Advertisement

Special players have special nights there': C.J. Miles on Raptors' Pascal Siakam's 52 at MSG

On the latest episode of Strictly Hoops with C.J. Miles, Amit Mann and Miles discuss what stood out about Pascal Siakam's 52-point performance vs. the Knicks. Listen to the full episode on the "Raptors Over Everything" podcast feed.

Video Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

- Siakim, the slam! CJ the 3? Goes!

AMIT MANN: Welcome, welcome, welcome, to "Strictly Hoops" with CJ Miles. Everyone Rate, Review, Subscribe on your podcast platforms. YouTube, do once, do it twice, do it again. It's muchly appreciated. CJ?

CJ MILES: What's going on, man?

AMIT MANN: Coming off that Knicks game. Holy--

CJ MILES: Good. Man, crazy, man. Crazy. Like, I was watching the highlights again right before we got on the-- got on the podcast. It made me think about playing in the Garden.

Like, it made that feeling that you get going there, just in New York, in the Garden. Oh my God, see Pascal, to be able to play the game he played, you cant just add that to his list of everything you want to do. You know? Special players have special nights in their building, and he went in there and did It

AMIT MANN: So players do care about that kind of stuff, doing it in the Garden?

CJ MILES: Yeah, I think so. Because you just, it's something you can't get around.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: You look down the list of all the special players. And then go in there, that's like the Mecca, you know?

AMIT MANN: Mm.

CJ MILES: That's one of the places that you want to put a stamp on. And all the greats--

AMIT MANN: Sure.

CJ MILES: --got games in there that are crazy, you know?

AMIT MANN: Right. So for that list of players that have done it in the Garden, on the road, Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Rick Barry, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Richard Hamilton, LeBron James, Steph Curry, James Harden, Pascal Siakam.

CJ MILES: You're talkin' about--

AMIT MANN: That's the list.

CJ MILES: That's.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: Yeah.

AMIT MANN: Yeah. And it's funny, because like, Pascal was asked about that after the game. And he said, you know, I'm from Cameroon. Like, I don't really know this stuff.

But from an outsider, when that US reporter and Raptor fans, I mean, where historically, like, we care about what a US reporter, some of the big ones are saying about ESPN. What are they saying about the Toronto Raptors? And they're all saying wow, Pascal Siakam did that in New York.

CJ MILES: That's it, uh-huh.

AMIT MANN: In Madison Square Garden. That probably matters more than anything to-- than Pascal Siakam.

CJ MILES: Mhm?

AMIT MANN: Fred was talking about like, oh, he did this in the Garden. And Pascal was like, I mean, I'm from Cameroon. Doesn't matter to me all that much. But I mean, again, it's just, it's part of the--

CJ MILES: Yeah, it's part of the culture.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: It's part of the NBA culture, like you said. Like, that's not-- him not-- him not knowing it or not, or playing it that way is even better. Like, I think that's even better. That's shows what he's got going on, where his head's at.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: But like you said, for them to be able to speak about it and add to the list, because as unfair as it is, the people that are going to name him top five, which is what he wants to be. That they care about that stuff. So--

AMIT MANN: They're in the US.

CJ MILES: --that's why you need it written. Exactly.

AMIT MANN: Yeah. We're going to get to like the game itself in a second here, but I just want to get your thoughts on his performance, and the shots he made. He was 17 of 25. He shot-- I had written down here, what was it? --16 of 18 from the free-throw line.

CJ MILES: Uh-huh.

AMIT MANN: Which was obviously a huge point of how he was able to put up 52 points. What's your takeaways from the performance? To me, it seems like he had 52, but it was kind of like Fred's, where everything kind of felt like it was in rhythm. When Fred got 54 against the Magic, nothing really felt out of place. It was just like, this is a game where he just did what he does.

CJ MILES: Yeah. The biggest thing to me though, that jumped out, was his pace. He changed it when he needed to. He was fast, he was slow. And he got every type of bucket, left hand, right hand, swing throughs from the mid post. One dribble to the basket.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: Stepbacks. Every type of-- every type of person that guarded him. He took his advantage. He didn't try to force anything.

So when the guard switched on him, he took his time, backed him down. Sort of double team coming from the baseline, shoots the fadeaway over the other shoulder. They switched the other Coach Sims on him. Catches him, attacks him real fast to see if he can catch his feet. He backs up, shoots a stepback in the mid-range.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: Pick and pop, they don't close out. Shoot the 3. Puts it in transition. You don't stop me, I get to the rim.

It was nothing forced, nothing overthought. He was just playing the game. And I think that's what made it-- made it look like what you said, so fluid. Because he didn't have to. It's a spectacular night, but he didn't have to make these spectacular plays to do it.

AMIT MANN: Yeah. I guess the 76ers, you felt that, a couple of those shots. That last shot he hit at the end of the fourth quarter, that finger roll against the backboard, I mean, on PJ Tucker, that was like, whoa. That is a very difficult shot against a very good defender, a very good team.

This one, I mean, you could say like Jericho Sims, Mitchell Robinson, Julius Randle, Tom Thibodeau talked about after the game, like, he wanted to put size on Pascal Siakam. And Pascal was like, bet. Cool.

I'm going to go buy them, I'm going to blow by them and he did that. So the Knicks were one of those teams, that they're just like, easy pickings for Pascal. Because they don't have the personnel to really stop him. And the Raptors expose that nonstop. I want to give a shout out to Fred and Malachi, because those inverter pick-and-rolls.

CJ MILES: Mhm.

AMIT MANN: Like, non-stop throughout the game, they were hammering that on all of them. And because there're already so many mismatches for Pascal to expose, if you're able to get that, even a smaller player on them, like, you're just creating so many advantages.

CJ MILES: That was it.

AMIT MANN: For him, man, like, coming off screens, like the mid-range, I love his mid-range game. But for a little while there--

CJ MILES: Love it.

AMIT MANN: --maybe a four-game stretch, before that 76ers game, it seemed like he abandoned it just a little bit. Not in a bad way. I think he was doing it in fade of-- in favor of getting to the basket more and more.

CJ MILES: Yeah.

AMIT MANN: Because probably the Kings, Warriors, he felt that he could do that. But I don't think he can do that. Because it's such an effective method for him to score the basketball.

And as he gets better, and like, the more comfort he gets with his pull-ups from 3, from the mid-range the more it's going to be easier for him to put up these 25, 30-point games. Easily. Consistently.

CJ MILES: Yeah, I also think he's just, like you said, getting to the basket you don't want to settle. You don't want to be in a position to settle. Especially when we're struggling as a team, and you know, as a team goes, as he goes, kind of the team goes.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: So if he starts to struggle a little bit, he wants to make sure you get his stuff going. So maybe I can get myself to the free-throw line, get me some easy baskets. Or guys just like, kind of getting out of the way because I'm attacking hard enough.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: You know, people don't want to foul. They want to play up and down. So maybe just try to create some easy things. But his mid-range is so good.

Like, he's become so efficient. He's become so good. He's making every type of shot, off the dribble, fadeaway, stepbacks.

All type of things. And like you said, the pick-and-roll, the more they can do that to get their switches, either he's going to get to eat those switches like that. Or he's going to create high-percentage 3-point shots for the other guys. Who have not--

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: Who're still not making 3's. Like--

AMIT MANN: No, they're not.

CJ MILES: They're still, still not happening.

AMIT MANN: They're not.

CJ MILES: But the more we can do that, and if doubles come, the more open standstill 3's we can get. And you know, those are going to-- those are bound to start going in. Those, those, you can't. These are professional basketball players that can shoot the ball.

AMIT MANN: They have to at some point, right?

CJ MILES: Exactly.

AMIT MANN: They have to.

CJ MILES: They're going-- they're going through their rolls, but like--

AMIT MANN: Holy-- yeah.

CJ MILES: They have to go in at some point.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: But we're talking about what? Last night, what'd we stick? 9 for 34? Like, still--

AMIT MANN: Oh, man.

CJ MILES: And that's the thing. And you can add someone else to the equation. Think about the games that have been lost in the streak.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: You know what I mean? That might save just some of the nights that the defense, it isn't as good. Or somebody else is struggling for real, or we can make four more 3's, it changes the swing and it gets us back on defense more, things like that. So.

AMIT MANN: Nick Nurse was talking after the game. And you could tell that he was still a little bit frustrated with the lack of 3-point production.

CJ MILES: I know he is.

AMIT MANN: He was saying that he's like, yeah, see Pascal? He had seven assists. He's like, probably could have been double that.

It's like, and frankly, like, he's averaging 7 assists on the season. He should probably be averaging 10. Because the shots just aren't going down. Chris Boucher, 0 of 2. Thad Young, he had a terrific game just from like, an intangible standpoint. He always does.

CJ MILES: He had a Thad Young game.

AMIT MANN: Yeah, he did.

CJ MILES: [LAUGHS] Yeah.

AMIT MANN: He missed like, a late 3. Malachi Flynn, hit 2 of 5. Good, but those shots were open. Just go down the list.

I mean, OG didn't have a great 3-point shooting night. But he was so effective in like every other facet of basketball. So I mean, you can give them an excuse there. But yes.

CJ MILES: And that's the thing, though. There's going to be nights where-- there's going to be nights where he's not good in every other facet.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: Or like, some things are going to be taken away. He was great in the post yesterday. They got some good possessions on him. And some players, getting them in the mid post and getting to the basket.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: He even gets baseline and hits Malachi Flynn, for one of the 3's. Makes the right read in that. Like, he's doing so many things. But--

AMIT MANN: He is. He is.

CJ MILES: --those 3's, within the offense? I don't-- I'm not really worried about the ones that kind of come on new plays, in the clock, things like that. I just mean the rhythm ones. The ones they come from a swing-swing.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: Or a double team comes and we move it. And if somebody makes a mistake and we could open those, those are so important to the rhythm of the game.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: Because now, when we're up 8 and we get two 3's like that and we go up 14, 15, that changes the game. It changes the way, their approach to the game on the other side, and it changes our momentum. Like, 3's, 3's are like dunking on somebody, at this point.

AMIT MANN: Sure. When your process is good offensively, you need to hit those shots.

CJ MILES: Yeah.

AMIT MANN: Right? Those are the ones. And I think people probably understand.

Like, those kinds of shots, when you're wide open, you-- you bend the defense. There's a hard closeout. And you're able to do a kickout pass. And that shot, that has to be hit. You want those hit, more often than not.

CJ MILES: Exactly.

AMIT MANN: And those are the shots, again last night, that were not necessarily being hit.