Scottie Barnes makes anticipated return in Raptors game vs Minnesota Timberwolves

The Toronto Raptors won a great game tonight on a shiny new (PURPLE) court, beating Minnesota 110-105.

So much excitement for a Thursday night in Toronto! Not only did the Toronto Raptors introduce their City Edition jerseys, but they also broke in a new court, AND Scottie Barnes made his HIGHLY anticipated return to the court to face the Minnesota Timberwolves.

More than all of that, the Raptors WON. They’ve also extended a streak active since 2004 — the Timberwolves haven’t won a game at Scotiabank Arena in two decades. It was a 110-105 victory and brings the Raptors to four wins on the season.

The new Raptors court is quite simply fantastic. It’s everything good about basketball courts, and the consensus among fans in the NBA is that it needs to stay.

The team has been leaning into its purple roots all season in celebration of the franchise’s 30th season. Whether it’s the nostalgia of it all, or we really do just have the coldest graphic design elements in pro sports, it’s WORKING.

The colour purple just works. It’s not surprising fans are so into the classic colour way, as purple has a lot of significant meaning in culture. It represents royalty, inspiration, creativity, and spirituality. It also signifies ambition and magic. All things you want to illicit when thinking about merchandise for a sports team. It’s unique, clean, and looks luxurious. Add in the 90s details and the fact that dinosaurs are just wicked cool, and you’ve got merch that will sell.

So yeah, vibes were high going into this game.

When Darko Rajaković came into his pre-game availability, he didn’t hesitate before addressing the room,

“Can I guess the first question?” Some confused nods... “The answer is YES.”

Of course, he was referring to the imminent question of if Scottie Barnes would be available to play tonight, after missing three weeks due to a fracture of his orbital bone. He was wearing goggles and on a minutes restriction, but he did play.

The impact was pretty immediate, as Barnes on the floor helped mitigate the obvious size of the Timberwolves.

While the score was relatively close in the first half, the foul calls were low key (high key) not fun. Scottie got a tech for making a hand gesture that only kinda somewhat looked like a gun (it looked more like he was just doing a three), and the TWolves were shooting more than double the amount of free throws than the Raptors. That changed and evened out as the game went on, thankfully.

Yet with the court itself being so pretty, the hoops displayed tonight were... a little ugly to start. Turnovers were rampant from both teams, fouls were being called all over the place. It was another game where Toronto was actually in it despite being the underdogs and Minnesota having several stars. Their defence disrupted the Wolves enough that the Raptors were able to edge out the win. It shows the immense growth this team has shown this season.

Let’s get into some highlights:

Scottie Barnes returns

It wasn’t his best showing of course, which is understandable after you’ve missed three weeks. He looked a little gassed, but still showed good effort. He did make two baskets from distance and assisted six of his teammates shots.

He did score a hearty 17 points, 3 rebounds, low for Scottie of course but not horrid overall.

Ultimately he needs a bit more conditioning before he’s back to the Barnes we all love. He’ll get that now as they Raptors don’t play until Sunday.

Boucher and Barrett

The duo of Chris Boucher and RJ Barrett went off today. Boucher scored 22 points, and Barrett had 31 points off of 10-14 shooting from the field. Along with Poeltl and Barnes, they were the only players in double digits for Toronto.

Barrett has been playing well for weeks, not just showing his trademark efficiency and scoring ability but also showing off his playmaking ability. With the Raptors’ backcourt suffering with injury, it’s nice to see Barrett be able to contribute to that — especially when Scottie was also out.

Staying Competitive and Showing Progress

Win or lose, the Toronto Raptors have been fun to watch. Winning is most fun.

What’s more fun this season is seeing the actual progress happen in front of our eyes. Last season was rough because it just kept getting worse — this season they just keep getting better.

The defence tonight especially moved me, as they were defending the paint pretty well despite the disadvantage of going up against Rudy Gobert. Jonathan Mogbo was being active on the defensive end as well, and Gradey Dick’s newfound physicality this season has helped him immensely.

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This was a good game... this team is GOOD. They may be young and scrappy, but they are hungry, That shows, and they are able to exploit their opponents’ weaknesses when they need to.

The Raptors now have a break before they play again on Sunday in Cleveland.