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Down 10 with less than six minutes to go, the Raptors of old seemed to return as they fought their way back to take a lead with just more than a minute remaning.
Bledsoe, though, who would finish with 19 points, hit a dagger three from the corner to put the Pelicans back on top for good.
Pascal Siakam was back in the lineup and his normal starting power forward position, but, like the last game he played, foul trouble was an issue for much of the night.
Siakam only played 15 minutes in the first half with Chris Boucher picking up a good chunk of his minutes alongside Aron Baynes in a super long front court.
Siakam picked up his fourth foul early in the third quarter and wasn’t really much of a factor the rest of the way.
He wound up fouling out midway through the fourth quarter.
Prior to the game, head coach Nick Nurse once again chose not to discuss the disciplinary action that saw Siakam sit out the previous game but alluded to some general changes the team is asking Siakam to make.
“Listen, it’s just something we’re trying to work out here a little bit and work it out early in the season and not let it prolong and, again, more just an expectation of how we want to play, not individually how anybody wants to play,” Nurse said. “But there’s certain standards we want to set and he just needs to get on board with those. And he can do it, geeze, he can do it, it’s just maybe the first part of the process, but he can do it.”
Another part of the Raptors’ game that Nurse is working on changing is their early season penchant for settling for long jump shots when the success the Raptors have enjoyed in the past has always been predicated on attacking the paint first and exploring that option before kicking it back out to open shooters.
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