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No reason to doubt Raptors’ Siakam will learn from disappointing playoffs – Sportsnet.ca

Published

4 years ago

September 12, 2020

Harry Miller

TORONTO – Pascal Siakam’s NBA story is one mostly made up of improbable triumph in the face of adversity.

By now, you likely know it very well.

Born in Douala, Cameroon and the youngest of four brothers who all wanted to fulfill their late father’s dream of playing the NBA, Siakam didn’t start playing organized basketball until he was 16 years old and there began his implausible path towards NBA stardom.

First starting in high school where he played at the prep school God’s Academy in Lewisville, Texas, where he earned a scholarship with New Mexico State University, despite being a relatively unknown. Then getting selected 27th overall by the Toronto Raptors in the 2016 NBA Draft where all he did was get better season after season culminating in a Most Improved Player award in 2019. Which then led to this season where he was named an all-star for the first time in his career (as a starter no less) and was looking to be worth every bit of the four-year, $130-million extension he signed before the season started, slated to kick in for the 2020-21 season.

This kind of meteoric ascent is pretty much unprecedented for an unheralded player like Siakam was and for a time it felt like he could only go up in his progression over time.

But here’s the funny thing about progression; it doesn’t always conveniently work out to be just a nice upwards ascent. There’s bound to be dips here and there.

And so, like any good story, if Siakam is the Raptors’ main protagonist as his big contract suggests he is, he had to eventually fail in order to rise up once again.

“It was tough and I think we hung in there trying to find ways and, at the end of the day, obviously, I have to be better,” said Siakam after his Raptors fell to the Boston Celtics, 92-87, in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference semifinal. “It was definitely a learning moment for me just learning from this experience and just learning that you’ve gotta be ready and that I wasn’t able to really help my teammates, so, yeah, I take a lot of the blame, man.”

Yes, the Raptors’ seemingly never-ending title reign came to an end Friday night and Siakam has rightfully identified himself as the main culprit for why his team’s season ended in relative disappointment.

After an all-star regular-season campaign that saw Siakam lead the Raptors with a 22.9 points-per-game scoring average on 45.3 per cent shooting from the field, he severely underperformed in the post-season, averaging just 17 points per game on 39.6 per cent shooting and an outright putrid 18.9 per cent mark from three-point range, a disastrous line exemplified by his Game 7 performance Friday night where he only scored 13 points on 5-of-12 shooting and turned the ball over five times.

That simply wasn’t good enough for the Raptors. It severely handicapped their ability to reach their goals this post-season and Siakam knows it.

“At the end of the day there’s no excuses, we’re all pros and we have to be ready and I don’t think it was anything pressure-wise,” said Siakam. “I just felt like I wasn’t at my best and when I’m at my best this team is unbelievable and you’ve gotta be at your best at this time and I felt like I wasn’t.”

Perhaps hearing Siakam admit this is cold comfort for Raptors fans, but if there is a silver lining to glean from a season cut short, his honesty would certainly be it.

We admire our sporting heroes because they don’t run from challenges. They embrace them whole-heartedly, and this is exactly what Siakam is planning on doing now with more time on his hands than he probably first anticipated.

“At the end of the day, it’s part of being in this league and being at the level that I’m supposed to be at. Obviously, it’s a learning experience and, like I said, a lot of people go through these moments,” said Siakam. “What response are you gonna get from it? How are you gonna take it? Are you gonna take it as a man as an experience or are you just gonna feel sorry for yourself? Because at the end of the day nobody’s gonna feel sorry for you. I come from a background of just always working hard and fighting my way through everything that was thrown at me and I feel like this was just another step for me….

“But it’s an experience and all the greats go through it and you have to learn from it. If you want to be considered one of the best players you have to be able to rise from these moments and that’s something that I plan to do.”

Strong, encouraging words from Siakam, and given his track record of improvement not any that should be doubted.

And, at the very least, he can look to his teammates for support as he navigates what has been the first true bump in the road of his NBA career.

“When we got swept by the Wizards I read every single article, I read every single thing that was said about me: good, bad, evil, terrible, awesome, and I used it as motivation, and that’s what he’s going to do,” said Kyle Lowry of his teammate after the game. “And that’s the advice that I’m going to give him, which is that you look at everything, you look at all these moments, and you see who’s saying what, because you’re going to use it as fuel. Fuel yourself. And that’s what he’s going to do.

“And for a guy like me, who has gone through the type of things that he’s going through at this moment, he’ll be able to call me whenever, and I won’t be able to tell him nothing wrong. I don’t think he did anything wrong. I think this is a learning experience. It’s only going to make him a better basketball player, a better man, a better everything. And I would not be surprised to see him come back even more hungry and destroying people.”

Lowry notoriously averaged just 12.3 points per game and shot 31.6 per cent from the field in that dreadful 2015 first-round series with Washington he was referring to, but managed to bounce back in a big way to the point where he’s widely considered the best player in franchise history and a notable big-time playoff performer.

This wasn’t Siakam’s first time in the post-season, but it was his first time as the team’s No. 1 offensive option and it appeared to show. That doesn’t mean he can’t learn and grow from this experience as he said he will, though.

If anything, as Lowry alluded to, Siakam now fully understands what his limitations are and will have a clear off-season game plan to work on the holes in his game.

“What do I say to him is we gotta watch this,” said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse. “We kind of put it away for a little while but then I think we watch this little post-season in totality and then even watch the season and get to work.”

From this writer’s layman’s perspective, what Siakam probably needs to add are things he simply didn’t have enough time to figure out during the playoffs.

For example, much has been made about him having only a spin move. This is false, but he would benefit to add a more definitive, decisive counter to his signature move so he knows precisely how he’ll attack when he goes to the spin.

Additionally, and most importantly, Siakam will need to better recognize where double teams are coming from and make a quick decision on how to handle it by either splitting it, passing out or maybe even just shooting over the top. This mainly comes down to experience and Siakam hadn’t had a lot of it prior to this season, so he should only get better next year.

Lastly, and though it might sound blasphemous to the more analytically-inclined, Siakam would benefit greatly from a mid-range game. Knowing he was either just looking to pop a three-pointer or try to get to the basket made him easier for the Celtics to defend. Had he a more refined in-between game he’d be a much tougher cover. With his length, quickness and athleticism, Siakam could reasonably operate from the free-throw line extended — a la Dirk Nowitzki — and be nigh unguardable from there, but it just isn’t in his bag yet.

So go ahead and ridicule and mock Siakam all you like because, yeah, it’s completely justified right now after he failed to achieve his goal.

But so did Hercules, Superman, Goku, the Avengers and any other hero you might think of.

It’s just part of the story, and Siakam’s isn’t finished yet — not by a long shot.

“I wasn’t supposed to be here. I didn’t play the way that I expected to play, but I always have those high expectations for myself. Like, it doesn’t really matter what other people think. To me, I have these expectations for myself because I always saw myself as somebody that could be a really good player in this league, and I worked hard. I worked hard every single day and I put myself in this situation.

“You have to continue to learn, and like I said, that’s something I take with my chin up, move forward, continue to work hard, go back, watch it, find ways to be better, and learn from it. That’s all I can do. Obviously, there’s a lot more years in this league and I feel like I can only go up from here.”

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NHL roundup: Hurricanes beat Flyers 6-4 for seventh straight win

Published

23 hours ago

November 6, 2024

Anne Joseph

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Martin Necas scored a go-ahead goal with 29 seconds left and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Philadelphia Flyers 6-4 on Tuesday night.

It was the seventh straight win for the Hurricanes, who also got goals from Jack Roslovic, Jordan Martinook, Eric Robinson and Jackson Blake. Seth Jarvis added an empty-net goal in the final seconds.

Necas typically saves his game-winners for overtime, with nine in his career, but he was able to take care of business in regulation with his team-best seventh goal of the season.

Travis Konecny scored two goals and had two assists for the Flyers. Morgan Frost and Owen Tippett also scored for Philadelphia.

Aleksei Kolosov made 28 saves for the Flyers, who trailed 2-1, 3-1 and 4-3 but kept coming back. Carolina’s Pyotr Kochetkov struggled in net allowing four goals on just 16 shots.

Elsewhere in the NHL on Tuesday:

—

SABRES 5 SENATORS 1

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Bowen Byram and Tage Thompson scored 16 seconds apart to open the third period, and Buffalo snapped a three-game skid with a win over Ottawa.

Byram scored twice, JJ Peterka had two goals and an assist and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 37 saves.

Ridly Greig converted his own rebound in cutting Buffalo’s lead to 2-1 with 7:31 left in the second period. Linus Ullmark made 29 saves in dropping to 1-4 in his past five starts.

Buffalo went up 3-1 on Byram’s second goal 21 seconds into the third period. The defenceman’s shot from inside the blue line sneaked through Ullmark, with the puck rolling down the goalie’s pad, dropping into the crease and trickling across the line. Thompson scored when he crashed the net, was knocked over by defender Jake Sanderson and was lying in the crease when Alex Tuch’s shot went in off his shoulder.

—

MAPLE LEAFS 4 BRUINS 0

TORONTO (AP) — Anthony Stolarz made 29 saves for his first shutout of the season in Toronto’s 4-0 victory over Boston.

Morgan Rielly had a goal and two assists as Toronto connected three times on the power play. William Nylander and Matthew Knies added a goal and an assist each. Mitch Marner had two assists of his own. Steven Lorentz rounded out the scoring into the empty net.

The Leafs played without captain Auston Matthews, who is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

Jeremy Swayman made 23 stops for Boston, which was coming off consecutive weekend shutouts of the Philadelphia Flyers and Seattle Kraken.

Toronto’s porous 31st-ranked power play scored for the second time in as many games at 8:44 of the second period when Rielly fired through a screen. Nylander banked in his team-leading 10th goal of the season on another man advantage 1:14 later for a 2-0 lead.

The Bruins entered the game 8-0-0 in the regular season against their Atlantic Division rival dating back to Jan. 14, 2023.

—

FLAMES 3 CANADIENS 2 (OT)

MONTREAL (AP) — Matt Coronato scored twice as Calgary came back to defeat Montreal in overtime.

Coronato tied the game with 2:46 remaining in regulation when he cruised into the slot and went off the post and in. He then buried the winning goal seven seconds into the extra period.

Connor Zary also scored for Calgary, which won its second game in seven outings. Dustin Wolf stopped 21 shots.

Joel Armia — with a short-handed goal — and Brendan Gallagher scored for Montreal (4-7-2). Armia also provided an assist, while Sam Montembeault made 32 saves as the Canadiens’ losing streak extended to four games.

Zary opened the scoring with his third 4:20 into the second period when he pounced on a loose puck in the slot and fired a shot past Montembeault.

Gallagher then slipped the puck between Wolf’s pads at 16:23 to level the score with his fifth of the season.

—

BLUES 3 LIGHTNING 2

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jordan Kyrou, Alexey Toropchenko and Oskar Sundqvist scored to help St. Louis beat Tampa Bay 3-2.

Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington made 21 saves for his 149th career win moving him past Jake Allen for second place in franchise history, just two wins behind Mike Liut’s 151.

Nick Perbix and Victor Hedman scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves for the Lightning who have lost three straight games.

Kyrou scored his fourth goal of the season 8:51 into the third period to give St. Louis a 3-1 lead.

Toropchenko scored his first goal of the season with 1:35 remaining in the second period to put St. Louis ahead 2-1 after Sundqvist tied the game with his first of the season 7:47 into the period.

—

ISLANDERS 4 PENGUINS 3 (SO)

NEW YORK (AP) — Bo Horvat scored the only goal in a shootout and New York rallied past Pittsburgh 4-3.

New York goalie Ilya Sorokin denied Rickard Rakell, Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang in the shootout and finished with 32 saves. Kyle Palmieri had a goal and an assist for the Islanders, who trailed 3-1 midway through the third period.

Simon Holmstrom and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored in the third for New York. Horvat had two assists.

Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist to lead Pittsburgh. Crosby got his 598th career goal, and Michael Bunting also scored. Rakell added two assists.

Alex Nedeljkovich stopped 23 shots for the Penguins, who have lost seven of nine. They won their previous two following a six-game skid.

—

KINGS 5 WILD 1

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Trevor Lewis scored twice, Kevin Fiala added another on the power play and Los Angeles beat Minnesota 5-1.

Warren Foegele and Quinton Byfield also scored for Los Angeles, which was playing the second night of a back-to-back after a 3-0 win in Nashville a night earlier. David Rittich made 23 saves for the Kings.

Fiala, who was traded to Los Angeles in 2022 by Minnesota for a first-round pick draft pick and defenceman Brock Faber, scored his seventh goal of the season. He now has three goals and six assists in his last seven games against the Wild.

Minnesota, which had won three in a row, opened the scoring in the second period on Zach Bogosian’s first goal of the season. Goaltender Filip Gustavsson stopped 23 shots for the Wild.

—

JETS 3 UTAH 0

WINNIPEG, Man. (AP) — Nino Niederreiter scored twice in his 900th NHL career game and Connor Hellebuyck made 21 saves to help Winnipeg defeat Utah 3-0.

It was Hellebuyck’s second shutout of the season and 39th of this career.

Gabriel Vilardi also scored for the Jets. Adam Lowry assisted on both goals by Niederreiter.

Utah ended a run of picking up points in three consecutive games (1-0-2).

Karel Vejmelka stopped 25 shots for Utah in its second stop on a four-game road trip.

Jets winger Kyle Connor had his franchise-record, season-opening points streak end at 12 games.

—

AVALANCHE 6 KRAKEN 3

DENVER (AP) — Arturri Lehkonen scored the go-ahead goal on a power play in his season debut and Nathan MacKinnon had five assists as Colorado beat Seattle 6-3.

Mikko Rantanen added two goals for the Avalanche, who snapped a three-game losing streak. Ivan Ivan, Nikolai Kovalenko and Chris Wagner also scored for Colorado.

Cale Makar had two assists but the star defenceman barely played in the second half of the game and appeared to be slowed by an apparent injury during a brief shift.

MacKinnon and Makar extended their season-opening point streaks to 13 games.

Lehkonen played for the first time since off-season shoulder surgery.

Jared McCann, Jaden Schwartz and Brandon Montour scored for the Kraken.

—

CANUCKS 5 DUCKS 1

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Brock Boeser, Danton Heinen and Kiefer Sherwood had a goal and an assist apiece, and Quinn Hughes recorded his 300th career assist in Vancouver’s victory over Anaheim.

Jake DeBrusk and Elias Pettersson also scored and Hughes had three assists for the Canucks, who have won six of eight. Kevin Lankinen made 21 saves in Vancouver’s sixth consecutive win over the Ducks.

Olen Zellweger scored a power-play goal early in the first period for Anaheim, which has lost seven of nine. Lukas Dostal stopped 31 shots.

Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko took shots from teammates again after the morning skate, and he could return to practice this week. The Southern California native and 2023-24 Vezina Trophy finalist hasn’t played this season due to a knee injury incurred late last season.

—

SHARKS 2 BLUE JACKETS 1 (OT)

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Alex Wennberg scored 3:11 into overtime and San Jose celebrated the return of No. 1 overall draft pick Macklin Celebrini with a win over Columbus.

Defenceman Jack Thompson scored his first career goal for the Sharks (4-8-2), who entered the night with the worst record in the NHL. San Jose has won four of five.

Celebrini, the top pick in the 2024 NHL draft, missed 12 games with a hip injury he sustained in the season opener Oct. 10 — an injury first incurred during the pre-season. Celebrini didn’t score and missed a shot early in overtime.

San Jose goalie Vitek Vanacek was fantastic in net, making 49 saves.

Blue Jackets right wing Kirill Marchenko scored for the second consecutive game. Columbus (5-6-1) has lost three straight.

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Canada’s Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Routliffe pick up second win at WTA Finals

Published

2 days ago

November 5, 2024

Anne Joseph

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.

The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.

The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.

Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.

Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.

The final is scheduled for Saturday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.

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Allen nets shutout as Devils burn Oilers 3-0

Published

2 days ago

November 4, 2024

Anne Joseph

EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.

Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.

The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.

Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.

TAKEAWAYS

Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.

Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.

KEY MOMENT

New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.

KEY RETURN?

Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.

OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN

The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.

The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.

UP NEXT

Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.

Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.

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