Scottie Barnes returns to NBA action in a loss to the Wizards
If anyone were at all worried about how Scottie Barnes might look on the court tonight — considering this was his first NBA action since march 1st — well, he played as if he wanted to quell any worries within 2 minutes of tuning in.
A brutish, anti-fumble-rumble into the lane for a push shot, a no hesitation middy pull, and one of his classic transition ‘power line passes’ (high release point bullet pass to a big man catching high and filling the lane) and there were 6 points in the shortest order. Boom! Timeout called by Washington. There will be fits and starts in a preseason game, of course, but the Raptors have been dealing with an inordinate amount of injuries early on, and to see their incumbent star looking so good, well, that was sublime. Sure, there were a lot of turnovers, but gamespeed, timing, teammates – choose any comfortability-adjacent reason you’d like and make your peace with it.
We got the DJ Carton ‘Grenade DHO’ to Chris Boucher. We got the high pick n’ roll with Jonathan Mogbo on ball, throwing a lob pass into a swath of bodies as if he expected Calvin Johnson to be on the other end, emerging to catch it (it was Bruno Fernando, and a turnover). We even got a hurried, quickened pull-up from Barnes that broke from his regular form and will allow everyone to dream on his mechanics starting to mimick that of Klay Thompson or Donovan Mitchell. Preseason, baby.
Similar to the first game against the Wizards, the Raptors unleashed their bevy of ball pressure guards on them. Whether it was Thwompy Davion Mitchell, Jamal Shead, or DJ Carton – they were all darting in front of ball handlers, around screeners, and down into the paint for digs. Hellacious, the lot of them. It didn’t help though, that the backup guards combined to shoot 3-18 on the night. It wasn’t a highlight night for the Wizards guards either, but still, tough. Mutually assured destruction.
Of course, since it was a basketball game, and Chris Boucher is good at basketball – he stuffed the stat sheet in short order. You can eventually get to a point where you start to parse out how important counting stats are and all that jazz, and that’s typically where Boucher detractors will try to take that conversation, but don’t let them. Don’t ever turn your nose up at a player like Boucher who always leaves it on the floor, always scores, and always rebounds. The political state of things has put him in a liminal space with the Raptors, but my god if he doesn’t toss on the hard hat every night.
At their worst, the Raptors were going long stretches without scoring, allowing runouts in transition (giving up threes) and failing to to track 3-point shooters in the halfcourt. The Wizards playing Alex Sarr at the 5 was key for them to mine for advantages offensively, and the Raptors weren’t able to punish them on the other side. Switching schemes nullified a lot of the pick n’ roll + dribble-hand-off initiated offense, and none of the elbow-initiated actions (typically out of horns) convince the Wizards to move out of their spots on defense. It culminated in a 12-2 run for the Wizards to close out the first half and take the lead.
The longer things went on, the more you noticed the absence of RJ Barrett & Immanuel Quickley in particular. Barnes extended himself, then overextended himself as a creator. It was easy to see the ball reversals to a host of end of rotation guys, watch them stagnate, and hope for health as result. Although, it was cool to see what this required of Gradey Dick – who, if he’s going to hit his ceiling, has to be more than a shooter. Dick was rarely allowed to set his feet, and was set in motion to sprint towards the ball and attempt to rescue halfcourt possessions pretty regularly – to middling results. But still, trying stuff is cool, and trying elite stuff is cooler.
The effort stuff was a constant for the Raptors, as they outpaced the Wizards in points off turnovers, offensive rebounds, and fastbreak points. However, by the time the 4th quarter rolled around, they were in a 30-point deficit from downtown. 30 points from one spot on the floor is a really difficult wall to scale over, and the Raptors didn’t look the climbing type in this one.
If there were a silver lining, it would be the play of Mogbo – who had struggled mightily to this point (but, the track record is roughly 20 minutes long, so). Mogbo finally got the screen/seal/ball entry/dunk sequence I’ve been preaching about for months. He made plays out of a live dribble in the open floor, and in the halfcourt via delay action and interpretive play. There were less defensive miscues, his offensive rebounds weren’t his own misses. It was good. Caveats apply to a preseason game against the Wizards, but they apply going the other way regarding his struggles.
Bilal Coulibaly looks awesome, by the way.
Ultimately, the Raptors fell to a pretty lackluster Wizards team. Some fun things happened, some disappointing things happened as well. It’s preseason. Thems the breaks.
Have a blessed day.
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