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Tim BontempsESPN
The Toronto Raptors bet on star striker Pascal Siakam for Thursday night’s 100-83 victory over the New York Knicks in Tampa, Florida.
“It was a discipline for an internal issue,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said after his team won its first game of the season. “That’s the decision we made. We’ll just keep doing it.”
When asked what message she expected Siakam’s bench to send to the team, the nurse said, “We just have to do it a certain way. Everyone has to be a part of it. It’s as simple as that.”
Although Nurse did not want to go into details about what led to the decision to replace Siakam, the 26-year-old striker committed a foul for Tuesday’s 100-93 loss to the 76ers – Toronto’s third straight loss to open the season, all of this came after the Raptors had double-digit advantages, with 25.6 seconds to go, and immediately left the court and entered the visiting locker room at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center.
Siakam will return to Toronto’s next game, which is Saturday in New Orleans against the Pelicans. A source told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that Siakam will not be fined.
Fred VanVleet, Raptors guard, said the decision to replace Siakam was communicated to the team during the shooting Thursday morning.
“This is something that won’t last,” VanVleet said. “It’s over. [Pascal] it was great. He handled it very well. It was a great energy for us on the bench tonight even though it wasn’t played. I can’t wait to get him back. “
Siakam has had a difficult start to the season as he admitted he wasn’t himself inside the NBA bubble at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. During the first three games of this season, Siakam is shooting up 39.3% overall and committing 3.7 rotations per game.
On Thursday, Toronto was able to move away in the second half after being tied at halftime, with Norman Powell – who replaced Siakam in the starting lineup – scoring 17 points to end with four rebounds, two steals, one assistance and a blocker while finishing a game plus-28 in 34 minutes.
“The next man,” Powell said, when asked what his thought process was when he was told it started instead of Siakam. “Everything we treat as a team is always internal, so we take care of that. We understand what happened and why, but we don’t feel it. We focus on the game, everyone who takes this opportunity is next up there, going in there, executing the game plan and doing whatever it takes to get that first win, and when Pascal comes back, we should come out with that energy, no matter what role you play and how many minutes you play. we played tonight must be consistent in the future. “