Pascal Siakam backs Fred VanVleet after terrible shooting night
Fred VanVleet and the Toronto Raptors should have gone into the recent game against the Philadelphia 76ers riding high on confidence. Not only had they picked up a 119-109 win over them in their previous encounter, but Doc Rivers’ side was also missing Joel Embiid. A 4-2 start to the season looked well in sight for Nick Nurse’s team.
It was not to be, as the Raptors put in arguably their worst performance of the season in a 90-112 loss against the 76ers, and one man who had a terrible night was VanVleet.
The Raptors’ All-Star guard was completely off his game, as he registered one point, five assists, and three rebounds while going 0-11 from the field and 0-8 from three-point range. It brought an end to VanVleet’s 77-game streak of hitting at least one three-pointer and was easily one of his worst performances in years.
VanVleet even went on to set some career lows on the night in terms of his shooting, as he went 34 minutes on the court without hitting a field goal and had 11 shots without making one. Unquestionably a night that the All-Star will want to forget as soon as possible.
Prior to today, the most minutes VanVleet had ever played without hitting a FG was 23. The most shots he had taken without knocking one down was 6. He was 0-for-11 in 34 minutes tonight.
— Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) October 29, 2022
Toronto Raptors: Pascal Siakam back Fred VanVleet after awful night.
Pascal Siakam brought his A-game once again, as he dropped 26 points along with ten rebounds and six assists in 36 minutes of action against the 76ers. And the Raptors’ superstar in the making was not concerned by VanVleet’s struggles on the night.
As reported by SI, Siakam was still supportive following VanVleet’s one-point game.
"“I mean, that happens.“We’re not really worried about the shot-making because he has done that at a high level and we know he can do that. Probably one of those nights.”"
VanVleet has had a bit of a slow start to the season. He has managed to score 20 points or more in just one of the six games till now despite the fact he averaged 20.3 points per game last season.
Fans would expect VanVleet to find his rhythm soon though, especially with him looking for a big-money contract. We all know what he is capable of when playing at his best. Knowing how he’s performed when the chips are down, it would be foolish to count him out.
VanVleet on his Friday night: "I didn’t have much pop, much energy. I’ve had a few games like that. I usually throw a couple 3s in there late and people forget about it. It didn’t go that way this time. I’ll live with it. I’m built for it. I’ll bounce back.”
— (((Eric Koreen))) (@ekoreen) October 30, 2022
The Raptors will take to the court next when they welcome the Atlanta Hawks to the Scotiabank Arena. The squad will surely be looking to bounce back from their terrible defeat at the hands of the 76ers, and hopefully, we will see a much-improved performance from VanVleet.
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