Scottie Barnes goes historic for win in RJ Barrett’s return
When RJ Barrett was out with injury, he would occasionally come peek into the media room and say: “Y’all miss me?”. With the Raptors ranking as the NBA’s worst offense, and with a bullet, since Barrett’s knee sprain, it was hard not to think: “yes.”, but the reaction was typically a bit of laughter from the media collective. Everybody missed Barrett, but they also missed the comfortable roles everyone lived in on the court when he was healthy.
After the first quarter, in just 6 minutes of play, Barrett was the Raptors leading scorer with 7 points on 100% shooting. A cut for a dunk. A triple in the face of Draymond Green. An early work seal on Steph Curry for a layup. His presence an obvious help in the Raptors offensive process and on the way to a 33-point first quarter for the Raptors. An offensive burst they weren’t necessarily used to over the last stretch. The Raptors did this with Immanuel Quickley posting 0 points, 0 rebounds and 0 assists and Brandon Ingram providing 4 points on 6 shots.
To start the second quarter the Raptors ran a set play (shallow 77) with Barrett on ball that loosed Barnes for a dunk in the halfcourt. He punctuated a play shortly after with his second 3-pointer of the game. Later, a live-dribble righty skip pass to Ja’Kobe Walter for a triple out of the pick n’ roll. Also, Barrett’s presence and creation allowed Barnes to slide into a more robust role as a defender and middle man on offense. Shredding Warrior advantages and making them move the ball on, closing out possessions on the glass, and connecting the Raptors offense as a playmaker – to the tune of 9 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 stocks in the first half, and obviously something that became historic as the game went along.
Helpful. Very helpful. And helpful against the Warriors 3rd ranked defense. The Raptors offense immediately looked far more dynamic, far deeper, and the numbers clearly stated that it was performing better. It would be hard to envision these Raptors having a 65 point first half with Ingram & Quickley combining for 16 points on 19 shots and no made threes without an infusion of talent.
Barrett was not immune to his lack of conditioning though, as it caught up with him in the second half. There’s still work to be done in getting him back to his best.
Additionally, the Raptors were not immune to the churn of the Warriors offense. Despite the Raptors relative strength on the defensive end, they don’t have a great option to guard Curry – even though Ochai Agbaji’s effort was easy to observe. They don’t have a great option to stick on Jimmy Butler. And while the Raptors benefited early from cheating off of Green with Barnes, but the Warriors sprinted out to a 12-point lead in the opening stretch of the third quarter behind the scoring of Green. The Warriors controversial power forward hit his season high in scoring early in the second half and eclipsed 3 made triples for just the second time in 2025-26. The Raptors were in a constant whirl of cheating to help and waiting for the trade off that might come via shot making from the Warriors. We saw them break out a triangle and two and a box and one to vex Golden State.
Maybe the worst part was that despite clearly overloading on Curry to try and stop him — which allowed the Warriors to shake loose for scoring elsewhere — he still scored the basketball a lot in the third. 13 points, and all of them tough to stomach. 29 points on 17 shots at the time when he checked out of the third quarter. It was bad news though, for the Warriors, who crumbled almost the moment he left the floor.
The Raptors linked together a furious 8-0 run across a minute of play to close out the third quarter and climb back within four points. Down 12 with about 55 seconds left in the quarter, the Raptors trapped and blitzed the Warriors to great success. Steals and layups are a great combination.
Unfortunately, Agbaji was put on skates by Curry for an and-1 and his 5th foul of the game on the opening play of the fourth quarter. Curry’s ability to keep stiff-arming the Raptors was beyond impressive. On the other side, the Raptors were sustaining a shooting slump at the same time. They opened the fourth quarter shooting 1/10 from the field. Sure, they were getting some stops, but if you don’t score there’s just no way to gain ground – especially because your missed shots, or at least a certain percentage of them, become run outs for the opposing offense. After the first rush of play, the Raptors were back down by 12 points.
Barnes & co. countered with some scoring, some run outs, but it always seemed like there was an offensive rebound, a big triple from the Warriors, something to keep the Raptors at a distance. With 4 minutes left the Raptors were stuck 5, at 113-108. Barrett had left the game after 24 minutes — he had a minutes restriction — and the Raptors were trying to steal the win with a lineup of Quickley-Shead-Walter-Ingram-Barnes. They would need impact from everybody.
The Raptors sent attention Curry’s way from the outset of every possession. Deny defense across 94-feet. They asked others on the Warriors to initiate, and asked Shead to track and irritate the future hall-of-famer. Largely, the approach worked. Sure, Curry shook loose a couple times, but the Raptors forced a chunk of turnovers by blitzing the other Warriors. Ingram hit some contested middy’s, Quickley started landing the plane on his triples, and Barnes continued to amass an insanely big box score total. The Raptors brought the game even with a minute to play after an ‘IQ;’ triple. Unfortunately, on the other side, Quickley allowed Podziemski to slither past him for a putback the next time down.
One foul turn deserves another though, as Barnes’ putback on a missed Ingram triple tied the game up on the other side, and Shead’s pestering defense held up to the last play of the Warriors’ in regulation, as his face got in the middle of a Curry rip through, drawing an offensive foul with 2.4 seconds to play. It came to nothing though, as the Raptors went conservative for their last look, pitching to Ingram and asking him to hit a contested triple over the arms of Green – it didn’t go.
Free basketball. And you’d think the basketball were free, the way Barnes was grabbing that thing. A steal, a caught lob for a bucket, and 5 rebounds in the first minute and a half of overtime to help power the Raptors to a 7-point lead.
Barnes was incredible. He supported the guards’ pressure as the roamer. He assaulted the offensive glass repeatedly. High pointing the ball, pursuing air space only he could access. He even stepped out on Curry on occasion defensively. Unreal physical dominance. The type of performance you tell your kids about.
The Raptors star left the game with a 14-point lead, 48 seconds on the clock, and an insane stat line of 23 points, 25 rebounds, 10 assists, 3 steals and 1 block. The first Raptor to ever put up a 20 & 20 triple-double.
He promptly laid out on the Raptors bench. He gave everything to that one. A huge win for the Raptors.
Have a blessed day.
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