Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (looks for room to drive past Pascal Siakam of the Raptors during Game 2
on Tuesday. Tatum has outscored Siakam 55-30 through the first two games, both Boston wins. PHOTO BY KIM KLEMENT /USA TODAY SportsPascal Siakam is a little bit taller than Jayson Tatum, a touch heavier (if that’s possible), a lot wealthier and four years older.
And yet, both have similar responsibilities with their respective NBA teams.Both are supposed to be difference-makers. Both are supposed to be the go-to guys late in games. Siakam is about to make just less than $30 million a year. Tatum is finishing up on a four-year deal that paid him $30 million with the Celtics.
As the Raptors struggle to find themselves and clear their heads after two straight playoff losses to Boston — and the winnable Game 2 was a whole lot better than the disastrous Game 1 — what they probably need most is Siakam doing the Tatum thing, as different as they may be as players, calming down the Raptors offence when it needs it, making the shot when it matters most, using his quickness going to the basket and being the dependable star Masai Ujiri has paid him to be, now and for the future.The new Kawhi Leonard in different shape and style and game, without similar credentials.
The math, though, doesn’t look good through two games for the Raptors.
Tatum has 55 points. Siakam has 30.
Tatum is shooting just under 50% and precisely 50% from three-point land. Siakam is shooting 34.3% from the field, 14.2% on threes.
Tatum has 17 rebounds in two games, Siakam has 11.
The Raptors have lost two games in the series by a total of 21 points. Tatum has scored 25 points more than Siakam to date as they head back to Boston, sort of, the empty-stadium bubble version of Boston, for Game 3 on Thursday night.
Siakam is a career 50% shooter in four NBA seasons and a career 33% shooter tossing up threes. Those are rather remarkable numbers. You expect numbers to drop in a tight playoff series, with teams this accomplished playing. Unless you’re one of those alpha-NBA Donovan Mitchell kind of players.
Then you want the ball. Then you need the ball. Then you do the Jimmy Butler thing and take over. When there’s one shot to take, you want to be the guy to take it.
Tatum is a career 45.7% shooter, 40% from three, a career average scorer at 17.3 per game. Through two games, he’s significantly better than those numbers. And he’s not all the Raps have to deal with.
After Game 2, Tatum was asked about teammate Marcus Smart, the tough-guy guard who doesn’t get a whole lot of attention on a team with Tatum, Kemba Walker and Jaylen Brown. From behind his COVID-19 mask, you could almost see him smiling. Smart doesn’t look much like a basketball player. He’s built like a blocking back in football, ready for a blitzing defensive end. He’s not that tall, and he’s fire-hydrant wide. And more than anything, he’s in the Celtics lineup to provide defence and toughness and some of that Kyle Lowry bulldog.And there was Smart in Game 2, knocking down five three-pointers in a row in the second half, after hitting five of them in Game 1, the Raptors being outscored by 33 points from three-point range through two losses.
Smart is normally a 13-point-a-game guy. Against the Raps, it’s 20 a game. You need that in the playoffs from somebody. The guy who comes from nowhere. So far in the series, Nick Nurse is still looking for his Smart, his come-from-nowhere guy.
“There’s only one Marcus Smart,” said Walker on Tuesday night. “There’s only one like him. His intensity in unmatched. I love the intensity.”
“There’s nobody like Smart,” said Tatum. “He can do a little bit of everything. He was amazing. I’ve never played with anyone like him before. He is one of a kind.”
The Raptors need to make their open shots. Dwane Casey was famous for talking about the NBA as a make-or-miss league. What it’s really become, though, is a make-or-miss league from three.
Lowry is 1-for-12 in two games, Fred VanVleet 5-of-23, Norman Powell 2-for-7. Those are the game-changers, normally. That’s 8-of-42 right there. Just more than 19%.
Smart has 11 threes in the two games. In just 20 shots. That’s 55%. If he doesn’t get hot as the Raptors were pulling away in Game 2, the series would be tied right now.
Now, realistically, it’s one game for everything. The Celtics can afford a loss. The Raptors can’t go down 3-0.
There’s so much to worry about heading in to Game 3. Controlling Tatum. Controlling Smart. Controlling Walker.
But nothing more worrisome or challenging than finding a way to get Pascal Siakam to be the star the Raptors desperately need him to be.