fourth quarter as the Atlanta rookie was coming down in transition looking for a layup.
Strangely enough, Saturday was a night when the Raptors needed their star player to step up and be the best guy on the floor whenever he was on it. And Siakam was absolutely that.
Powell’s strong run continues
Another positive for the Raptors in Atlanta was the continued strong play of Norman Powell.
Coming into the contest averaging 19.3 points on 54.8 per cent shooting from the field and 45 per cent shooting from deep, Powell turned in another strong offensive performance Saturday as he scored 20 on 8-of-15 shooting.
A common thread with the success Powell’s enjoyed as of late is the fact he’s been starting regularly, something Raptors coach Nick Nurse mentioned earlier this week as someone who probably plays a little better as a starter.
“He’s always been a good starter. I think he’s always had a little bit more success as a starter,” said Nurse. “… I think it’s helped him get in a groove. It’s been good. We’ve been working. We talked about last week, we can’t have really great game and three so-so’s. We want to get that number up to two out of four or three out of five. Consistency is what we talked about. He seems to be playing more consistent here as of late.”
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