TORONTO — Raptors forward Pascal Siakam is now on the radar of two nations, not even including his native Cameroon. And as he climbs the mountain of stardom, he has the Warriors’ Draymond Green obsessed.
“I got to take him out of the series and that’s on me,’’ Green, the 2016-17 Defensive Player of the Year, said after getting toasted by the Toronto energizer Thursday.
Siakam, the hero of Game 1 of the NBA Finals, entered Raptors training camp in Vancouver last fall not assured of a starting role. He picked up basketball at age 16 and has been an underdog his whole journey. The poster child of a Raptors squad that doesn’t have a single lottery pick was drafted with the 27th pick in 2016 as a project out of New Mexico State.
Siakam likely will be named the NBA’s Most Improved Player, an award for regular-season play. If he keeps up this beast-mode play, Siakam, 24, may be hoisting the Finals MVP trophy, along with a championship statue.
When asked what he would think if someone told him as an 18-year-old red-shirt player at New Mexico State that he would score 32 points on 14-of-17 shooting in his NBA Finals debut, Siakam said: “Probably that they were crazy. At that time I didn’t even know if I really dreamed of being at this level. It wasn’t reachable for me.
“But I think once I got to the point where I felt like I had a chance, I put everything forward and I just worked really hard. It’s amazing and it just proves that if you put the work in, man, and it’s something that’s so cliché most of the time, but that’s the story of my life.’’
One Toronto reporter wrote before Game 1 that superstar Kawhi Leonard is the Raptors’ “monolithic wrecking ball” and Siakam “the acrobat swinging from trapeze to trapeze.”
“He’s been given a God-given ability of having a big engine with lots of energy that enables him to play with a certain speed, athleticism, and enables him to work very hard every single day,’’ Raptors coach Nick Nurse said. “That motor he’s been given, he’s using that to the best of his ability.”
Warriors coach Steve Kerr said he views Siakam as a Green-in-the-making. In Thursday’s 118-109 win, Siakam scored on the fast break, on half-court drives and from the 3-point line (2-of-3) after shooting just 28 percent from deep previously in the playoffs.
Siakam endured a poor start to the Eastern Conference finals against Milwaukee before shaking out of it.
“I don’t mind getting out of my comfort zone and trying different things,’’ Siakam said. “In the summer, I go in and I work on different things. I don’t do things I don’t work on. Basketball to me is a creative game. You go out there and create and react.’’
After the win, in which he became the first player since Shaquille O’Neal 15 years ago to score 30 points on 80 percent shooting in an NBA Finals game, Siakam dedicated it to his deceased father. He was killed in a car crash when Siakam was 18 and in college.
Siakam called it “the turning point of my life’’ that he was unable to go to Cameroon for the funeral because of visa issues.
“In terms of adversity, I considered that the hardest moment of my life,’’ Siakam said. “I was in college and just away from my family. Thank God I had the support of my teammates and coaches in college. It was definitely one of the toughest moments in my life, not being able to go home for the funeral.’’The 6-foot-9 forward represents the new-age big man, quick enough to dart to the perimeter to defend. He’s the top performer in the playoffs in contesting 3-pointers — a new analytic that is gaining steam. He’s terrific around the rim and will give the Warriors, still without Kevin Durant, nightmares looking to slow him down before Sunday’s Game 2.
His nickname is Spice P, as he explained on a podcast, “I don’t eat spicy food because I’m spicy enough.’’
When told of Green’s edict to shut him out, Siakam responded with polite blandness.
“It’s just going back and watching the film and looking at ways I can get better,’’ Siakam said. “They’re going to make adjustments and I have to be ready for whatever comes at me.’’
https://nypost.com/2019/05/31/raptors-underdog-pascal-siakam-is-warriors-unlikely-nemesis/
2019-06-01 03:10:42Z
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