Jakob Poeltl has been on a tear.
The 29-year-old veteran has been playing the best basketball of his career thus far in the midsts of an injury plagued season for the Toronto Raptors.
He is coming off another dominant effort in a Raptors win over the Indiana Pacers where he put up 30 points, 15 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocks.
This was after a 35-point, 12-rebound outing against the Boston Celtics on Nov 16.
Over his last three games, Poeltl is averaging 30.0 points and 15.3 rebounds on 71.9 percent shooting from the field.
“I mean, yeah, it feels nice. It’s a little bit of throwback to college times, I guess. I’ve always said this and I’ve always prided myself on looking for my opportunities and playing winning basketball, whatever role that may be,” Poeltl told reporters postgame.
Poeltl has been feasting inside and has become virtually automatic with that little floater he loves going to.
“It kind of started with Davion [Mitchell] he was really looking for me in those situations to like to get to my floater there, get a rhythm going and then it kinda carried over to a couple of other guys. It’s been very good with RJ [Barrett] lately where our two-man game has been great,” Poeltl said.
Poeltl’s improved play can be credited to Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic. Rajakovic said he had to get on Poeltl to finish with force, which the big man has been doing.
“A lot. A lot. ‘Jak you can dunk the ball, Jak you can be lob threat, Jak do this, Jak do that’. And again and over again. He did not believe, he started to question it, but he’s believing it more and more now,” Rajakovic said.
Poeltl playing this well has been a nice early season storyline for the Raptors. He has stepped up in a big way with the team missing a bunch of important players.
3 takeaways from Raptors convincing win over Pacers
The Toronto Raptors ended their 7-game losing skid by defeating the Indiana Pacers 130-11.
Here are 3 takeaways from the game.
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