DALLAS — Toronto Raptors star Pascal Siakam and head coach Darko Rajakovic want the same thing: for their team to win, and for the two-time all-NBA forward to play the kind of basketball that he’s capable of playing.
One can’t happen without the other. Siakam has been the Raptors’ leading scorer for the last four seasons and has also been among the leaders in assists. He’s averaged 22.9 points a game over that stretch on 47.7 per cent shooting as the team’s primary option. But so far this season, he’s fourth on the Raptors in scoring, averaging just 15.4 points a game on 41.2 per cent shooting which would be a career low by a margin, just as his scoring would be by far the lowest average of his career since he became a full-time starter in his third season. The Raptors want to spread the offence around more this season, but they still need Siakam to be a primary driver of it.
“I think for us to be great as a team — obviously Scottie [Barnes] is doing amazing and he’s playing at an unbelievable level. (But) I think, for me, I have to play at a high level for us to be successful anyway,” said Siakam.
His head coach wasn’t beside Siakam as he was speaking, but you could almost sense Rajakovic nodding.
“It would be a huge help. I think it’s coming. It’s the start of the year, it’s a different style of play, he’s going through adjustments, but at the same time he is really trying to do the right thing. He’s trying to move the ball, he’s trying to find his teammates and that kind of took away a little bit from his aggressiveness,” said Rajakovic. “The last two days I’ve talked to him like, ‘You better be aggressive first’. Aggressive to score, aggressive to attack the rim, to shoot the ball. And if they put two on you, then it’s common sense to find your teammate, but he is just testing the waters, I think. I think very soon, hopefully tonight, he’s going to take off.”
Both men were proven prophetic as the Raptors enjoyed their best win of the young season, with Siakam playing his best yet as Toronto left Dallas with a 127-116 victory. Siakam led the Raptors with a season-high 31 points as Toronto improved to 4-4 on the year and 2-1 on their four-game road trip that concludes in Boston on Saturday. It was just the second loss of the season for the Mavericks, who fall to 6-2 on the year.
It was an exceptional team effort by the Raptors, their most complete one of the season. O.G. Anunoby continued his excellent start to the year, scoring 26 (9-of-17) points while also making life difficult as Luka Doncic’s primary defender, forcing the Mavericks star to grind for his 31 points and eight assists as he shot 11-of-26 from the floor and committed four turnovers. Anunoby was recognized by the coaching staff as the player-of-the-game, earning the decorative chain that goes with it for his two-way effort. Scottie Barnes was sniffing a triple-double on what was a poor shooting night for him as he finished with 14 points (on 4-of-15 shooting) but added 13 rebounds, seven assists, four steals and two blocks. Dennis Schröder was a formidable two-way presence, and it was the best showing of the season by the Raptor bench as the four who logged the most minutes all finished in positive territory. Gary Trent Jr. had 16 points in 26 minutes and Chris Boucher was at his hustling, energizing best with 10 points in 15 minutes.
In addition to the win, the game was notable because for the first time this season Siakam looked like the all-star from a year ago — or the all-NBA player from the season before that — as he added 12 rebounds, five assists and a long list of good plays that don’t have number attached to them.
“He’s been putting a lot of work in. I’m seeing him every single day, how he practices, how he prepares himself,” said Rajakovic. “He did a really, really good job. He gave us a really amazing spark in the first half and just continued down the stretch, making the right plays. He was all over. He was rebounding. He was making assists. He was scoring. He did a great job.”
Siakam came out determined to make his presence felt, but it was a little dicey at first. He missed two triples and a long jumper and then another triple by the time the game was six minutes old. None of them were close. Siakam then began doing what he’s always done well, particularly early in his career when the offence didn’t necessarily run through him, and he found ways to score in the cracks, seams and margins. He squirted free for a lay-up. He gave the ball up on the break and scored on the tip-in on his teammates’ miss. The Raptors found him with some mismatches in the post and he delivered. By the time the quarter was done, he had 10 points, nearly all of them by being opportunist and hustling. The Raptors withstood a powerful early surge led by their stars, Doncic and Kyrie Irving, and trailed just 33-27 when it looked like Dallas was poised to blow them out.
Siakam had plenty of help, too. Anunoby picked up right where he left off in the Raptors’ big win over the San Antonio Spurs. The hybrid lineups made up of one or two starters and bench players more than held their own. Boucher was dusted off for the first time in two games and scored seven points in five second quarter minutes, and Siakam kept bringing it. In one quick sequence, he scored at the rim after Jakob Poeltl found him on duck in, then bullied a smaller Tim Hardaway Jr. in the post before scoring on a fast break, all of which contributed to the Raptors taking a 62-58 lead into the half. Siakam had 16 points.
All the action at the rim and in the paint was also part of the discussion as the Raptors had two days to dissect Siakam’s disappointing 2-of-12 outing against the Spurs on Sunday. Siakam has been shooting just 30 per cent on shots from three to 16 feet so far this year, while he converted 47 per cent of them last season.
Could he be hesitating? Overthinking?
Whatever the cause, Siakam decided to put it to the side and let his game speak.
“I always trust who I am as a player. My instincts are good. I always play the game the right way,” he said. “But at the same time, for me to get to where I am today a lot of things happen, and there’s always that reminder that’s it’s always been a journey for me. Things have never been easy for me, and I feel it separate me from a lot of other people. I’m resilient. That’s one thing I know about myself. And when things are muddy and cloudy I like that as a person just because I knew that like, I’m never gonna give up and there’s always going to be a process and I’m gonna want to get better.”
Siakam hasn’t let his offensive struggles affect his defence and nor did he rest on his offence when it was flowing Wednesday night. Down the stretch, Siakam was a big part of an impressive team effort defensively. When Siakam locked up Doncic in the post, forcing a miss that sparked a Raptors break and ended with a Barnes three-point play that put Toronto up by 15 it was emblematic of the team’s commitment on that end when the game was still in doubt.
Another paint score by Siakam — his first points of the fourth quarter but not his only impact — effectively sealed the game, a much-deserved win, and a perfectly-timed return to normal service by a player the Raptors need to have at his best to be at their best.