Scottie Barnes’ Career Night Leads Toronto to NBA Cup Win Over Indiana
Last night was an emphatic win for the Toronto Raptors. They controlled the game for the majority of its duration, their defense was playing on a string for most of the game, and their offense, supercharged by big nights from Scottie Barnes and RJ Barrett, hummed for most of the game. There is an emphasis on “most of the game” because despite having a 20+ point lead, Toronto found themselves in a single digit game at the end of the third quarter and headed into the fourth quarter. Toronto still battled back and held off the comeback attempt of the Pacers for an eventual 122-111 win.
Barnes had a career high 35 points last night and his driving was the catalyst that sparked this explosion. Barnes consistently found his way into the paint in both halfcourt and transition possessions. There were not many moments where you could not hear Barnes bellowing on the court, urging his teammates to give him the ball in transition so he could push the pace, and create scoring opportunities for his teammates and himself. There was a profound pick n’ roll synergy between Barnes and Jakob Poeltl last night as well, Poeltl was consistently getting layups and floaters as a result of Barnes running pick n’ roll with him. Barnes scored all over the floor, in different ways, he hit some tough mid range looks when his drives were stifled by Pascal Siakam or Andrew Nembhard, he was not shy about firing from behind the arc, shooting 3/7 from there. Barnes’ imprint on this game was felt largely on both ends of the floor, when Barnes is at his best, the team is much better.
Barrett poured in 29 points of his own, and it was also his hard-nosed driving that led to his scoring night. Cutting to the rim off of “Delay” sets by Poeltl, taking defenders off the dribble in late shot clock situations, crashing the boards after missed shots, any way that you can get to the rim and finish, Barrett did it. Barrett’s ability to play comfortably within the flow of the offense is more apparent when there is more talent in the lineup. When he is forced to be a primary, which he has had to be due to injury issues this season, the efficiency wanes, but when players like Barnes return to the lineup to lessen his burden, it is apparent that Barrett is a more than positive offense player.
The combination of Barnes and Barrett bludgeoning them caused Indiana to be on the other end of a large deficit. Defensively, Toronto was pressuring Indiana heavily, forcing many turnovers, and capitalizing on those turnovers on the other end. Jonathan Mogbo and Davion Mitchell were both at the forefront of Toronto’s defense, both causing chaos and turnovers as well.
The game seemed all but finished until the third quarter where Toronto egan to go away from what was working offensively, which allowed Indiana the room to come back in the game. Tyrese Haliburton had his best road game of the season last night, and his seemed very comfortable shooting the ball, and drawing fouls when he did drive the ball. Going into the fourth quarter, with the lead dwindling, it was a group effort to hold off Indiana. Poeltl hit some nice layups and floaters, Agbaji hit a huge three when Indiana got within one possession of the lead, and Barnes and Barrett added in 6 and 7 points respectively to get the job done.
This was a strong win for Toronto and truly showed how good the defense can be when everyone is connected, the rotations are strong, and the ball pressure does what it is intended to do. For a rebuilding team, a night like this should be cherished.
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