TORONTO — The Toronto Raptors have problems that run a little bit deeper than whether RJ Barrett is in the lineup or not.
But having Scottie Barnes play like Superman can fix a lot of them.
Barnes played one of the best games of his five-year career on Sunday afternoon and the Raptors needed every minute of it to outlast the visiting Golden State Warriors 141-127 in overtime, somehow winning a game they trailed by seven with 1:45 to play.
Barnes finished with 23 points, 25 rebounds and 10 assists to put up the first 20-point, 20-rebound triple-double in franchise history. He also tied the Raptors’ franchise record for rebounds in a single game, sharing the mark Bismack Biyombo set back in 2016.
The win was a crucial bounce back from an ugly loss at Washington on Boxing Day and also snapped a concerning five-game home losing streak. The win improved Toronto to 19-14 and kicked off an important five-game homestand on the right note.
Barnes made it happen. It was the kind of stat line rarely seen in the NBA, unless it’s a Tuesday and three-time MVP Nikola Jokic is feeling it for the Denver Nuggets.
In fact, the only other player to have a triple-double with at least 20 points, 25 rebounds and 10 assists in the past 40 years of NBA history is Jokic, and now Barnes.
What stood out wasn’t simply the totals, but the timing of their accumulation. In the final 90 seconds of regulation Barnes dunked in the post to pull the Raptors within five, grabbed an offensive rebound that set up a Brandon Ingram (26 points) jumper that cut the Warriors lead to three, came up with a steal that led to a game-tying three by Immanuel Quickley (27 points and seven assists, with 16 coming in the fourth quarter and overtime) and then swooped in to grab a missed three by Ingram that tied the game with 23.6 seconds left.
The Raptors had a shot at the win in regulation after second-year guard Jamal Shead (eight points, eight assists) pressed up on the Warriors’ Steph Curry in the dying seconds and was able to draw an offensive foul that gave the Raptors the ball with 2.4 seconds left.
A contested Ingram three that missed at the horn pushed the game into overtime, and Barnes kept on keeping on. He opened the extra frame scoring on an alley-oop delivered by Shead and then grabbed two more off his nine offensive rebounds on the next possession to set up an Ingram jumper that put the Raptors up four. He then grabbed another offensive rebound on the next trip to set up a Ja’Kobe Walter triple that put Toronto up seven. Barnes put the Warriors away when he grabbed one more board, sprinted the floor and dunked to put the Raptors up 12.
“I was just going out there playing the game,” said Barnes, who was playing long stretches at centre as Jakob Poeltl (back) missed his third straight game and has played all of six minutes in the past 13 days. “I was in situations where I was able to rebound, help others. I was just in the right spots at the right time. Just trying to work my way on the other end, try to wedge them in, try to jump for it. I was finding those loose balls as well. It worked out for me today.”
It got the attention of Curry, whose efforts were nearly as popular as those of Barnes among a Scotiabank Arena crowd that was heavily dotted with his signature No. 30 jersey.
“He got them extra possessions all night,” said Curry, who finished with 39 points on 12-of-30 shooting while going 4-of-11 from three and 11-of-11 from the line under constant pressure from either Ochai Agbaji or Jamal Shead, along with whatever help defenders got drawn into the mix. “Nine offensive rebounds by himself … he was just relentless on the boards.”
The Warriors fell to 16-16 on the season after their three-game winning streak was snapped.
The Raptors have needed Barnes to make his presence felt like this with Poeltl missing so much time. The Raptors are promising an update of Poeltl’s status on Monday, but in the meantime, they have secured some measure of reinforcements, signing gifted former Orlando Magic centre Mo Bamba to a deal for the rest of the season.
The seven-foot-one former No. 6 overall pick is still just 27 and has always had talent for days. But Bamba has had a hard time sticking in the league after the Magic moved on midway through his fifth season, because the consistency of his effort has been a nagging question.
But perhaps the message is getting through. He played just 32 NBA games last season and had to go to the G League to prove himself this season. His performance at that level — 17.6 points, 11.7 rebounds and three blocks while connecting on 39.6 per cent of his threes — suggests that he might want to make the most of his next chance.
He’s going to have to continue that in Toronto. His contract is for the rest of the season only and doesn’t guarantee until Jan. 10, per league sources.
Even if Poeltl returns soon, having a good backup who can stretch the floor and allows Sandro Mamukelashvili to slide over to power forward — his natural position — instantly makes the Raptors bigger and deeper.
As does the return of Barrett. It will take him some time to get his legs going, but he makes the starting unit bigger and more physical, his driving, cutting and transition scoring a much-needed element for a Raptors attack that has been the least efficient in the NBA since Barrett went out.
In the early going, he showed how he can contribute, scoring on a couple of fastbreaks and hitting a weakside three. Later in the game, he worked a beautiful screen and roll with Barnes to get his teammate an uncontested dunk.
He wasn’t on the floor at the end of the game or in overtime as Darko Rajakovic opted to have fresh legs on the court, but he will be soon enough.
As big a load as Barnes was able to carry against the Warriors, he was pleased knowing he’s going to have someone to share it with.
“He creates so much pressure on the rim,” said Barnes of Barrett. “Catch and shoot is amazing. Transition, we know we miss him a lot, those fast breaks … he gets out and runs a lot. He leads our fast breaks. He’s big for us. With playmaking, you saw when I screened for him, being able to get that roll, going downhill [and getting]easy dunks. He does a lot for this team that it’s hard to try to take over in that sense.”
Did Barrett see what his team was missing while he was out?
“Of course, of course, I feel that,” said Barrett, who was averaging 19.4 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists before he went down. “The team felt that. But at the end of the day, I was out, so next man up mentality. And even throughout the course of this season, I’m not going to play in every single game, so we’ve just got to be able to, whoever’s out there, whoever we got, we got more than enough.”
But more is better, even when Barnes is at his most.
Grange for three
1. Shead’s big play: Being isolated on Curry with the clock winding down in a tie game is not the most comfortable position for any defender, but Shead made the most of it. He got low and crowded the Warriors superstar and was rewarded when Curry’s rip-through move was deemed an offensive foul after the ball hit Shead in the face. Shead has a knack for drawing offensive fouls, something he credits his former Raptors teammate, Davion Mitchell, for helping him learn the finer points of. But in this case, it was not his intention. “I wasn’t trying to reinvent the wheel, like I devised a new plan,” said Shead. “He’s one of the players I grew up watching … I’m just trying to stay on his hip, and anticipate … [but]I got lucky, I got a good call.”
2. Curry’s record I: The Warriors star has set the bar high for anyone coming after him who wants to challenge for the title of the world’s best-ever shooter. Just one example: Charlotte Hornets rookie Kon Knueppel is on pace for the best shooting season by a rookie in league history. If he keeps up his pace of 3.6 made threes and doesn’t miss a game, he will finish with 295 for the season, the 12th-best single-season total ever for any player, and one exceeded by only four players not named Steph Curry. The previous record for rookies was set by Keegan Murray in 2022-23 with 206. If Curry finishes his career with 5,000 made threes (he’d need about three more good seasons), Knueppel would need 16 more 82-game seasons like he’s on track for in this one to catch him.
3. Curry’s record II: But that’s not the Curry record that fascinates me. In 2015-16, Curry made 402 threes on his way to his second consecutive MVP award. He shot 45.4 per cent on threes (his best mark in any season he played more than 27 games) and played 79 games, the second-most of his career. The next closest total for a season was 378 by James Harden in 2018-19. Curry’s next best season is 357 in 2023-24. No one else has ever had more than 320, a mark Curry has topped five times. Could 402 end up being one of those generational records, 73 home runs or 92 goals? We’ll see. It translated to 5.1 made threes per game. So far, Curry is the only player in league history to average five or more made threes per game, and he’s only done it three times. This season, he’s leading the NBA in made threes per game again — 4.8 — and the next closest is Donovan Mitchell with four per game. “That season stands out because it was 10 years ago, and no one has come close, and people are taking way more threes than ever. It’s a reminder of how great Steph is,” said Warriors head coach Steve Kerr.
