The Toronto Raptors won their seventh straight on Wednesday night with a 117-98 victory in Oklahoma City.
The win moves the Raptors to 30-23 on the season and improves their road record to 14-11.
The offence started early for the Raptors as Pascal Siakam dominated from the tip, going 7/8 in the opening frame to open up a 34-22 lead. The Thunder bench was able to minimize some of the damage in the second, but the Raptors were still able to take a comfortable 8-point lead into the half. The third quarter started much like the first, with the Raptors hitting shots and getting back on defence, stifling the Shai Gilgeous-Alexander-less Thunder and pushing the lead to 15 heading into the fourth. From there it was just a matter of seeing the game through, and the Raptors were able to stretch the lead far enough to give the bottom of the bench a few minutes, while more importantly giving the starters some much needed rest.
The entire starting unit for the Raptors finished in double digits, but it was the aforementioned Siakam that led the way in the win. Siakam finished with 27 points and 16 rebounds for the impressive double-double, shooting at an incredible 13/17 clip. Fred VanVleet followed suit with 21 of his own, adding in 6 assists. Rookie Scottie Barnes had 17, Gary Trent Jr. had 16 and OG Anunoby rounded out the starters with a 15-point 10-rebound double-double. The struggling Raptors bench was quiet yet again only scoring 21 points, with Canadian Chris Boucher doing most of the work on 9 points and 5 rebounds.
It was a tough night for the Thunder without Gilgeous-Alexander and Mike Muscala, as Canadian Lu Dort led the starters with 15. Rookie Josh Giddey finished with 13 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists, while Darius Bazley recorded 13 of his own. The Thunder bench carried most of the offensive workload with Aleksej Pokusevski and Theo Maledon scoring 18 each. Ty Jerome added an additional 13.
It wasn’t the best performance for the Raptors this season, but they managed to shoot 51.1% from the field and get multiple players involved, rarely looking uncomfortable throughout the entirety of the game.
The Raptors bench continues to be a sore spot as it was outscored 55-21 in the win, putting enormous pressure on the starters. The trade deadline is Thursday at 3pm est., and so the Raptors have under 24 hours from the end of the game to make a much-needed addition to their bench. It seems like acquiring a big target such as Miles Turner is off the table, but something will have to be done to improve the second unit if the Raptors want to have any continued success moving forward.
The win keeps the Raptors in 6th position, only 1.5 games behind the 76ers for fifth, and remarkably only 4 games out of first place. Their distance from 11th is now 6 games as they look to build some cushion between themselves and the lottery teams.
Toronto will try and make it 8-straight on the second night of a back-to-back in Houston against the Rockets, while the Thunder are off until Saturday when they visit the Philadelphia 76ers.
GAME STATS:
Toronto:
Siakam – 27 PTS 16 REB 5 AST
Trent Jr. – 21 PTS 6 AST
Anunoby – 15 PTS 10 REB 2 AST
Oklahoma City:
Pokusevski – 18 PTS 4 REB 1 AST
Maledon – 18 PTS 2 REB 3 AST
Dort – 15 PTS 4 REB 4 AST
