Siakam: Toronto Raptors down but not out
Global News
Pascal Siakam can't deny that the Raptors have taken some hard knocks during slump that has seen Toronto lose six of their past seven games.
TORONTO – Pascal Siakam can’t deny that the Raptors have taken some hard knocks during slump that has seen Toronto lose six of their past seven games.
But Siakam says there’s a lot more fight left in him and his teammates.
“You feel like you’re getting knocked down every time you go out there,” said Siakam after the Raptors practised at the OVO Atheltic Centre on Tuesday. “It feels like a boxing match where you get knocked down and everything.
“You can’t see nothing. You’re looking for your mouthpiece, trying to find anything on the floor, and the ref is counting, blood coming out of your mouth.”
Despite losing four in a row, Toronto (9-14) is still just half a game back of the Atlanta Hawks (9-13) for 10th place in the NBA’s Eastern Conference. The Raptors host Atlanta in back-to-back games on Wednesday and Friday, meaning Toronto could climb back into the conference’s lowest post-season berth with more than two-thirds of the season left. The Hawks have also dropped four straight.
“It’s going to be hard. We just have to be able to overcome it,” said Siakam. “We can talk about Xs and Os and this and that but we’ve just got to be able to buckle up and go out there and do it.
“We have no choice. This is what it is and we have to figure it out.”
The Raptors scored an impressive 130 points on Monday night, tied for third-most on the season, but it wasn’t enough as they still lost to the host New York Knicks 136-130. Siakam, who had 20 points, four rebounds, four assists and four steals in the loss but was 3-for-7 from the free-throw line, said Toronto needs to be more efficient.