Opinion | Starting to feel a little more normal with the Raptors, but a few more wins would help.

Sort of a mixed emotions game, right?
The Raptors lost to Brooklyn because they just weren’t very good when they were burned 35-17 in the third quarter, but Pascal Siakam looked like he hadn’t missed a beat despite not playing a game tonight.

The schedule is getting incredibly tough now with eight of his next nine on the road, including a six-game road trip, and the cushion from that five-game winning streak is gone.

The season won’t be lost for the next nine, 10, or even 15, but a few wins are sure to make things a bit more comfortable.

Now, a few things about the game.

–

THREE POINTS

–

Little time

I kind of liked the somewhat “small” starting lineup with OG, Barnes and Siakam on the front court and I know Nick wants to play a bit, but I think that’s where he should be decided.

As Fred VanVleet said after the game, they got smashed at times last year, but the big difference this time is that Barnes is shaping up to be a positive defender who is much bigger than, say, Norm Powell and Anunboy and Siakam have something. time on the court together to take advantage.

“Brooklyn is probably not the team to test it against, they don’t have those huge five,” said Fred. “So we will see the rest of this week how it goes and we have a good trip down the West Coast. So it will be something that we will continue to have to adapt to. “

There will be a period of adjustment on who takes what shots and where, who can defend what position and how well, and there will surely be some difficult moments.

But as we wrote after the game though, having the band basically back together (Birch’s absence was certainly felt) gives them a solid foundation to build on.

–

These things happen

I tell you, when Dalano Banton enters a game, things happen automatically.

Much of this is because his speed catches teams off guard; I can’t imagine that many scouts were made in 46^th pick in the draft coming out of a little-known program after a regular college career.

I also don’t know how long that wow factor can exist, but he knows how to take advantage of it quickly.

And if he keeps making brilliant and correct plays like this one that ended with a dunk from Siakam, I don’t see any reason why he shouldn’t remain the backup point guard all season.

You need to be a better and more willing shooter, you need to make opponents at least think that you are going to do a few shots from above, but that will be a function of practice and experience.

That plate for Siakam was a very intoxicating play for a young guard going full speed ahead.

https://twitter.com/Raptors/status/1457458598083272705

–

A first

The Raptors will need to unlock Chris Boucher, who just hasn’t made a big impact on any game for a long time.

They need these kinds of things:

https://twitter.com/Raptors/status/1457462545028161547

I asked Nick about it the other day at practice. This was a big part of his answer:

“It has to hold out for a bit and we have to let it develop. I don’t know if I can force it and it will probably get a little more difficult for him with Pascal coming back as well.

“We all know that he is successful offensively playing five. That seems to be where he gets the most pop freedom shots. His shots also haven’t been as open as he’s used to this year and that’s like a bit of credit to him because he made so many last year that people don’t give them to him anymore.

“I would say that it is difficult for him at the moment. We are aware of the fact that he is (an) important player in our rotation, that he is a good player, that he brings us a lot and that everything will probably work out as we move forward and he has to hang on there. “

–

We had a fully loaded mail folder yesterday and if you click [email protected] maybe we can do the same for next week.

–