Pascal Siakam's Heroics Lift Raptors in Come-From-Behind Victory over Wizards
It turns out the Toronto Raptors are pretty much the same as they were last season.
OK, it’s early.
Probably too early to make any grand proclamations about this team, especially with a new head coach who warned that this season would be a work in progress all year long. But still, last year was maddening, frustrating, and consistently inconsistent. They hovered around or just below .500 all season and — it turns out — that appears to be where this year is heading too.
At the 10-game mark, Toronto is, well, still maddening. After falling behind by as many as 23 points to the lowly Washington Wizards, Pascal Siakam played hero, pulling the Raptors all the way back before nailing a step-back floater over Jordan Poole to clinch a 111-107 victory on Monday.
"I work on that shot every day," said Siakam. "I just feel like that shot is always there for me and I work on it every single day and, obviously, luckily it went in, but, to me, it's just about I'm doing something that's not out of what I do. That's shot is always there for me and I'd take it 100 times out of 100."
Siakam was the only constant for Toronto. While everyone else struggled to get much of anything going most of the night, the Raptors’ All-Star forward wouldn’t go away. He had that Kyle Lowry-esque determination, as Chris Boucher tabbed said, likening Siakam's sticktoitiveness to Lowry's heroics when Toronto overcame a 30-point deficit in 2019. This 23-point comeback was merely the fourth-biggest in franchise history.
"It always seems like he can win the game," Boucher said of Siakam. "He drove us all the way there. Obviously, it shows how competitive he is but also how much he loves this team."
Siakam looked like his old self, getting into the paint and picking apart mismatches. Even without his three-point shot falling, he dominated Washington with a season-high 39 points to go with 11 rebounds and seven assists.
If there had been one overwhelming positive for Toronto coming into Monday night it was the defense. The Raptors came into the game with the seventh-best defensive rating if you remove garbage time and the fifth-best half-court defense. So far, it’d been the calling card for this group who had ridden their stout defensive game plan to success in transition.
That, however, was not the case against the Wizards, at least not early. Even against one of the NBA’s worst teams, Toronto couldn’t get stops. The absence of OG Anunoby proved costly as Kyle Kuzma carved up the Raptors, scoring 19 of his 34 points in the first half. The Wizards as a team shot 63% from the floor and nailed seven three-pointers, pulling ahead by as many as 19 before halftime.
It didn’t help that Toronto’s offense continued to be a mess with the offensive issues spilling over to exacerbate the defensive woes. Without Anunoby and Gary Trent Jr., the Raptors had almost no floor spacing, allowing the Wizards to pack the paint and force Toronto into tough jump shots. Gradey Dick nailed Toronto’s only two first-half three-pointers but the rest of the Raptors’ bench couldn't provide much of anything.
That was until the second half when Siakam decided Toronto just wasn't going to lose.
He sparked the turnaround with 22 points in the third quarter as Toronto began to claw its way back. Late in the frame, he stripped Deni Avdija before sprinting out in transition to find Malachi Flynn for three in the corner as Toronto began to come back and followed it up with a transition layup of his own as the Raptors pulled to within 10.
After three disastrous defensive quarters, Toronto clamped down in the fourth, forcing the Wizards to go the final six minutes without a made field goal as the Raptors put together a 21-1 run to close the game.
"It says a lot about character but also we cannot talk about character in the first half as well," said Raptors coach Darko Rajaković. "It's always fair to say but it's not easy to come back from double digits at halftime and then find a way and energy to win the game."
Boucher came up with a huge block on Jordan Poole and was a key defensively for the Raptors forcing the Wizards into tough contested shots one after another. He capped his night with a pair of transition dunks that pulled Toronto even with less than a minute to go.
Rajaković awarded Boucher with the player of hte game chain post-game, allowing Boucher to have his "John Cena" moment, as he called it. Siakam received an honorable mention, Rajaković added, but when it came to impact, Boucher's play was the most notable.
"Chris was unbelievable, man," said Siakam. "The energy he brought to the game, blocking shots, finishing, transition, just playing solid basketball. Just his energy, what was he +14? I thought he deserved it for sure."
With the win, the Raptors moved to 5-5 on the season and, of course, 47-47 dating back to the start of last season in regular season games.
"I think we’re resilient," Siakam said. "We have guys, we always say that have a chip on their shoulder and for us, it’s not being complacent. We can’t come into games thinking that things are going to happen for us or thinking that’s going to be easy or everything is going to go our way. That’s not how life works. We’ve showed in spurts that we can do that, the challenge for us is to continue to do it over a longer period of time."
Up Next: Milwaukee Bucks
The Raptors will continue their homestand Wednesday when the Milwaukee Bucks come to town for a 7:30 p.m. ET tipoff.
