Wasted on the basketball court?! Raptors’ Pascal Siakam shows off his silky soccer skills as he produces an around the world – before scoring 36 points to help Toronto reach the play-in tournament
Pascal Siakam showed off his silky soccer skills ahead of the Toronto Raptors’ 128-108 win over the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday afternoon.
The 29-year-old power forward, who was the NBA’s Most Improved Player in 2019, looked relaxed and simply like he was enjoying himself ahead of his 36-point game in North Carolina.
For Toronto to secure a play-in spot, the magic number was one. ‘Spicy P’ and Co. couldn’t afford any missteps in their last five regular season games after their recent three-game winning streak came to an end on Friday night against the Philadelphia 76ers (110-117).
Toronto is now 39-39 with a .500 record, as the team seems destined to likely finish seventh, eighth, ninth, or 10th in the Eastern Conference — all but reaching their main objective this season: to at least make the play-in tournament.
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Wearing his usual trademark headband on Sunday, pre-game footage shows Siakam juggling a Wilson basketball in an all-white Raptors uniform, as he attempted to get a rhythm going.
Toronto’s Pascal Siakam showed off some juggles and his heading with a basketball on Sunday
‘Spicy P’, 29, showed off his soccer moves in front of a member of one of the Raptors coaches
The Cameroonian, who’s averaging 24.1 points per game this year, even managed to pull off an around the world in front of Toronto’s coaching staff, before impressively heading the ball and balancing it on his head.
‘Pascal Siakam is SMOOTH with it,’ the NBA’s Twitter account shared, as footage ends with the two-time All-Star smiling and looking decomposed while listening to music in the Raptors’ warmup.
Head coach Nick Nurse, who led Toronto to its only NBA title during his first season in charge in 2019, made headlines on Friday by declaring that after the season, he’ll assess his plans to ‘take a few weeks and see where I am’ in terms of his future.
It will be interesting to see if that turns out to be a motivator or a distraction for the Raptors.
As for the Hornets, they crumbled early and ended up with a 121-91 home loss to the Chicago Bulls on Friday in what will be their seventh straight NBA season without reaching the playoffs.
The Raptors and Hornets also played back-to-back games with one day in between in January in Toronto, where the Raptors won by scores of 132-120 and 124-114.
Siakam was the top scorer in both of those games for Toronto with 28 and 35 points.
Siakam had a 36-point game against Charlotte, leading the Raptors back into the playoffs for a second consecutive season
