RAPTORS BLOG: Barnes and Achiuwa bright spots of loss to Pacers, plus Siakam dominated December

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Since I’m on the shelf to start the new year, today’s blog will just look at December’s Raptors highs and lows.

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Obviously it was an extremely disappointing month overall with the team going just 5-10. The club had gone 7-7 in November and 4-3 in October.

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Injuries were once again an issue, with only Pascal Siakam and Scottie Barnes in the lineup for all 15 of the games in December. O.G. Anunoby and Gary Trent Jr. missed four apiece, Fred VanVleet two and once again Precious Achiuwa and Otto Porter missed them all.

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Siakam had one of the most spectacular months in Raptors history, averaging 28.3 points 7.7 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 1.1 steals per game on 48% shooting. Siakam led the team in points, rebounds and assists for the month.

(A Raptor has won NBA player of the month only six times. Partly because they used to only name one winner, and not one per conference. Chris Bosh, Kyle Lowry X 2 and DeMar DeRozan X 3 were the Raptors to do it.)

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Siakam has a shot at East player of the month, but probably won’t win, despite his wild numbers. Countryman Joel Embiid averaged 35 points and had a truly monstrous month, Jayson Tatum was great, Giannis was Giannis and Kevin Durant posted video game numbers for a team that was running on all cylinders.

It’s no surprise though that Siakam’s month led him to an easy win in the Three Star tally amongst Raptors. Siakam collected 28 points and was the first star, meaning the best player on either team by this corner’s judgment, in four of the games and second star in eight others. Not easy to do when a team goes 5-10.

Well back were Barnes and VanVleet with eight points each. Anunoby and Trent were the only others to earn a star in any of the game (in October/November five other Raptors earned at least one three star selection), earning four points each. Basically what it indicates is five Raptors were clearly superior to the others last month.

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What it also means is Anunoby’s massive lead through October/November (27 points, to Siakam’s 17), which was built through both his great start and Siakam’s long absence, is history.

Siakam now leads for the season with 45 points, far outpacing Anunoby’s 31. VanVleet is still well back at 17, Barnes picked up eight of his 12 points in December and is on the rise and Trent has 11. No other Raptor has more than 3 (Chris Boucher, Dalano Banton and Achiuwa).

One other observation for December: The three-point shooting finally made its way to good enough, overall, from absolutely terrible through much of the previous two months. Trent shot 40%, Malachi Flynn 39%, Anunoby 37% and Siakam 30%. Had VanVleet not had one of the worst shooting months of his career (30% from three-point range) it would have been a standout shooting month for one of the league’s below average shooting teams.

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Looking ahead, getting Achiuwa back could be huge. Though Nick Nurse chose not to start him immediately, which made sense since he just got back, down the line he could be the option to stabilize a starting group that has been in flux all year due to players going in and out of the lineup. He showcased what he can do defensively against the Pacers on a number of occasions. That said, with Trent thriving as a starter, it would be hard to send him back to the bench. Most likely, another injury will make the decision easier for Nurse.

Two more:

– Great way to start 2023 for Barnes. If it wasn’t his best game of the season, it was close. He was great on both ends of the floor, which hasn’t been the case too often. Trent or Canadian Bennedict Mathurin could have been player of the game, maybe even Siakam, but Barnes felt like the right choice.

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– Mathurin is a sparkplug, but he’s more than that. He’s a hell of a player too. Expected to be one of the NBA’s worst teams, instead, Indiana has been a major surprise, a legitimate play-in contender and a franchise set up quite nicely for the future. This wasn’t what anyone expected. There’s even talk of Myles Turner sticking around and perhaps getting an extension after he spent the off-season as one of the players deemed most likely to be dealt. Tyrese Haliburton leads the league in assists and is a stud. Mathurin is thriving, Buddy Hield, Jalen Smith and Andrew Nembhard are solid and they have three more first-rounders coming this off-season. They also have cap space, though Indy’s never been a free agent draw.

THREE STARS vs PACERS:

1 Scottie Barnes

2 Gary Trent Jr.

3 Bennedict Mathurin

H.M.: Pascal Siakam, T.J. McConnell,