Siakam passes first big playoff test. JLew1050 has more:
TORONTO – On a night in which the Toronto Raptors lost their first-round series opener to the Orlando Magic despite being 9.5-point favourites at home, silver linings weren’t easy to find.played better than his stat line would indicate, but he finished the game with as many points as you did.mostly impressed in their Toronto postseason debuts, but the former defensive player of the year winners got their wires crossed on the final possession, leavinguncovered for the game-clincher.
Additionally, the matchup didn’t exactly seem favourable for Siakam. No team defended the dynamic forward better than Orlando this season. The Magic kept him under 16 points in each of the four meetings. Siakam averaged 17.4 points against the rest of the NBA. They held him to just 34 per cent shooting. He shot 56 per cent against everybody else.
“He had a good game, and he hadn't gotten a lot going against them the last time,” Nurse said of Siakam, who finished with 24 points, nine rebounds and four assists in a team-leading 42 minutes. “He did a nice job of getting it where he wanted to go with some physicality, moving it around and finishing.”
But would it translate to the playoffs, when opposing teams have more time and incentive to lock into what star players do best and try to take those things away? There’s still a long way to go. That he passed his first big test is encouraging. After shooting 37 per cent from three-point range this season, just above league average and a significant jump from last year’s historically bad 22 per cent mark, Siakam missed all four of his attempts in Game 1.
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