Pascal Siakam was benched at end of Game 5 due to his defense

Pascal Siakam was benched for the final nine minutes of his Toronto Raptors’ 106-105 loss to the Golden State Warriors in Game 5 on Monday night, and now we know why.

Raptors head coach Nick Nurse was asked about it and told reporters Thursday that he wasn’t happy with Siakam’s defense.

Nick Nurse says Pascal Siakam not playing the last nine minutes was because Nurse was frustrated with his defensive effort, rather than missing shots.

— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) June 13, 2019

Siakam played 34 minutes in the game and was the only member of the starting lineup to have a negative +- number (-5). He also didn’t shoot that well either, going 6-for-15 while missing all of his 3-pointers.

Siakam had a breakout game with his 32-point performance in Game 1 of the series. The Warriors vowed to stop him the next game and did, holding him to a 5-for-18 shooting effort. Toronto would love to have the Game 1 version of Siakam back as they look to close out the title in Game 6.