After Siakam, who started a new chapter in his career, was injured and retired, the top 3D striker Anunoby was also injured and missed many games. At this time, the Raptors began to show their fatigue.
Fortunately, both Sika and OG came back soon. Although the Raptors, who had a full front line, suffered a defeat in Philadelphia , they unfortunately lost in overtime. But soon they regrouped and came to Madison Square Garden, where their opponent was the New York Knicks, who had won eight consecutive games. The opponent's form is at its peak, but the Raptors have fallen to tenth in the Eastern Conference, seemingly drifting away from the playoffs.
The seemingly one-sided morale comparison before the game turned into a career night for Siakam. As I said before, Sika is the soul and core of the Raptors. He seems to be a striker with a height of more than 2 meters, but his position on the court is completely different from others. On the offensive end, he can be the engine of the offense with the ball, a perpetual motion machine that responds to air cuts, a three-point shooting shooter, and a big man with a misaligned back. Generally speaking, it can be compared to a leaner version of Antetokounmpo who can shoot. A random pick-and-roll is a mismatch opportunity, which also shows Siakam's another iterative evolution this season.
In the game against Knicks , Sika demonstrated this characteristic vividly. The first was to catch the counterattack. The Raptors used the strong defense of the front line to force the Knicks to make 16 turnovers, and Sika caught them. Most of the opportunities were quick counterattacks to score; followed by breakthroughs and back-up attacks. When playing against Barrett Quickley, he could crush him with strength. When playing against Randall , he relied on speed and repeatedly hit the basket, causing great damage to the Knicks. Sika won 18 free throws alone and made 16 of them.
Finally, it is Sika’s offensive vision and defensive deterrence. Not only did he score 52 points, but he also grabbed 9 rebounds and sent out 7 assists. It can be said that he is a combination of offense and defense. The pressure on Van Jordan around him was greatly reduced, and he also had a lot of fault tolerance. Although his shooting rate was not high, he still scored 28 points. The ones who benefited the most were 3D strikers such as Anunoby and Barnes. They did not have to organize offenses that they were not good at, and they only had to play the role of their own shooters.
Even if Barnes only scored 2 points on 1-of-10 shooting, the Raptors could still beat the Knicks. Of course, the biggest contributor was Siakam, who scored a crucial 2+1 at the last minute to hold the team back and snuff out the opponent's winning streak.
Then the Raptors defeated the Cavaliers , which was third in the Eastern Conference. Except for Sika, who still had an all-round performance of 26+7+9, Anunoby and Barnes also experienced a recovery, scoring 26 points and 25 points respectively.
With Siakam continuing to perform strongly after his comeback, the Raptors will soon regain their previous dropped ranking. The author predicts that Siakam will be nominated for the MVP list again and will definitely be selected for this season's All-Star Game. Coupled with the league's best ghost player (first in steals) super 3D Anunoby, and the still-growing Barnes, the three strikers can ensure that the team enters the playoffs. If you want to go further, you may need to have a substitute lineup that dares to play hard during the rotation period and give Siakam and VanVleet more rest time. Firstly, you can have enough physical strength to make the final decision at critical moments. Secondly, you can also avoid frequent injuries in the past period. That’s it for
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