Category: NBA, Toronto Raptors, Pascal Siakam

ATLANTA’S LAST GAME STARTERS

POS NO. PLAYER HT. WT. G GS PPG RPG APG SPG BPG MPG FG% 3FG% FT%
F 22 CAM REDDISH 6-8 218 39 28 8.5 3.6 1.6 1.1 0.5 26.1 .333 .289 .787
F 12 DE’ANDRE HUNTER 6-7 225 42 41 12.0 3.7 1.7 0.6 0.2 31.0 .405 .333 .769
C 20 JOHN COLLINS 6-9 235 17 17 17.5 9.5 1.4 0.7 2.1 30.0 .502 .348 .766
G 3 KEVIN HUERTER 6-7 190 32 24 11.5 4.1 3.4 0.9 0.5 27.7 .416 .396 .844
G 11 TRAE YOUNG 6-1 180 39 39 28.8 4.6 8.5 1.2 0.1 35.0 .445 .374 .838

HISTORIC TRIPLE-DOUBLES: On 11/23 vs. Toronto, Trae Young compiled 30 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds in 41 minutes. The second-year guard from the University of Oklahoma became just the third player in Hawks history with a 30-point triple-double, the second Hawk to accomplish the feat since the club moved to Atlanta in 1968-69 and the first since Herm Gilliam in 1974. On 1/8, Young posted 42 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists – the first 40-point triple-double in Hawks history. He became the youngest player in NBA history to record those minimums in a single game, surpassing Oscar Robertson whose previous record was 21 years, 357 days old.

Atlanta Hawks Players to Record 30-pt Triple-Doubles

Player Date Opponent Points Rebs Assists

Trae Young 11/23/19 Toronto Raptors 30 10 10

Trae Young 1/8/2020 Houston Rockets 42 13

10 Herm Gilliam 2/5/74 Capital Bullets 34 13 13

Lenny Wilkens 10/24/67 New York Knicks 30 12 13

GRAND OPENING: Trae Young led all players with 38 points (11-21 FGs, 6-10 3FGs, 10-12 FTs) in 37 minutes at Detroit on 10/24. The second-year guard scored 26 points in the first half alone, the most by a Hawks player in the last 20 seasons. Young’s 38 points are the most by a Hawk in a road season opener since the team moved to Atlanta in 196869 and the most in any opener since Dominique Wilkins scored 39 against the Nets on 11/1/86. Last season, Young led all rookies with nine 30-point games.

TRAEMENDOUS On 11/12 at Denver, Trae Young tied a career-high with eight triples (also 2/25/19 at Hou), notched a season-high 42 points and reached the 30-point mark for the third consecutive game (the second time in his career with three straight). He also dished out 11 assists against the Nuggets to record his fourth double-double in five games. Young became the first NBA player in the 2019-20 season, and, at the time, the youngest player in league history (21 years and 54 days) with three straight games of 30-or-more points and 10-or-more assists.

TRIPLE-THREAT TRAE: On 11/8 vs. Sacramento, Trae Young scored 30 points, handed out 12 assists and swiped a career-high five steals in 40 minutes. Young became the first Hawk to compile at least 30 points and five steals since Mike Bibby in January 2009 and the first Hawk to add at least 10 assists to that stat line since Pete Maravich in March 1974. The second-year Oklahoma product became the first NBA player with 30 points, 12 assists and five steals in a game since Victor Oladipo in the 2017-18 season.

ONE HUNDRED GAMES OF BUCKETS AND DIMES: Trae Young played the 100th game of his career on 11/30 at Houston. Through 100 games, Young compiled more than 2,000 points and 800 assists, becoming only the second player in NBA history to reach those minimums after his first 100 contests per Elias:
Players With At Least 2,000 Points and 800 Assists in 100 Games

Player Game 1 Game 100 Points Assists

Oscar Robertson 10/19/1960 12/13/1961 3,040 1039

Trae Young 10/17/2018 11/30/2019 2,089 812

DEANDRE’S SCARY GOOD HALLOWEEN: On 10/31 vs. Miami, DeAndre’ Bembry posted the fourth double-double of his career, amassing 18 points and a game-high 10 rebounds in 28 minutes … Bembry narrowly missed a triple-double, as he added a career-high eight assists and two steals.

EASTERN CONFERENCE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: On 10/28, Trae Young was named NBA Eastern Conference Player of the Week for games played Oct. 22-27. Young led the Hawks to their first 2-0 start since the 2016-17 season and averaged 38.5 points, 9.0 assists and 7.0 rebounds. He became the first player in NBA history to compile at least 38 points, nine assists and seven boards in each of his team’s first two games of the season. His 77 total points through two contests set a new franchise record, breaking the old mark of 75 set by Dominique Wilkins in 1986-87. The award was Young’s second weekly honor of his career, as he was named POW for games played March 18-24 last season.
YOUNGEST ATLANTA HAWKS TO WIN PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Season Player Date of Award Age

2018-19 Trae Young March 25, 2019 20

2019-20 Trae Young Oct. 28, 2019 21

2007-08 Josh Smith Dec. 9, 2007 22

1983-84 Dominique Wilkins April 15, 1984 24

2005-06 Joe Johnson Dec. 19, 2005 24

1,500 FOR #15: On 12/10 at Miami, Vince Carter played in the 1,500th game of his NBA career and knocked down a then-season-high four three-pointers, finishing with 12 points. He became the fifth player in NBA history to reach 1,500 games played and tied Dirk Nowitzki for the highest point total in a player’s 1,500th contest. The list of NBA players to reach 1,500 games is found here:

Player Years Played Games Played

Robert Parish 1977-1997 1,611

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 1970-1989 1,560

Dirk Nowitzki 1999-2019 1,522

Vince Carter 1999-Present 1,517

John Stockton 1985-2003 1,504

Nick Nurse could not remember the last time he had to put a healthy player on his inactive list. He had to do that on Wednesday night in Oklahoma City. The days of scrambling just to keep enough scoring on the floor while ensuring he didn’t overwork any of his players are over, for the […]

With Raptors almost at full strength, Nurse has options and he’ll test them out — Toronto Sun

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — Blown leads have been dogging the Raptors like that winter long cold you just can’t seem to shake. Read More

Shaky Raptors hang on to beat Thunder — Toronto Sun

It was all too familiar. Read More

DeRozan returns to rain on Raptors in return-to-health game — Toronto Sun

(17-21) SAN ANTONIO SPURS, 105 VS. (25-14) TORONTO RAPTORS, 104 SCOTIABANK ARENA SUNDAY, JANUARY 12, 2020

TORONTO RAPTORS QUOTES

NICK NURSE (HEAD COACH)

On stopping moving the ball in the fourth quarter … I think there was a pretty decent three presenting itself pretty early in the offence and we probably took a bunch of those. Again, I have to look at it a little bit, but it felt like a lot of those were wide open threes.

On preferring to wait later in the shot clock … Well, now that I am sitting right here I would like to go back and pass it around a few a times and see what else was there and take that. But it’s not really our mindset in general. We want guys to take open shots, whether they are early or late, but we certainly could have attacked it better, but we don’t seem to make enough shots against it.

On how the team played with Norm Powell and Pascal Siakam back … For the most part pretty good, I’m not sure why it related to offence missing some shots, but our defence, we were doing everything perfectly for a long stretch and then we just totally broke down. There was no help anywhere all of a sudden and that wasn’t the case for the most part of the game. It was one after another, drive down the lane to the rim, parade to the free throw line didn’t help. So there was a little bit of disconnection there I would say, but it was pretty good for a lot of the game.

On DeMar DeRozan getting going in the second half … Well I think you certainly have to give him credit for it, but I would say that again, our game plan was certainly not to let him drive right down the middle of the lane and play one-on-one and lay it in, dunk, dunk that kind of stuff. Our game plan was getting executed pretty good to send help and rotate out and make him kick it out. They did a nice job adjusting to get him the ball in the middle of the floor and iso-ing him and he took it really aggressively downhill and played really well.

PASCAL SIAKAM (15 points, five rebounds, four assists)

Physically, how did it feel to be back? It felt good. Obviously I’m happy to be back. Definitely a little tired, but that’s what it takes being out a month. I haven’t played significant basketball in a long time. I felt good though, it felt good to be back out there.

On DeMar DeRozan in the fourth quarter… He did good. When he gets to the rim and gets playing like that he’s dangerous. We have to do a better job of plugging the gaps and making sure we don’t let him get to the rim. I think there by the end he got there easily and got easy buckets. He got going, we just can’t let that happen.

What happened in the fourth quarter? They did a good job running in transition and making shots. I think we got a little sloppy.

KYLE LOWRY (16 points, 15 assists)

How did things get away from you guys in the fourth quarter? We stopped playing, we stopped being aggressive, we stopped being assertive. They got more aggressive, they got faster and we missed shots, too. We didn’t go to our zone offence … a lot of things went spiraling downhill.

On play of DeMar DeRozan in the fourth quarter… He got to the free throw line, got a couple shots and I think three dunks in the third, a mid-range floater, another banker. Just played his game and stayed patient.

On the return of Norman Powell and Pascal Siakam… They looked good for guys coming back from a month off and injury. You’re not going to be perfect, but Pascal had a great start and I think the fatigue caught up to him a lithe bit down the stretch, but it’s just going to be a work in progress in getting our guys back, and Norm looked good, he made a couple of open shots. Just the fatigue and the minutes in getting their legs and rhythm back under them.

NORMAN POWELL (20 points, four assists)

How did it feel physically to be back out there tonight? It felt good to be out there running up and down competing. Physically the body felt good, legs probably needed a little second to get underneath me, but other than that it was good.

Did you feel your conditioning at any point in the game? No not really, it was more so being on a minutes restriction, sitting down, staying activated and warmed up where you felt the fatigue, but on the floor once you get going and everything like that, just playing basketball you’re not really thinking about it, just trying to do what you need to do out there to help your team win.

SAN ANTONIO SPURS QUOTES

GREGG POPOVICH (HEAD COACH)

Was the defence the main thing that triggered the comeback? It’s never one thing. I just think we just kept playing and we got more and more aggressive as the half went on. Didn’t really make a lot of shots but I thought defensively we gave ourselves an opportunity to win, and it worked out.

On Jakob Poeltl… He’s had a really good year. He was solid tonight, he played well but he’s had even better games.

On LaMarcus Aldridge tap out rebound at the end… Everybody knew that those were the most important rebounds of the night, and everybody went after it and that’s how it worked out.

DEMAR DEROZAN (25 points, eight rebounds, four assists)

What does this comeback say about the team? It says a lot. It’s a great team. Being down what we were down, to fight back and pull it out, especially on the road.

How much fun is the game for you right now with the run you’re on? It’s fun just being able to go out there and compete. Once you have that confidence, no matter if you have a slow start, you’re not going to get down on yourself and get frustrated. You know it’s going to come back around. It goes a long way. You can tell when guys have it.

On his video tribute… I don’t know anyone who gets two video tributes in a row. Find someone else who has done that. It’s awesome. The people who work here, who I have a relationship with who have seen me since I was a kid – it’s amazing to be able to get that much recognition over and over. It never gets old.

Where are you guys as a team? We’ve got another test against Miami to close out this road trip. We’re focused on that.

JAKOB POELTL (four points, 10 rebounds, two blocks)

What do you think of the leap Pascal has made this season? I wouldn’t say it’s surprising. I’d say it’s impressive. We played so much together. We practiced so much together, I feel like we know each other’s games so well and we always knew that all of us had it in us to make that next step. Pascal is the first one to really, really leap with out there. The season he is having this season is amazing, honestly.

On DeMar DeRozan’s performance… I think it means a lot to him to come back to Toronto and get a win. Last year we were really close, but we ended up losing a really close game. This year it was a really close game again, but we ended up winning. Sometimes it comes down to one or two baskets made. It’s a tough game. Today we hung in there and we pulled it out.

What effect did the zone have in the second half? It definitely slowed them down. They got a little stagnant on offense, which is exactly what we wanted them to do. Maybe make them overthink it a little bit, pack the paint, make them shoot contested shots and they started missing them. We started getting easy transition baskets out of it and that really got us going.

LAMARCUS ALDRIDGE (11 points, four rebounds, four assists)

What’s the mindset when you fall behind like that? You just have to stick with it and put some plays together. You have to keep playing and don’t give in. Our second unit was quick and bringing energy and making plays for us. I thought they got us back into it and then DeMar got going down the stretch. It was just a perfect way to end the game.

On DeMar DeRozan’s game… He’s a great teammate. He’s very unselfish and wants to win. He plays the right way. I was happy to see him have that video tribute. I feel like he played his heart out. He gave everything he had to this city. I think he honestly deserves it. For him to come back here and play great and to get a win feels good.

How big will a win be in Miami to finish this trip? It’s huge. We’ve had some big wins and one tough loss. It’s going to be great to go in there and handle business. If we can get that one then this road trip will be a really good one.

Sources: Siakam hopes to return next week Toronto Raptors star Pascal Siakam is expected to practice Friday with hopes of returning to the lineup in the next week, league sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Siakam has not played since Dec. 18, when he suffered a groin injury during an awkward landing. He is averaging a […]

Sources: Siakam hopes to return next week — High Velocity Sport