Toronto Raptors: Takeaways from the loss to the Philadelphia 76ers

Even with the promising start to the season, Pascal Siakam looks like he’s having some growing pains.

Up until recently, Siakam’s growing pains have gone relatively unnoticed because the team was winning despite games where he didn’t perform well. Other players stepped up and filled the void left by Siakam when he couldn’t get things going.

In this three-game slump, Siakam is 21-for-54 from the field or 38.8-percent. His three-point shooting has been even worse, going 2-for-14 over that same slump.

Since his teammates haven’t bailed him out, the slump seems more prudent than it was earlier in the season. However, earlier in the season, it seemed like he was more on than off and he usually bounced back from a poor shooting night with a good one.

Now, this may be a coincidence, but this does come at a time with Lowry just recently returning. Lowry and Siakam have definitely had their success together, so Siakam should make his way back towards his performances before this slump. It should be noted, however, that Lowry runs the offense very differently than VanVleet, so that could be part of the problem lately.

Lowry’s presence could also make Siakam more hesitant to make the right play, as the right play before was for the offense to rely on Siakam. Now that he has a reliant player back at his side, he might be thinking too much rather than playing to his strengths.

The Raptors have also played three tough opponents in a row: the Heat, the Rockets, and the 76ers. With a weaker Chicago Bulls team up next, Siakam should be the focal point of the offense to help force his way out of the slump.

The slump is a cause for concern, of course, but so far these Toronto Raptors haven’t shown us that they give up very easily. Let’s have some faith that they can quickly turn things around and make some headway in the Eastern Conference standings.

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