5 issues: Pascal Siakam retains feasting as Raptors mini-sweep Hornets

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Listed here are 5 takeaways from the Toronto Raptors’ 124-114 win over the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday.

1. Pascal Siakam dominated from begin to finish, ending with a hyper-efficient 35 factors on 11-of-13 capturing.

Steve Clifford tried quite a lot of matchups, from a burly wing in P.J. Washington, to longer athletes J.T. Thor and Jaden McDaniels, and even a degree guard in Dennis Smith Jr. within the fourth quarter. No one may examine Siakam, who scored in any respect three ranges, together with an ideal 3-for-3 from deep, a handful of midrange jumpers, and a smattering of drives to the rim.

Charlotte resorted to hard-trapping Siakam on the midway line from the tip of the third quarter onward, willingly conceding the 4-on-3 benefit behind the play as an alternative of permitting any probability for Siakam to function. That’s the one motive Siakam didn’t end with 40-plus, and it’s the final word signal of respect from the opponent.

Siakam unselfishly turned himself right into a decoy within the fourth as he stretched the Hornets into committing two defenders above the arc earlier than feeding his teammates on the roll to then arrange the hockey help for nook threes.

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2. Outdoors of taking part in by Siakam, the Raptors had been additionally in a position to generate simple appears by the pick-and-roll.

The mixture of Fred VanVleet and Scottie Barnes was particularly efficient, as VanVleet arrange seven of Barnes’ eight makes, together with six rolls to the rim. Barnes at centre has created distinctive benefits on offence, and the Raptors have largely attacked the gaps by giving the ball to Barnes to distribute in the midst of the ground.

The opposite simple approach to assault was to have Barnes set a agency display, which acquired VanVleet downhill with the Hornets opting to step as much as deny the open pull-up jumper, which in flip freed the feed to Barnes on the roll to the rim.

After profiting simply from this motion within the first half, the Hornets had been much less aggressive in stepping as much as VanVleet, which left a smaller window for the cross to Barnes, however VanVleet made three intelligent disguised feeds to Barnes, who twice was in a position to catch it excessive and end off the glass with out ever bringing the ball down.

Opposing centres maintain giving Barnes area to shoot, and whereas the shot nonetheless isn’t one thing he’s prepared to take, the Raptors have discovered a number of methods to beat the scheme.

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3. The second unit simply must be a internet impartial with a view to achieve success.

Toronto’s reserves opened up a lead of their first shift, which largely got here in opposition to a comically dangerous spell for Charlotte, however was shaky in holding the lead within the fourth, which pressed coach Nick Nurse into bringing again his starters for the final eight minutes.

Christian Koloko selecting up three fouls in 4 minutes to begin the sport actually threw issues into flux, on condition that the rookie had been quietly propping up the bench over this three-game win streak, however Treasured Achiuwa continues to construct momentum coming off damage and his contributions as a scorer have been constructive regardless of some shaky decision-making.

Nurse augmented his rotation by additionally including Barnes to information the second unit as an alternative of relying solely on Gary Trent Jr., which created simpler appears within the half-court with Barnes directing site visitors.

The lacking piece is Malachi Flynn, who had one more scoreless outing, however the larger subject was that he solely took one try. Flynn’s discretion is comprehensible since he’s capturing 4-for-30 in his final eight video games, however he wants to supply catch-and-shoot threes with the reserves to spice up the scoring.

Nurse continues to point out religion in Flynn, however Jeff Dowtin ought to get a flip if Flynn is dropping his confidence.

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4. Toronto’s defence was higher than in its first assembly on Tuesday.

Charlotte nonetheless shot the lights out on damaged performs, as each LaMelo Ball and Terry Rozier had a knack for making closely contested photographs, however the general method was sturdy. Particularly, the Raptors did a greater job of rotating on defence, significantly in opposition to Charlotte’s potent guards.

Regardless that they had been allowed to get downhill too simply on the level of assault, the Raptors had been in a position to rotate to chop off their drives to the basket, which compelled them into 22 turnovers.

Nurse was all proper with leaving McDaniels and Mason Plumlee momentarily open for 3 and even within the paint, trusting that they wouldn’t be capable to make performs even when given the benefit.

Plumlee had a pair of turnovers down the stretch forcing kick-out passes that weren’t truly open, whereas Ball and Rozier additionally compelled fading threes from the nook that clanked off the facet of the backboard in quest of scoring that wasn’t there from their teammates.

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5. These two video games had been reminders that tanking just isn’t for the faint-hearted.

Charlotte isn’t just dangerous — they’re virtually comically inept. After permitting 38 factors within the first body, the Hornets instantly opened the second quarter by dropping monitor of Barnes, who crept behind all the defence for a dunk.

Clifford referred to as a snap timeout regardless of having simply regrouped a minute earlier to rearrange his workforce, and what was the Hornets’ response? 5 straight turnovers on offence, whereas additionally committing goaltending, fouling a foul three-point shooter on a foolish closeout, and permitting one more again minimize for an and-one.

To be efficient at tanking is to be that ineffective on the fundamentals of basketball for total months on finish. Toronto has underperformed, however there are extra ranges to plunge to really be aggressive for the highest picks.

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