Make or miss league — Raptors' Pascal Siakam says hot streak from three-point range just part of the game

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Pascal Siakam is on one of the hottest outside shooting streaks of his career, but he insists he isn’t doing anything differently.

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After hitting five treys on eight attempts — including his first three — in a three-point win over Cleveland on Monday, Siakam was shooting 46% from three-point range over his last 10 games. That’s after shooting 17.9% (yes, you read that correctly) in 15 games in November, and 21.2% through the first 23 games of the season.

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Which is why Postmedia asked Siakam specifically Monday if he’s feeling differently when he lets it fly.

“No. It’s basketball. At the end of the day for me it’s always been that. I trust the work that I’ve put in and I really don’t think about it,” Siakam said. “Obviously I know my strengths and I try to do that to the highest of my ability and try to work on the things that I work on, but again, sometimes it’s going to go in, sometimes it’s not and I’m OK with it.”

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Sportsnet followed up by asking Siakam if he’d tweaked his shot recently. Siakam seemed a bit puzzled by the question, insisting again there are just ebbs and flows.

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“I don’t look at that, you guys look at that. I just play, I hoop that’s what I do. And that’s part of hooping, you make shots and you miss shots,” he said.

“I don’t overthink things. I just go out and play the game. And what makes me feel that way is because I know what I put into what I do. I’m always confident at that and again there’s going to be games I’m not going to make shots, there’s going to be games where I make shots and I’m hoping that I’m going to make shots so it is what it is.”

It’s possible that the recent surge could be related in a bigger workload for Siakam. Maybe he’s feeling more comfortable because he’s playing a huge chunk of games after being scaled back early in the Darko Rajakovic Era. Siakam has led the NBA in minutes and regularly played a ton under Nick Nurse, and has now played at least 40 minutes in three straight games.

“Deja vu right,” laughed Siakam when asked about the minutes. “I’ve been in situations I understand what it is and I know that there’s a lot of emphasis on minutes and all that. At the end of the day we have to do the best we can to win games that’s the focus. I’ve always been an advocate of giving everything I can to win a game. Obviously we’ve got to have a balance for sure,” he said.

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