Hawks put up fight against reigning NBA champions, but Raptors escape

AP photo by Tami Chappell / The Toronto Raptors' Pascal Siakam drives around Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young during the second half of Saturday night's game in Atlanta. AP photo by Tami Chappell / The Toronto Raptors' Pascal Siakam drives around Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young during the second half of Saturday night's game in Atlanta.

By Associated Press November 23, 2019 3 min read

ATLANTA – Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse reminded his team at halftime to focus on getting stops and letting the defense spark the offense.

“That’s the name of the game,” guard Fred VanVleet said. “We track how many consecutive stops we got. We came out of the half and had two stops, two 3s and just built from there.”

Pascal Siakam scored 34 points and VanVleet had 25, helping the Raptors beat Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks 119-116 on Saturday night.

The 6-foot-9, 230-pound Siakam turned in another impressive performance, hurting the Hawks with mid-range jumpers and 3s. He has scored at least 30 points in six games, one more than all of last season.

Norman Powell added 20 points for the reigning NBA champions in their third straight win.