Conversations about the Toronto Raptors have been rife with discord. Anytime a young star has a presence on a team, competing conceptions of their impact and ceiling are argued to death, and the process of how they achieve that aforementioned ceiling is also argued to death. Other players help, or hurt, or help and hurt, but they do something, and so further stances must be taken regarding that interplay.
The fandom argues about it. Rumors concerning the players with overlapping skillsets fly frequently. It all wreaks of a very strong “This town ain’t big enough for the 3 of us.” vibe. Is it true? Maybe, I don’t know, who cares. Everyone’s stance is already firm on this stuff and we’ll see how it shakes out in the summer. What’s new? Well, the Raptors 3 marquee wings — Pascal Siakam, Scottie Barnes, O.G. Anunoby — linked up for a sterling performance between all of them. The town is big enough, for a night.
All north of 20 points. All north of 50-percent from the field. All with 5 assists or more. And three pretty great defensive performances to boot, with Anunoby lapping the field on that end – as he’s meant to.
This whole season — and perhaps for years going forward — the Raptors broadcast and social media teams have been trying to convert Barnes’ excellent late game performances into a suitable nickname. I believe “Fourth Quarter B” is in the lead. Having heard Matt Devlin say it multiple times, and with Kayla Grey also asking him about it after a win – it’s the in the lead. Last night, Barnes jumped out to a 12-point first quarter that featured no assists. All gas, no brakes.
“I’ve always said that. If you’re a pass-first guy and you want to pass you’re gonna have to score some, right? So that they have to put two or more on the ball and then you’ll be able to pass.”
Nick Nurse
His first quarter buffet of buckets featured an “EXPOSE HIM” moment while covered by Tyler Herro in the post, some bullying on the glass, a flash middle against Miami’s patented 3-2 zone for a mid-range jumper, and a race against the clock for a soaring dunk. It was awesome, and it all came in the flow of the offense.
“Obviously, Miami had schemed for what they were going to do against him. We kept completing passes to the size advantage because they were coming pretty hard on the baseline traps and then we were completing them out to a number of different ways – guys cutting down shooters around the bend.” Nurse said of Barnes after the game. “So, I just think that maybe he got a good start there with some inside stuff. I thought he had a really energetic game. He just had his head up and was moving with the ball quickly. Obviously the 12 assists were huge. He was finding a lot of the people kind of out of the next pass. We would get it out of the double and it would come to him, and he would find the next cutter going to the rim. Very good job of vision with him and finding guys for easy buckets and setting guys up.”
The major theme of the night: the Raptors big, bullying wings couldn’t be guarded by the Heat’s slough of point guards and combo guards. After the Heat watched Barnes score a dozen points against them in the first quarter, they converged on him. All of his 12 assists would come after that. Some, of course, would come via Barnes’ dazzling, savant-like reads of the open court in transition, but many came after he found a soft spot in the zone, or posted up a mismatch. With the Heat sending the double, basically on the catch, the Raptors offensive process was very simple: post-entry pass, cut.
“His size lets him be open even if they put a guy with him you can still kind of throw it up and he can still catch it. Then if they do that you certainly have 2-on-1 on the backside which is what we had. I think our guys were ready for those.”
Nick Nurse on Scottie Barnes
And where did Anunoby and Siakam fit in next to Barnes’ stardom? Well, right beside it, with feature plays of their own. The Heat’s scheme did a lot of the Raptors work for them. You force the ball out, and if it finds Barnes? His basketball brain is going to find a way.
What happens though, when the Heat play a little more conservative and won’t grant breakdowns in an attempt to create hazardous decision making? Well, you don’t go to Barnes to create advantages from a standstill – at least not yet. Big things in the future, almost assuredly, but for now you run Siakam through Iverson cuts and let him work with the ball in his hand. You put Anunoby in the mismatches that the Heat no longer want to surrender to Barnes. In those positions, Siakam and Anunoby continued to make great plays. It wasn’t a rockstar performance from the Raptors offense, I mean, how could it be when they shoot 23-percent from downtown? But, their jumbo wings leveraged their size and their skill, in different orders, to lead the charge.
Barnes’ role is, perhaps, not as defined as some people want it to be. Maybe not as defined as it needs to be. But, in an NBA that wants less and less rote actions and more and more read and react? His ability to blend into anything and accentuate his strengths while masking his weaknesses? Incredibly impressive.
He’s been an absolute joy to cover this season. Can’t wait to keep watching him grow.
Have a blessed day.
