Best moments from 2024-25 Raptors season #2: RJ Barrett & Gradey Dick lead Raptors to thrilling win on Vince Carter Night
This article is a part of a five-part series highlighting the best moments from the 2024-2025 Toronto Raptors season.
Exhilarating games are few and far between in a 30-win season, but I will never forget watching this one in person.
The night celebrated one of the greatest Raptors of all time, Vince Carter. It started out with a press conference where Carter got emotional about his tenure in Toronto, reminiscing about the old days while talking about how much he had grown since then. Carter’s jersey was lifted up into the rafters of Scotiabank Arena at halftime with his friends, family, and members of the Raptors organization giving speeches honoring him.
It was a wildly emotional experience for everyone involved, and it made for an incredible sports moment for a player and a fan base with so much history.
It’s fitting that Carter’s jersey retirement fell on a day the Raptors were set to play the Kings.
Carter spent one of his final years in the league as a King and is extremely well-respected in that organization. Not to mention, the Kings have tons of Canadian/Raptors connections between Trey Lyles, DeMar DeRozan, and then-assistant coach Jay Triano.
Speaking of DeRozan, Drake jumped on the Raptors broadcast to start chirping him midway through the game, claiming, “If you ever put a DeRozan banner up, I’ll go up there and pull it down myself.” DeRozan responded post-game with a jab, simply stating “He’s going to have a long way to climb to take it down, so tell him good luck.” All of this was as a result of DeRozan being in Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’ diss track to Drake the summer prior. Silly stuff, but only added to the spectacle of a really entertaining basketball game.
The Raptors were without Scottie Barnes, who had just suffered a brutal eye injury three games prior versus the Denver Nuggets in a tightly contested affair. The undermanned Raptors followed that loss to the Nuggets with close losses to the Charlotte Hornets and Los Angeles Lakers. Despite missing their All-Star and Immanuel Quickley, a team led by Barrett, Jakob Poeltl, and an improving Gradey Dick was playing competitive basketball.
They put it all together for one magical night.
The team withstood clutch buckets by DeRozan, who scored 33 points, and De’Aaron Fox, who added in 24 of his own, to pull out a thrilling overtime win.
Barrett and Gradey were the stars. Barrett poured in 31 points, nine rebounds, and six assists, and Dick dropped in 22 points, five rebounds, two steals and two assists, one of which was a beautiful connection with Barrett for an alley-oop in overtime.
It was thrilling in every sense of the word. And it was easily the best game of the Raptors’ season.
All Toronto Raptors odds are provided by NBA Betting Site Betway!
Presented by Betway
The post Best moments from 2024-25 Raptors season #2: RJ Barrett & Gradey Dick lead Raptors to thrilling win on Vince Carter Night first appeared on Raptors Republic.