The lighting was different, the colors were different, the court was different. Everything was different. My usual walk into the stadium was met by an aesthetic change, and considering how last game went against the Celtics? I was really hoping for a material change in how the basketball was played. I had hope for that until the Raptors were down by 16 in the first half. Then it started to seem like more of the same.
There were lots of adjustments from last week’s Celtics matchup. The Raptors were more keen to let Kristaps Porzingis shoot in this game; more willing to allow him mismatches while trusting their guards to win the battle for the lower spot. That led to less driving lanes for Jaylen Brown & Jayson Tatum, and a much better defensive result overall. The Raptors also went through Pascal Siakam in the post more often, where his offense was efficient, clinical, and the lifeblood of what the Raptors accomplished in the halfcourt. The game came down to a couple made shots (as most close games do), but given how dominant the Raptors were with Siakam on the court tonight, you could argue that the game was lost in the 16 straight minutes that Siakam sat from the end of the first quarter until the end of the first half. They lost the Siakam-less minutes by 20 points.
“I sat down for like, I don’t even know how many minutes, so I was just tryna play basketball at the end of the day.” Siakam said after the loss. “That was it. I just wanted to get into the game. I feel like I sat most of the game.”
Brought on by two ticky-tack foul calls that Siakam received while guarding Porzingis, he found himself on the bench after 8 minutes of play. Darko Rajakovic tried to navigate the foul problem by challenging the 3rd foul, and after that was deemed unsuccessful, Siakam sat for the rest of the half.
When Darko was asked about the decision to sit Siakam for that stretch, he looked deeply pained, and quite literally wiped sweat off his forehead. “Yes, that was a tough, tough one.” Rajakovic said after the game. “With 3 fouls, it would be really, really hard, and I was not willing to risk him getting the 4th foul, god forbid, and now he can’t play the full 3rd quarter. He was able to come back, he kept his mentality there and he was huge in the second half for us. I wish he played 8-9 more minutes tonight.”
A lot of coaches, a lot of players have voiced the idea of letting guys play through fouls. That benching a player with fouls, is similar to fouling him out as it has the same effect – taking the player out of the game. Rajakovic obviously considered his position heavily while it was happening, and ended up at a different decision. Maybe he doesn’t yet trust Siakam to play foul-less basketball, maybe he thought that Siakam would be in foul-adjacent positions continuously because of the Celtics offense, but that’s all in the past. Maybe this will shape a change of philosophy going forward, or maybe Rajakovic will operate the same way going forward. The outcome, of course, was a 16 minute stretch where the Raptors scored a meager 25 points, and allowed 47.
We’re gonna hit the similarities mark again, but the Raptors marching back into a game on the strength of Siakam’s post-ups? Very similar.
Either you help, or we get a good shot most of the time. And when you help, we still get a good shot because I’m gonna make the right play. So, I think it’s instant offense for us.
I hope we do more of that.
Pascal Siakam on his post ups
Whether or not the Raptors offense continues to trend towards Siakam’s post touches — and in their effective halfcourt games, it’s a huge feature — or if they decide to go elsewhere, trying to instill different principles, and moving to a different style; Siakam is right to want the ball in his spots. It’s Rajakovic’s job to build an offense that works now and in the future with the players on his roster. There’s a middle point between what the start of the season looked like, and what the past couple years looked like, regarding Siakam’s usage. They have to find it, and Siakam is right to voice his want for more possessions like that, because they’ve been the Raptors best offense so far this season.
Siakam scored against virtually every defender that he went up against on the Celtics, and he tugged and pulled help from different areas on the court to create layups for teammates.
“I’ve seen different coverages. It’s just a read. To me, like I said, as long as our spacing’s good, I don’t think it matters what they do, really. If it’s from the bottom side or the top side, a defender’s coming to help, either I have the shot or somebody else got an open shot – like wide open. To me, I’ve seen it enough, that I feel like no matter where the help is coming from, I can definitely make the read.”
Pascal Siakam on different defensive coverages
With 3 minutes left, Siakam had Tatum on a side of the floor by himself, worked to a spot and hit a fadeaway jumper over the Celtics star. A minute later, he was on the opposite side against Jaylen Brown, turned over the opposite shoulder, and his jumper hit a lot of metal on the inside of the rim before popping out. The Raptors other three halfcourt possessions would feature Dennis Schroder in the pick n’ roll, and a clever little SLOB play that got Scottie Barnes an open triple to try and tie the game.
You can quibble about going back to Siakam at least once — especially since he’s got a game winner in his bag this season and had given you 15 points and 5 assists in the second half on 63% shooting — but Siakam himself would probably tell you that he shouldn’t be considered for a game tying triple, and Schroder’s split and dive to the rim created a putback opportunity for Poeltl. The Raptors guard has more of the ball than a lot of people would like, but he was at least 2 of 3 from the floor on his clutch time attempts. The Raptors problem late was Derrick White’s 3-pointer.
The Raptors were screwed the moment that Trent Jr. tries to double from the baseline. Not screwed as in they were guaranteed to lose, but screwed as in they guaranteed a good look for the Celtics. After the game, Rajakovic audibly diagrammed the play, how Brown collapsed the weak-side zone, and how he thought that Achiuwa probably needed to drop down to cover Brown’s cut, so that Siakam could stay on White. However, he also mentioned that if Holiday spun baseline, Trent Jr. was supposed to be there to help out.
“I just looked at that on film. Holiday was backing up on a post up, we were supposed to just guard him over there, if he spins baseline Gary was ready to help with that and we were supposed to be ready to run to the corner to chase that line; but at the same time Jaylen was cutting inside so, Pascal felt that he needs to help there for a second and we were not in our shell from the top. We had Precious, who was a little bit higher, who would probably need to drop and cover those cuts there. So, unfortunate broken play and a big time shot from White.”
Darko Rajakovic, on White’s 3
It’s not often a good idea to disagree with an NBA coach, as they always know more than you do, and Rajakovic certainly knows more than me. However, I would much rather leave Jrue Holiday to hit a post-fade or floater in single coverage over Schroder, than I would double from the baseline (when Holiday can just take it middle, which he did, leaving Gary in no man’s land) and leave Siakam in a 2-on-1, or if Achiuwa did drop down to help, leave Tatum wide open for the game. Holiday in single coverage seems like the best option by an unbelievable amount. Holiday was 0/6 in the second half. Earlier in the game, McDaniels left the corner to meet Holiday baseline, Holiday went away from the help, and McDaniels started to recover to his corner. Trent Jr. attempted to chase from the bottom, but never got into the play. I don’t know. These things are tough.
It was a really fun game, though. I do think the In-Season Tournament has provided players with a little more juice for these matchups, and the closer games on average we’re seeing seem proof enough. I enjoyed this one from the Raptors even in a loss, and I’ve enjoyed watching a lot of the other Friday Tournament lineups.
Have a blessed day.
