TITLE RUN TOUGHENED UP RAPTORS’ RETURNEES
NBA champs more resilient after riding playoff roller-coaster
Flash back to May 19. Pascal Siakam missed a pair of crucial late free throws and the Raptors suddenly were in danger of going down 0-3 to Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference final. There would surely have been no coming back from that deficit. But Siakam stabilized, Kawhi Leonard put the team on his back, and the Raptors pulled out the game in double overtime en route to the NBA title.
The Raptors used some close calls (none closer than that one) in order to grow and emerge as the cream of the crop. The lessons absorbed should benefit the returnees, too, who look back to the effort with pride.
“It was a crazy game,” Siakam said Friday morning after the Raptors sweated out the remnants of a big Halloween bash at Casa Loma organized by Kyle Lowry the night before.
“I remember Kawhi blamed me for having to play an extra hour of basketball (because of the missed free throws). It was definitely a tough game. Missing the free throws, to overtime, but not giving up. You know, after I missed those free throws, I could have just went back and not wanted to play anymore, just feeling I had lost. But my teammates around me kept me motivated. It was definitely a great win. It was amazing how we were able to get that win,” Siakam said.
Head coach Nick Nurse said he thought the Raptors should have won Game 1 and he felt confident, based on how strong the defence had become, they would find a way.
“I thought we really outplayed them in Game 1, like severely outplayed them, so I just hoped that we could put four of them together like Game 1. And we were fortunate enough to do it,” Nurse said. “I just think it was all about a better defensive scheme and effort that we got figured out.”
And it wasn’t the only time it happened, either, as Siakam noted.
“We had a couple of those. Down 2-1 against Philly, we had battles where we had to go out and show that we’re the team that was fighting the most. We just didn’t give up,” Siakam said. “Every single time we were down, we always found a way to get back on top.”
The team that didn’t get back on top, Milwaukee, gets its first shot at revenge on Saturday when the Raptors come to town.
While Toronto has looked excellent, even without Leonard and Danny Green, Milwaukee has wobbled and is being second-guessed. Still, the Bucks have Giannis Antetokounmpo, a lethal regular-season system that works both ends of the floor, and some other solid players.
Antetokounmpo remains the centre of everything for the Bucks, but one thing that has changed is that Siakam is now Toronto’s franchise player. Armed with a new max contract, Siakam is off to a monster start. Nurse said Siakam’s offensive growth won’t lead to reduced defensive assignments.
“Nope. He’s going to be matched up against Giannis,”
Nurse said. “We’re going to give it to him. He’s way too young to be doing too much of that, in my opinion. I think he can play defence and he can (also) score 25-30 a night.”
Siakam doesn’t seem bothered by having so much responsibility.
“Whatever the team asks me to, that’s what I’m going to go out and do to the best of my abilities,” Siakam said.
He’ll have some help too. OG Anunoby, Serge Ibaka and perhaps Stanley Johnson or Rondae Hollis-jefferson will spend some time guarding Antetokounmpo on Saturday, Nurse said.
“It can’t be a one-man job, that’s what we learned,” Siakam said of last season’s series against the Bucks.
“We need help, and the more bodies we can show him, the harder it gets for him.”