Takeaways from the Toronto Raptors impressive win over the 76ers

Pascal Siakam continues his ascension to All-NBA level player

Pascal Siakam is only 25-years old but he has already won a Most Improved Player Award and remarkably, an NBA Championship. Despite his big successes, Siakam has shown that he is still hungry for greatness. He has taken on the challenge of being the Toronto Raptors franchise player and Monday night was yet another example of Siakam being more than ready for the challenge.

The above clip is a perfect showcase of Siakam’s development. He started off as a player who could only attack off of a straight-line drive; now in 2019, here is Siakam shaking Al Horford off the dribble before finishing over the top of Embiid.

Just like he has all season long, Siakam scored from all three levels on Monday night. He went 2-for-6 from the 3-point line, 5-for-6 from the charity stripe, and even had 3 assists (1 turnover).

Siakam looks like a lock to make the Eastern Conference All-Star team but he and the Raptors obviously have their eyes set on bigger goals. This year’s Raptors team has continued the trend of playing lockdown defense and Siakam has slowly but surely developed into the matchup nightmare that Nick Nurse needs to stabilize the offense.

In his 40 minutes of action, Siakam also contributed 2 blocks and finished a team-high +12 on the floor. More important than anything was the fact that “Spicy P” took 19 shots, continuing to maintain high offensive efficiency while shouldering a much bigger workload. The Raptors are going to go as far as Pascal Siakam takes them, and he is playing like he definitely understands that.