Raptors forward Pascal Siakam continues to struggle through foul trouble, writes Dave Feschuk of The Toronto Star. As NBA referees across the league strive to limit calling fouls against “non-basketball” offensive flop plays, looks at the charity stripe in general are taking a significant dive. Siakam, however, continues to be whistled for fouls. The 2020 All-Star has averaged a career-worst 3.5 fouls per contest across 12 games this season and has already fouled out of two games.
“We can’t go through this (foul trouble) every night like this,” Raptors head coach Nick Nurse said of Siakam. “It seems to me he’s just getting himself just a half-count late on some stuff.”
Siakam himself appears to be trying to be more sensitive to fouls called against him as the year progresses for the 10-13 Raptors. “If I’m going to have a foul I would rather it be an actual foul preventing someone from scoring or a foul I actually want to give,” Siakam noted. “Just staying away from the cheap ones and hopefully the gods will be on my side one of these days and I won’t foul out.”
There’s more out of the Atlantic Division:
- Determining a reasonable expectation for this strange Sixers season is proving difficult, opines Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The team has been felled by various injuries, extended COVID-19 absences, and of course the continuing Ben Simmons drama. Philadelphia is currently 12-11, good for the ninth seed in the East.
- Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau sounded optimistic when addressing the recent shooting slump of RJ Barrett, per Ian Begley and Phillip Martinez of SNY.tv. “I have a lot of confidence in [Barrett] being able to work his way out of it,” Thibodeau said after Saturday’s game. “When you throw in he’s been sick, and to me you get rhythm when you work. Last year, he got going when he started coming in every night to shoot. So there’s no notion that you (work on your shot in the gym at night) sometimes, you got to do it all the time. So get back in the gym, get back to grooving your shot. Shoot a lot of threes and you’ll start making more.” The 21-year-old Barrett is connecting on just 39.6% of his field goal attempts in his third NBA season.
- Thibodeau has opted to give the slumping Knicks, losers of three straight, a day off to regroup, writes Steve Popper of Newsday. “[Who] we are as a team, how we built this team and this culture is just fighting defensively, the togetherness, just the effort, the hustle plays,” reflected New York forward Julius Randle of the club’s ethos. “And I think sometimes, we’re too lax. We might think the little details don’t matter sometimes or whatever it is, but we’ve just got to understand to get out of this we’ve got to do it together.” The Knicks are currently 11-12 on the young 2021/22 season.
At this moment
9th seed 76ers
10th sees Hawks
11th seed Knicks
Can they pass first round playoffs?
Can they beat Bucks or Nets in first round?
Make big trades?
#FreeBenSimmons
Sixers have some great so far to have a winning record considering the drama, injuries and covid problems.
We are 1 win behind the Celtics who have Tatum Brown Schroder Horford and so on and so on. Without all the issues.
Level with the hawks who beat us in the playoffs and didn’t have any major roster changes in the offseason.
And above the Knicks who went further than us last post season, and made a bunch of signings and expected to be better.
If we didn’t have the injuries and covid alone we would be about the 4th seed tied with the Wizards and just back from the bucks. That’s without Ben who was second in DPOY, all nba third team and an all star.
Been doing great so far but at the same time if we fall out in the first round and not trade Ben it’s been a wasted season and someone needs to be held accountable (Morey/Brand). Whereas if we trade Ben soon, we will have about 60 odd games of regular season to adjust to the new players fitting in and be stronger for the playoffs.
They would be better if had no issue with ben simmons. Ben is still great player for me.
BTW my friend NYK was out manhandled pretty brutally by ATL in R1EC… PHI lost narrowly to ATL in R2EC… just saying!
What Randle said. Is excatly what’s wrong with this team. It starts with effort and D. Unfortunately he’s one of culprits. Imo he’s not down with all the attention Kemba got. Coming back home and starting. Cause he’s played different since Kemba sat. Unfortunately we still are losing. Team D is about togetherness and effort.
But Mitch is out of shape. And Noel has been hurt. So we are missing our rim protector. The anchor of the team D. We got a schedule that benefits us. This month should put us back on the map. If there’s ever a chance to turn this around. It’s these games this month. So we’ll see who shows up. In Thibs we Trust
Sixers and Nets. Need to move on. Both will be better off with a trade. Why would you want them back at this point. The value you get will help you more. Don’t understand why both teams are just wasting time. They both should be getting ready for playoffs. And a good run in playoffs.
Hard to make a trade before Dec 15th. Simmons and Irving should move after that. Heck they may get traded for each other.
Now THAT would shake things up in the East a little.