Raptors take Pacers right down to the wire in Siakam return

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Back-to-back games of questionable effort had the Toronto Raptors needing to prove themselves.

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A rebuilding team will be given a certain amount of slack when it comes to results, but obvious lack of effort is unacceptable from a fans perspective and certainly from a head coach.

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Darko Rajajovic did not hold back after a woeful display Monday night in a loss to San Antonio. That followed a less heinous, but still sub-standard effort, against Cleveland two nights earlier.

What it meant was that while the fanbase was primarily focussed on the return of a beloved veteran in opposing colours, the Pascal Siakam return was well down on focus list of the Raptors still wearing the red and black.

The effort was certainly there, even if the finish wasn’t, as the Raptors dropped a hard-fought 127-125 decision to the visiting Pacers.

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“I thought they competed at a high level throughout the course of the whole game,” Rajakovic said of his club. “Right there at the end we had a couple possessions we could have finished to get a better look maybe, but then we also got three wide open threes in the last few minutes that missed. If we make one of those, it’s a completely different story.”

Facing a high scoring, but defensively porous Indiana team, the Raptors came out hard and carried the play for all of the first half and a portion of the third quarter.

Indiana fought its way back into it in the third and took its first lead only to see the Raptors steal back the momentum late in the quarter and take a lead into the final frame.

In the fourth the Raptors continued to pressure.

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They played the entire second quarter without newcomer Kelly Olynyk who left the game late in the second quarter with a back bruise and never returned.

It opened a door for Chris Boucher who has been a healthy spectator for much of the past three weeks since the rebuild was committed to in full.

Boucher responded with 10 points and four rebounds in his first meaningful minutes in weeks to keep the Raptors right in this one.

Scottie Barnes, who took some heat publicly for leaving the bench a tad early and headed to the locker room in the dying seconds of the loss to San Antonio, rebounded with a big game, putting up 29 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists to lead the Toronto charge, but missed a contested layup in the final minute that would have given Toronto a lead.

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Right behind him was R.J. Barrett who put up 23 and pitched in with five boards.

Indiana, playing without Myles Turner, who was out due to illness, got 21 from Tyrese Haliburton along with 12 assists and 23 from Siakam in his first game back in Toronto since the trade that brought Bruce Brown and Jodan Nwora along with three first-round picks to Toronto.

Siakam’s final bucket put the Pacers up by three in the dying seconds.

He admitted this one meant a lot to him given where it was and who it was against.

“For sure,” Siakam said post game. “You don’t want to come here and lose. When everyone was telling me ‘Oh man, I’m so happy to see you,’ in my head, I’m like ‘I just got to get a win. I can’t lose this game.’ ”

Barrett had a chance to send this one to overtime with a shot at the buzzer but his mid-range step-back jumper hit iron and popped out.

The Raptors head into the all-star break having lost three in a row.

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