The Raptors are facing an old friend, Pascal Siakam of the Indiana Pacers, what seems to be a friend rivalry between the two teams. This game marks as the final road game of the raptors 5-game road trip, where they have 3-1 going into this game. But with the outcome, the raptors are climbing up in the eastern conference standings and are noticeably getting better as a team and communicating more both on offense and defense.

R.J. Barrett, the home grown Canadian, has led the way for the raptors to stretch the point differential with smooth jumper after jumper, catching and shooting three pointers being effective throughout the game compared to his past few games on this road trip. The highlight of this game for the raptors however is Jakob Poeltl, where he had 22 points and 9 rebounds, just quietly finishing the game and help the raptors create finishes inside the paint.

For the Pacers however, missing their star, Tyrese Haliburton remains to be the biggest weakness for this team. The offensive creation is lacking throughout, if not for Pascal Siakam, who was one of the main contributors of this game, the Pacers would not be able to come close in the game earlier. With Siakam, leading the charge for this Pacers team, it is evident that the Pacers need some help either from their bench or the medical staff with all the injuries that a lot of players on the Pacers are facing.

What made this game fun to watch however, was Scottie Barnes, even though his contributions on the stat sheet says otherwise, through the lens of the fans, he would find spots that would benefit himself to get the easy bucket. While former all-star, Brandon Ingram, would do the same for himself, from the mid-range pull-up to the fadeaway that is smooth throughout.

Indiana made a couple of pushes late, but the Raptors never looked rattled at all. This game was entirely in control for Toronto and the final score of 129-111 says it all. The raptors are now 8-5 in this season, getting up to fourth place in the eastern conference. As they’re taking on the Charolette Hornets next back in Scotiabank Arena, we will see if they could keep this win streak going and prove to the rest of the league that they are becoming a threat in east?

Ben Chan kchan467@my.bcit.ca