Malachi Flynn Almost Leads Raptors to Wild Comeback over Hawks

Malachi Flynn almost entered Toronto Raptors legend status on Tuesday night.

Just when it looked like the Raptors were dead, trailing by 14 with just over two minutes to go in the fourth quarter. Flynn stepped into the telephone booth and came out Superman, single-handedly sparking the Raptors on a 12-0 run with four straight 3-pointers. It was enough to force Raptors coach Nick Nurse to draw up one final play for the rookie, but legend status couldn’t quite be achieved. Flynn couldn’t nail the final 3-pointer and the Raptors fell 108-103 to the Atlanta Hawks.

While Flynn certainly played hero late scoring 15 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter, it was Pascal Siakam who did the bulk of the heavy lifting through. He was called out prior to the game by Nurse who asked about Siakam’s inconsistent performance this year.

“I think for everyone and especially Pascal [Siakam], I want to see efficiency go up,” Nurse said prior to facing the Atlanta Hawks. “I don’t want 7-for-20, 6-for-19 game after game after game. Right? He has to get his efficiency up and so does everybody. That’s what I’m stressing as an improvement area.”

Considering Nurse’s track record of getting players to respond after his pre-game comments, it should be no surprise that Siakam had quite possibly his best offensive game of the season, scoring 30 points on 13-for-19 shooting.

Overall, it’s been a very up-and-down season for the Raptors’ 27-year-old star. Siakam hasn’t quite found his 3-point stroke all season, but even his inside scoring seems to be a little inconsistent. He’s shooting just 55% this season within eight feet of the rim, per NBA Stats. Some of that can be chalked up to injuries and his COVID-19 recovery, but some of it has also been a little hesitancy around the rim.

“I always say finishing is always a lot about determination,” Nurse said. “You got to almost will it into the basket.”

While Siakam’s 3-point shot continued not to fall on Tuesday, almost everything at the rim was a bucket. He shot 8-for-9 inside the paint and 12-for-14 inside 3-point range.

The problem for the Raptors on Tuesday was once again the defence. Much like the last two times they’ve seen the Hawks, nobody seemed to be able to close out on Atlanta’s 3-point shooters and slow down Kevin Huerter and Bogdan Bogdanovic. And while the Hawks were nailing their 3-pointers, it wasn’t until the very end that Toronto’s 3-point shooting came alive and by then it was too little too late.

Up Next: San Antonio Spurs

This crazy four games in five days stretch for the Raptors comes to a close Wednesday night when DeMar DeRozan and the San Antonio Spurs come to Tampa for a 7:30 p.m. ET tipoff.