This season, Toronto’s offense has looked very poor at times, but last night was not one of those times. This was a masterclass in offensive production from Toronto and a welcome sight after they had just lost 4 games. They took down the Atlanta Hawks with a final score of 135-128 and despite Trae Young having a masterful game, they were able to send the Hawks home with a loss.
The standout performance of the night was Pascal Siakam, but more specifically, his three point shooting. Siakam has been notably abysmal from beyond the arc this season but last night he made a season high 5 triples. Atlanta had no answer for Siakam on the ball, none of their defenders could hope to stay in front of him as he found his way to the rim time after time. Siakam’s ability to take anyone off the dribble and constantly put pressure on defenses was on full display last night. Tough layup after tough layup led to Pascal Siakam scoring 33 points. Siakam also had 7 assists and as usual it was his own scoring prowess that began to open things up for others.
Siakam was not the only Raptor wing that tortured the Hawks defense last night. Scottie Barnes also lit Atlanta up for 27 points and 6 assists. Barnes was 3 of 4 from three and he was also a force in transition. Any time a shot went up, Barnes would grab it and immediately sprint up the floor, he single handedly raised the Raptors pace. Barnes also got a lot of his buckets the old fashioned way, just through bully ball and physicality. Barnes also passed the ball extremely well. Multiple times he got guys layups by just pushing the ball, looking for hit ahead passes, and aggressively driving to the rim as well.
OG Anunoby also had a very strong game as he had 22 points and 5 rebounds of his own. Anunoby was relentless in his pursuit of the rim and he found his way there a lot of the time just being in good positioning and moving well and just allowing his teammates to find him. Anunoby also took advantage of every mismatch that he was presented with and got some looks off on his own, especially in the mid range. In the later stages of the game it felt like he was getting a dunk on every play.
The Atlanta Hawks defense proved to be very porous, it seemed like they couldn’t stop a parked car last night. Offensively though, Trae Young was a nightmare to deal with, as he had 35 points and 10 assists. When the game first began, Toronto just could not stop his pick n roll attack, as he was easily getting to the cup or just lobbing it up for his teammates. Schroeder and Poetl had a hard time dealing with him initially. But in the second half the defense on Young was a lot better, Poetl began to protect the rim better because he stopped coming up so high on the screens and it made a huge difference. Poetl also began to get into a groove offensively later in the game as he found himself with many easy layup attempts.
This was just an all around great performance from Toronto and a well needed one as well. They took full advantage of Atlanta’s weaknesses on defense by allowing their wing trio to target any and all mismatches, and they finally got some positive shooting regression as they shot 53 percent from three. The bench production was also solid, Precious Achiuwa had some great moments on defense, Malachi Flynn was moving the ball well, Gary Trent Jr, had a big third quarter.
This won’t happen every night for Toronto but it was nice to see this team play at a high level offensively, especially during a losing streak. Toronto is going to face off against the Atlanta Hawks again on Friday at home so hopefully they can recreate at least some of what happened last night.
