It happened halfway through the third quarter. The Toronto Raptors were on a real offensive run, one of their first of the game, not just a piddling four-zero hiccup that had sufficed as their best efforts to that point of the evening. Scottie Barnes was alone on a fastbreak, nothing but open road in front of him and the wind in his hair. So of course, as is his wont, he decided to look back at Steven Adams to prove his machismo, his youth, his immortality. But he kept looking back and wouldn’t stop, addicted to the bravado. He dropped the ball, fumbled it, reality catching up to him like rain on an open convertible. Adams caught up to Barnes. Eventually he gathered the ball, putting in the hasty and shameful layup.
“I didn’t see that,” said Pascal Siakam after the game.
“Well at least he scored it,” said Nick Nurse. “I guess I wouldn’t care if they bounced it off the top of their head as long as it goes in.”
Barnes’ snatching victory from the jaws of defeat from the jaws of victory wasn’t even a fitting icon of the game, even that too proud a moment to represent Toronto’s 98-91 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.
Later, Barnes tried another lookback, again in transition again staring at a defender far behind him, missing the much larger defender much closer to him. Or maybe he stared at the larger defender, slowing down, offering a challenge to the defender, to himself. The no-look dunk attempts may have been the first of its kind, but it ended in outright rejection, Jaren Jackson jr. sending Barnes’ dunk attempt away. Perhaps that allegory was more fitting.
“If it doesn’t go in then we’re probably talking about another situation,” Nick Nurse also said after the game of Barnes’ propensity for lookbacks.
The issues with Toronto’s offense were many. Dillon Brooks did to Fred VanVleet what VanVleet did to Steph Curry during the 2019 NBA FInals; he remained glued to VanVleet’s hip, not giving him any space to catch the ball, let alone dribble it and try to make a play. Playing four on four ought to be an offensive advantage, but the Raptors found themselves unable to find many true advantages on the ensuing possessions. Every possession was a grind, winding down to oblivion like a slinky with bent coils. The rim was off limits. VanVleet finished with 15 points, all hard-fought, each inch requiring a war to win, only to find a hand grenade left in the vacated trenches.
The image fleshed out in miniature, in anecdotes of failure masquerading as success, success masquerading as failure: Barnes erasing a Memphis layup, only for no one to rotate over to clean the glass, the Grizzlies finding an uncontested putback. VanVleet driving, blocked, the ball bouncing off his head out of bounds, Memphis ball. Boucher finally playing again, dunking to beat the halftime buzzer, but dead-eyed, no reaction, Fast Eddie Boucher: sure got character now, picked it up in a hotel room in Louisville. Broken offensive sets with the ball in Precious Achiuwa’s hands, panic, not knowing what to do so shooting, flailing, bailed out by a whistle. Barnes hitting a clutch three, five-point game!, but the full-court press losing Jackson so completely that he dunks uncontested, game over. Barnes hitting another clutch three after, for fun, too late.
“We’re seeing a lot of peaks and valleys all within the same game, almost every game now,” Nick Nurse said after the game about Barnes but as much about the team, the focus.
The crowd filing out, time still remaining in an ostensibly close game, those who didn’t leave at halftime. Desmond Bane missing a free throw with 20 seconds left, the game decided, free pizza, no crowd left to cheer.
Toronto has moments of which it can be proud on a basketball court. Frankly, more than enough of those positives to win. But the team doesn’t do enough to convert on the promise. The defense is elite, but the offensive rebounds kill the momentum. The offense finishes tough plays, but why tough? No connection, no ability to make life a little easier, the road a little smoother. Games are lost, wished away, airy and unserious. The Raptors are Barnes, flying to the rim, all promise, uncontested, looking back too much, too long, lost at sea.
