Despite losing their last time out, the Toronto Raptors are still one of the hottest teams in the NBA.
Their 110-109 home loss to Denver on Saturday night ended an eight-game winning streak, and Monday night they will try to start a new streak when they visit the New Orleans Pelicans.
“We’ve been playing some good basketball,” said Fred VanVleet, who scored 25 points against the Nuggets. “A couple more possessions (against Denver), maybe it would have went our way.”
Toronto, which hadn’t lost since Jan. 26 at Chicago, had a chance to win at the end, but when OG Anunoby rebounded VanVleet’s missed 3-point attempt, Denver’s Nikola Jokic rejected Anunoby’s put-back attempt at the buzzer.
Pascal Siakam continued his outstanding play for the Raptors by scoring a season-high 35 points and adding 10 rebounds and seven assists. In the last five games he has averaged 29.8 points, 9.8 rebounds and 5.6 assists. He has shot 70 percent from the floor and 47.6 percent on 3-pointers.
“I think my mindset is literally to just keep attacking, and I feel like I always have an advantage on my man and it’s just a matter of it I get a double team or not,” Siakam said. “That’s how I approach it.
“I’m going to get all the way to the rim until I get stopped. Obviously having the floor space and guys making the shots when you make those reads is definitely important. I’m just really like ‘I can get to the rim any time I want.'”
The Pelicans have lost their last two games after winning four in a row. The losses have come since the arrival of guard CJ McCollum in a trade with Portland on Tuesday.
After McCollum shot poorly (6 of 21) while scoring 15 points in his New Orleans debut, a 112-97 home loss to Miami on Thursday, he was much sharper against San Antonio on Saturday.
McCollum made 15 of 24, including 3 of 7 from 3-point range, while scoring a game-high 36 points and tying a career-high with 11 rebounds, yet the Pelicans still lost at home 124-114.
“I felt better,” McCollum said. “I had more pop in terms of movement, better grasp of the plays, the sidelines out of bounds. (I had) too many turnovers (six), but still learning the spacing, still learning where guys like to roll versus pop, just gaining a better understanding of that, but I look forward to that next game.”
That next game comes against a Raptors team that beat the Pelicans 105-101 on Jan. 9 in Toronto.
“It’s just a continuous evaluation of where we are,” New Orleans coach Willie Green said of blending in McCollum. “You look at the two games, but at the same time have an awareness that it’s a huge adjustment for everybody. It’s an adjustment for CJ. It’s an adjustment for all of his teammates.
“So, we’ll do it together. We’ll get back to the drawing board, watch some film, get in practice, and continue to work.”
