SIMMONS: Siakam finding his way as Raptors struggle to find theirs

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There isn’t a lot to doubt about Pascal Siakam these days, except maybe within Siakam himself.

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He wants to play more minutes. He wants to be involved in every aspect of the Raptors’ play. He wants to reach back to the conditioning level he found himself in before the groin injury took him down.

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And damn, he wants to start winning again.

Siakam stood in and battled Monday night against the best team in the Eastern Conference, the Boston Celtics, against the MVP favourite Jayson Tatum, and he went punch for punch, elbow for elbow, basket for basket, and defensive stop for defensive stop with Tatum in a game the Celtics won and the Raptors lost – and honestly, it was close enough to go either way.

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As the Raptors season meanders on, a season in which they win a game, then lose a game – with a 12-12 record after 24 outings – there is reason to believe better days are ahead when Siakam plays the kind of basketball his freakish skills enable him to show.

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He played guard and forward, both small and large, and maybe in between a little centre Monday against the Celtics and ended the night with a Raptors-high 29 points. He scored more baskets than any Toronto player, took more free throws, missed too many of those, led the team in assists, and was one rebound away from leading the team in that as well. This is what Siakam, who gets MVP chants in Toronto sporadically, can do. This is how hard he can push. And this is the difference he can make.

He might match up with Tatum, who scored 31 points, he just can’t shoot like Tatum. He just can’t turn nothing into something as often. He may not be as smooth as the Celtics forward but he is becoming the herky-jerky champion of NBA players.

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He can be almost impossible to defend, which should make the Raptors a threat, if the rest of his teammates can in some way match their level to his level.

If you go back a few years when the Raptors played the Celtics in a playoff series inside the bubble of Orlando, Toronto was close to Boston, Siakam seemed close to falling apart. His chance to become a star again seemed lost. His future of any kind of greatness appeared in doubt. What were they going to do with Siakam?

Nobody thinks that way anymore, not as this season is 24 games old with Siakam having missed 10 of them. He scored 29 against Boston, 26 the game before against Orlando, 24 before that. Each night a little better, a little more complete.

A little more of Siakam to believe in once again.

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The good and the bad of Monday night at the Scotiabank Arena was that the Raptors could have beaten the Celtics, who do not seem to beat themselves. Boston shot the ball better than the Raptors. Passed the ball better than the Raptors. Defended better than the Raptors. They fundamentally ended up with a 116-110 win that could have been a 116-110 loss – had the Raptors converted on their open shots.

They couldn’t make open threes. The Celtics didn’t seem to miss threes in which they were completely covered. And a win became a loss in the process and the possibility of a 13-11 record ending up at 12-12.

“We have to go back and learn from this,” said Siakam late Monday night. “We have to take the positives from this. We have to focus on details (more).”

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And then he was asked about himself and what he sees and what we see and what he feels are not necessarily the same. “I feel like I’m a ways away from (being better),” he said. “Little things. I missed four free throws. Little things can make a difference.

“I’m not 100 percent where I want to be.” He wants to play himself to exhaustion and practice himself the same way. That he can learn from, he says. “I’m a hooper,” he said. “I play all day, every day.”

And if he gets knocked down, he wants to get back up. Right away. And fight back. And get up again.

Because this is the player Siakam has grown into at the age of 28. He was a late bloomer and he continues to get better at an age when some players plateau. There is no plateau here. There is another level to climb to, and the players around him have to find that level as well. You could see that Monday night.

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Every time the Celtics got themselves in any kind of trouble, they played all but played a three-man game. The ball went from Marcus Smart to Jaylen Brown to Tatum, and then from Tatum to Brown to Smart in return. Their big three was sharper and more secure and probably smarter than the Raptors big three.

And now the improving Los Angeles Lakers, with LeBron James and a suddenly emerging Anthony Davis, come to Toronto Wednesday night. Another game and another challenge for Siakam and the Raptors, whose record could and should be better.

“Losing,” said Siakam “it’s not fun. This organization is not about losing. This is not who we are. We expect to win.”

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