TORONTO – The path has opened once again for Pascal Siakam.
It’s been an interesting post-season so far for the 25-year-old who, after torching the Orlando Magic in the Toronto Raptors’ opening-round playoff series for 22.6 points per game on 53.3-per-cent shooting in the gentleman’s sweep, had a much tougher time against the Philadelphia 76ers (19.4 points on 44.1-per-cent shooting) and Milwaukee Bucks (14.5 points, 40 per cent from the field) in Rounds 2 and 3.
Then, in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, Siakam was free as he went for 32 points on 14-of-17 shooting to go along with eight rebounds and five assists.
Against the Sixers and Bucks, it seems as if both Brett Brown and Mike Budenholzer made a concerted effort to stop Siakam by packing the paint and using their respective rosters’ length to limit the number of times he could go to that patented baby hook he seems to love so much.
The seven-foot trees that Siakam was unable to navigate through before and get his shot up above have now cleared in the Finals, with only six-foot-seven Draymond Green standing in Siakam’s way, and it’s made a world of difference.
Simply put, compared to the previous two series, against the Dubs, Siakam has something of a mismatch because the overwhelming length is no longer there at the rim to stop him, even when matching up against a former defensive player of the year.
“[Siakam’s] become one of those guys,” said Green Friday. “He’s become a second option on his team. Some nights the first option, like last night. But I can’t say I foresaw that. I played against him last year. I had no clue he would be this guy this year. But he spent a lot of time in the gym and it’s paying off in his game.”
This is high praise from Green, who took onus on himself for Game 1’s defeat and who was taken a little aback at how hard Siakam and the Raptors attacked him.
“I have to be more aggressive on the defensive side of the ball. I think aggressiveness starts with me and everybody else will follow that,” said Green. “If I’m on my heels, everyone else is on their heels. I think that was kind of the story of last night.”
Green was forced back on his heels in Game 1 primarily because of Siakam’s speed in the open court, something the Raptors forward revelled in given the open space he was seeing all night long.
“I think the one thing that I noticed is I was out in transition,” said Siakam. “That’s always something that I’ve done all year. I think that was kind of like the first time during the playoffs where we kind of got out in transition a lot. I was just running and it just felt good.”
This speed the Raptors appeared to illustrate in Game 1 is an interesting narrative because it was less the Raptors’ speed and pretty much entirely Siakam’s, something so rapid that Green seems to have mistaken Siakam for the entire Toronto team.
“They definitely have a lot of speed,” Green said. “Now that we got a feel for it, we know how to adjust. … But they’re very fast. A little faster than it even looks on tape, that’s for sure.”
Or maybe it’s just Siakam who’s that much faster than he seems on tape.
Regardless, Siakam definitely has the Warriors’ attention now, but with a clear runway in front of him it remains to be seen if Golden State will have any actual answers for him.
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