Barnes reaffirms superstar potential in Raptors’ comprehensive win

CLEVELAND, Ohio — This is how they drew it up, as the Toronto Raptors’ brain trust projected how the group they have put together could compete against the best teams in the Eastern Conference. 

A dose of Brandon Ingram’s tough shot-making when needed, coupled with some elite three-point shooting from Immanuel Quickley, ‘steady Eddie’ stuff from Jakob Poeltl, a varied array of contributions from the bench unit and — this is the big one — Scottie Barnes playing like a superstar. 

It’s a formula that might have some legs. Especially the Barnes as a superstar part. 

The fifth-year wing has had an impressive start to the season, but he was not only the best player on the floor in the Raptors’ 126-113 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers Thursday night — Toronto’s most impressive win yet this season — he might have been the best player in any single phase of the game. 

He finished with 28 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists, five blocked shots and a steal. It’s hard to stuff a box score more fully that that, but so many of his buckets came on plays that only he could seemingly make, like when he rotated along the three-point line to block Evan Mobley’s jump shot and scored at the other end to start the second half, or when he battled for a defensive rebound in traffic against the larger Cavaliers, sprinted out in transition and ripped a left-handed, no-look, cross-body pass to Poeltl later in the same frame — one of Barnes’ four set-ups for the Raptors centre. Three of his blocks came against the Cavs’ pair of seven-footers, Jarrett Allen and Mobley. Seemingly every rebound was in heavy traffic. He scored nine of his points in the second quarter as the Raptors shook off a sluggish start to go into halftime leading by 13, and then 10 in the fourth quarter after Cleveland had cut what had been a 17-point lead in the third quarter down to five. 

“I know what I’m capable of, so just gotta bring that every single night,” said Barnes. “Be aggressive, attacking downhill, being aggressive on both ends, and I was just helping my teammates a lot. If someone gets beat just trying to be help for them. So just doing those things on both ends. Once I’m aggressive, then I’m attacking downhill and just drawing the defence on me and being able to kick out. You know, just opens up a lot for our team.”

And not just in any given game. Suddenly, the Raptors’ rocky four-game losing streak that saw them come into Cleveland two weeks ago with a 1-4 record and needing a 20-point explosion (on perfect 6-of-6 shooting from three) from little-used Jamison Battle to beat a Cavs team missing three starters and several rotation players seems like a decade ago. This time, the Raptors leave Cleveland with a 7-5 record, having won 6-of-7, with a chance to go 7-of-8 when they finish their road trip Saturday against the injury-riddled Indiana Pacers, who are 1-11 after losing to Phoenix on Thursday night. The Cavs fell to 8-5. 

But it wasn’t just Barnes playing to his full potential, which is why his performance stood up. Quickley played perhaps his best game of the season, finishing with 25 points and six assists on 10-of-13 shooting, including 5-of-7 from deep. He scored three crucial baskets in the fourth quarter — a pair of threes and a pull-up in the lane — to salt the game away. 

At first glance, Ingram had a quiet night — 5-of-15 for 11 points is an off night by his standards — but all of his buckets came under heavy pressure in the halfcourt, and they seemed to come at moments when the Raptors were bogging down, offensively. As such, his willingness to get off the ball when the Cavaliers were over-playing him or doubling him loosened up opportunities for others. 

“He draws so much attention,” said Barnes of Ingram, who had four assists. “You know, they were sticking more close to him today, denying him, trying to be super aggressive, playing on his top side, so you just got to find ways to help him out, but he’s also drawing a defender out of the play, so the lanes are more open, there’s less help there.”

Poeltl was the beneficiary of the attention paid to Ingram and Barnes as he finished with a season-high 20 points, and his rebounding (three offensive and four defensive) and three steals made him a factor at both ends as well. 

But for all of their contributions, outside of Barnes, the bench was arguably the most important element in shifting the tide of the game. 

Toronto was trailing by 10 with just under three minutes to play in the first quarter, mainly because they insisted on fouling Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell every time he touched the ball. At least it was proof that they had read the scouting report, given that Mitchell came into the game averaging 30.4 points per game and connecting on 40.4 per cent of his 10 three-point attempts per game. But various Raptors defenders had sent Mitchell to the free-throw line eight times by the time the game was nine minutes old. Once they broke that habit (not completely, as Mitchell ended up shooting 15-of-17 from the line on his way to 31 points), Toronto was able to pull itself back into the fight. 

They did it thanks to a 20-3 run over a five-minute span bridging the first and second quarter, a surge sparked by a bench unit that is having a bigger and bigger impact as the season has picked up pace. Second-year point guard Jamal Shead hit a pair of threes while assisting on a pair of other buckets, while back-up centre Sandro Mamukelashvili added a pair of triples and a fastbreak lay-up on his way to chipping in 13 points and five rebounds in 17 minutes. Shead finished with eight points and seven assists in his 23 minutes. 

“When he steps on the floor for us, he’s a game changer,” said Barnes. “We had a lot of games this year where offence looks slow, comes in the game defensively, offensively, changes that entire game. It’s like a little boost, like a little sense of like ‘we’re ready to go’ when he steps on the floor. He changes the game with his offence, defence, be able to get downhill, make those extra reads …  he’s super important for our team. He’s been a leader every single day. It’s his, what, second year in the league? And I feel like he’s one of our main leaders.”

But Barnes is the leader who matters most. When he’s playing at this level, he’s the kind of star player who can lift teams to unexpected heights. It’s only 12 games into an 82-game season, but Barnes and the Raptors are beginning to chart a direction for themselves that could take them to some interesting places. 

Respect the buy-in: Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson had some high praise for the job his counterpart has done to date with the Raptors.

“Their offence is improved, top-10 in the league (Raptors were, indeed, 10th in the NBA before Thursday’s game with an offensive rating of 116.9 per 100 possessions), they’re definitely pushing the ball more, playing off their defence more … but defensively, what stands out is their pressure, can you get the ball over halfcourt against these guys?

“It’s 48 minutes of hell, like those Arkansas teams (up-tempo teams coached to great success by Nolan Richardson in the 1990s). It’s very similar to that, I love it … [but] Darko is doing a hell of a job creating an identity and getting their major players to buy in. Like, that’s part of this. You can have any style of play you want to play, but getting guys like BI (Ingram) and RJ (Barrett) to buy in; that’s a real credit to their coaching staff and their players.”

It was a good draft: Ever since their rookie year, Evan Mobley and Scottie Barnes have been tethered together, given they were taken third and fourth, respectively, and they finished 1-2 in Rookie of the Year voting, with Barnes coming out on top.

In the years since, you’d have to give Mobley the slight edge over Barnes, given he already has a Defensive Player of the Year award and All-NBA recognition from last season, and another all-defensive nod on top of that, to Barnes’ one all-star season in 2023-24.

But even before his strong showing last night, Barnes was holding his own, coming into Cleveland averaging 19.5 points, 7.4 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.5 blocks while shooting 50 per cent from the floor and 44 per cent from three.

He got the better of Mobley on Thursday as the Cavs’ big finished with just seven points, nine rebounds, three assists and one steal on 2-of-7 shooting. But on the season, Mobley was putting up 20.1 points, 8.6 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.5 blocks on 47.9 per cent shooting (34.5 per cent from three) before Thursday’s game. Barnes and Mobley are the only two players in the league averaging at least 1.5 blocks and 1.5 steals per game so far this season.

Was there anything extra in Barnes’ performance against his draft day peer? “I’m just trying to go out there, win a game, you know?” said Barnes. “Evan Mobley is really good. Even though people always (try to compare us). He’s super talented …he’s a hell of a player.”

Up next: The Raptors aren’t supposed to look ahead, but that doesn’t mean we can’t. Toronto is well-positioned to go on a bit of a roll in the next few weeks as they face Indiana (1-11), Charlotte (4-7), Washington (1-11) and Brooklyn (1-10) twice in five of their next six games. The only team they face with a winning record in the next few days is the 76ers (7-4) next Wednesday in Philly.