Scottie Barnes and the Raptors know themselves

The first time this season the Toronto Raptors played the New Orleans Pelicans, it was something of an embarrassment. Toronto won by 26, improving to 5-14. It was the Raptors’ first win on the road. Toronto was in a rough stretch, sure. But bad doesn’t look so bad when it meets bad. The Pelicans were godawful. Reminiscent of Toronto’s G-League stretch during March 2024. 

Both teams have improved since then. The Raptors are finally healthy (mostly), riding a three-game winning streak into the contest, and playing watchable, enjoyable basketball. And the Pelicans quite recently rode a four-game winning streak. They’re starting to approximate health, with real NBA players back in the lineup. 

Which made Toronto’s 113-104 win even more significant than the last time the two teams met. 

It was an example of casual success. Once upon a time, the Raptors used to make hay with easy wins like this one. Constant, churning victory, possession in and possession out, by a team that knew itself. Outside of a championship, perhaps that is the hallmark of the Kyle Lowry era. It is missed. And for one night, at least, the warm comfort of that feeling was jarring in its return.

There was success in the script. Scottie Barnes ran Spain pick and roll, and rather than even considering a pass to the back screener (as has often been his custom), Barnes put his head down and got the rim for a layup. Barnes lobbed Jakob Poeltl for an easy on in pick and roll. Delay action worked all night long.

There was also success out of the script. Barnes did his work early, fighting for a mismatch in the post. The double came from the baseline immediately on the catch, and Barnes simply turned into the double and tossed a frozen rope to Poeltl under the rim for the layup. RJ Barrett thrived in transition. Chris Boucher was, as always, an absolute madman. (Compliment.)

When the Pelicans turned to a zone to stifle Toronto’s constant pressure on the rim, the Raptors were left without offensive answers, at least for a stretch. 

But the defence was able to hold the fort, at least for a while. It wasn’t drop-dead gorgeous stuff, but it was good enough. Scottie Barnes frightened some Pelicans into turnovers or missed shots. Barrett rotated over to the rim to help with a perfectly vertical contest. And, yes, Zion Williamson simply cooked off the dribble, leaving in his wake Orlando Robinson, Poeltl, and any other would-be defender. But the Raptors were always able to staunch the bleeding, to localize the damage, and to move the play along to keep New Orleans from making a real run. 

Toronto’s bench eventually pushed the lead ahead, as the warm blanket of identity had predetermined. Jamal Shead hit a 3-pointer in transition, then Boucher. That’s what happens for teams who know who they are. They find answers, constantly pulling rabbits out of hats.

Darko Rajakovic has found something of a spine for the bench units: combining Poeltl and Barrett. The two have a poor net rating together on the season (negative-5.35), but that number misses the structure the two provide. There is always passing, cutting, driving on the offensive end. There is always something to which the Raptors can turn that isn’t isolation play, that doesn’t shift away from the system. 

And the two combined for solidity against New Orleans. Barrett scored. Poeltl hit the offensive glass like a coal miner. They ran a give-and-go starting approximately six feet from the rim. Or Barrett cut from the corner for a lob dunk coming from Poeltl. In the third after New Orleans put together a miniature run and forced a Raptors’ timeout, Poeltl found Barrett cutting for a layup out of delay action. In the fourth Poeltl passed Barrett backdoor for an uncontested dunk. The duo kept the boat afloat. The port in the storm. Good teams find those safe havens. So, too, did the Raptors. 

And the knockout punch of the first half came back when the starting group did. Gradey Dick came back into the game to drill a triple. Barnes drove for free throws. Davion Mitchell shouldered CJ McCollum out of the way for an uncontested layup. (To be fair, too many possessions were funneling to Mitchell early, and he wasn’t creating much with them, but he was still able to treat McCollum like a little brother in the driveway.)

Not everything was perfect. Even though Barnes’ passing was exceptional, his scoring punch was lacking. He settled for plenty of triples, which he largely missed. He wasn’t able to create for himself in the half-court, lofting his floaters akimbo over thickets of arms. His mid-range jumper abandoned him. Despite those limitations, Barnes pitched a gem of a game. There were other limitations: After a disastrous outing in his last game, Dick remained limp. Toronto’s shooting, as has become tradition, vanished. Offence from Toronto’s point guard spot was similarly void. 

None of those downsides really mattered. 

When all else failed, the Raptors set their watch to Bruce Brown Time. His floaters tolled the bells, and he even forced a travel on the defensive end with immense pressure. Mitchell hit a pull-up triple when he was furious with Jose Alvarado for trying his patented steal on an inbounds pass. Barnes snuck some points into the rim in the fourth, and picked up Williamson full court to force a slap-the-floor stop, and Poeltl chipped in for another stop on Williamson, too. 

Few of us at Raptors Republic thought the Raptors would be as bad as they have been to start the season. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but the operative phrase has largely been “too good to tank.” Not good enough for the playoffs or anything like that. But the gap between the Raptors and, say, the Wizards was a yawning chasm entering the season. Or, it was supposed to be. 

But then for months the gap between the Raptors and Wizards was more theoretical than anything else. At first, injuries were largely responsible. But then the Raptors got healthy and still just kept on losing. Then, slowly but surely, it all turned around. Not all at once. But bad, uncompetitive losses turned into ethical losses, turned into wins. The Raptors have all of a sudden found themselves in the midst of a nice little winning streak. Toronto’s defence has grown teeth. Real teeth. Scary ones that bite.

And barring someone in a position of power kneecapping the Raptors (which, you know, is very much still in play at the trade deadline), this was probably going to be the case. Most teams find stretches of solidity in the marathon of the NBA season. Toronto just doesn’t have the stench and putrescence required to compete in the loss column with the Wizards. Or, it turns out, the Pelicans.

Maybe you think Toronto’s inability to lose with consistency is a bad thing. It’s a matter of personal preference, of how you choose to be a fan. But the fact of the matter is that at least for one night, the Raptors were assured to win. They knew it from jump street. This used to be the feeling that opened something like half of Toronto’s games in any given season. I thought the feeling was gone for good. But the (Tied-)Hottest Team in the East (truly, a four-game winning streak is the (tied)-second-longest such mark in the league right now) looked like the Raptors from the halcyon days of 2017. A team that knew itself. A team that had faith in all things. 

That’s probably where the comparison ends. Once upon a time those Raptors had certainty in their own identity for years at a time. The 2025 Raptors are coming up on two consecutive weeks now. Still. Two weeks of certainty, of identity, of the warm blanket of predetermination like the days of yore are nothing at which to scoff. Maybe, just maybe, the Raptors can use them as a launching pad.

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