With team dinner at stake, Raptors zero in on consistency during rare break

A rare weekend off gave Pascal Siakam time to rest, recharge, and reflect on the first quarter of the NBA season.

His conclusion? The Toronto Raptors must become more consistent.

Siakam and his teammates returned to practice at OVO Athletic Centre on Monday after having two full days off thank to a quirk of the schedule. Because Toronto did not get out of the group stage of the NBA in-season tournament, the Raptors have a four-day break midseason.

That allowed the all-star forward to think about how the Raptors (9-11) can become more consistent in the remaining 62 games of the season.

"I think we're getting better, but there's still games that are not so good," said Siakam on the sidelines of the Raptors' practice facility. "There are going to be drop-offs, but I think it's just a super-drastic drop-off from a game where the energy is good and then the energy is not good another game.

"Our focus, our togetherness or everything else, I think we just got to put some games together. That's got to be our focus."

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Head coach Darko Rajakovic has promised to take the Raptors out for a team dinner if they can string together three wins in a row.

"That's something that I took to heart, to be honest with you," said Rajakovic. "When I announced that, Pascal said `Yeah, the team is going to pay for that,' because he thinks I'm cheap.

"That's not true, so once we get three wins in a row I'm taking staff and players to dinner and it's going to be out of my pocket."

Toronto can potentially start its