Scottie Barnes had history in sight until injury robbed him in Game 5

Scottie Barnes was ready to join the Raptors’ pantheon of playoff legends. He was right there. Not knocking on the door, not yet, but the knob was in sight. 

It was easy to think, watching the first four games, If he keeps this up, there will be franchise legends looking up at him when all is said and done. For a time in Game 5 it looked the best it had yet been. Until it all came crashing down. 

Coming into the game, he was seventh in the playoffs in scoring per game and seventh in assists per game. His counting stats in some ways have told the story of his playoffs — he’d been the best player in the series to this point. But points and assists have missed as much as they’ve captured. He’s also been one of the best defenders of the playoffs, too, erasing entire swathes of the court with his help-and-recovery mania. 

The only problem was that his teammates, at least to start Game 5, were not ready to help him on the road to Valhalla. He started aflame, ready to soar. He controlled the pace of the game, was pushing after makes, answering Cleveland would-be runs with baseline pull-ups. But three of his teammates, first Jakob Poeltl in transition, then Brandon Ingram and Collin Murray-Boyles under the rim, dropped no-look Barnes baseball passes that should have all been relatively simple finishes. Barnes finished the first quarter with five assists, and it ought to have been more. 

It didn’t matter; he still built a lead behind singular brilliance on both ends.

Then the rest of the Raptors came to join Barnes in the second quarter. Kenny Atkinson and the Cleveland Cavaliers tested the Raptors by rolling out a nonsense lineup featuring three deep-bench players, and Barnes made them pay. He hit a pair of mid-rangers then twice found Poeltl for layups under the rim, the first time as a short roller in the pick and roll, the second time dancing in the middle of the floor in transition. 

And it was dancing for Barnes. He was skating around the court while the nine blurred background characters around him struggled in the muck. He swatted a James Harden step-back triple. Evan Mobley spun to the rim, tried a fadeaway jumper, and Barnes appeared out of thin air to casually and contemptuously bat it away. Donovan Mitchell tried to test Barnes at the nail, thinking he could drive past the Raptors’ star, and Barnes simply ripped the ball away, Ja’Kobe Walter grabbing the ball and hitting ahead to RJ Barrett for an uncontested dunk. 

Then in the midst of one of the best playoff performance in a Raptors jersey, it came: Midway through the second quarter Barnes pulled up lame on a drive and limped around the court on the next dead ball.

Things didn’t fall apart immediately. Instead of Barnes finding a gear made entirely of grit and gauze, it was his teammates who at first uplifted him. Uplifted themselves. Jarrett Allen dribbled lazily within the presence of Murray-Boyles, who of course calmly plucked the ball — who do you think you are, dribbling near me — leading to a Walter triple in the corner in transition. On the very next possession the Cavaliers, still unserious, tried a cross-court pass towards Walter’s man, but the Raptors’ guard stole it, bodily hurled Max Strus out of his path, and dunked the ball. 

The Cavaliers didn’t lay down. They didn’t say die. James Harden drilled pull-up triples, threw skipping-stone bounce passes for dunks, shredded Toronto’s defence. Dean Wade, Jaylon Tyson, Dennis Schroder hit their triples.

But Walter continued bombing away. He hit from the wing. He took a bounce pass 32 feet away from the rim that would have been a handoff, casually decided to launch instead, splashed the ball through the twine. Barrett found points in transition. Shead crossed over for a layup. Murray-Boyles wasn’t scoring, but he discontinued taking the ball on defence and winning rebounding battles. 

Toronto took a seven-point lead into halftime, scoring almost as many points at half as they were able to scavenge in all of Game 4. 

In fact, it was Barrett who led the Raptors in scoring. He hit triples, even a step-back on an offensive rebound that was far more difficult than it looked. He drove whomever he wanted under the rim. He collected free throws like pokemon cards. He tossed a smaller, weaker Mobley out of the way like it was Kawhi Leonard shattering Kevon Looney’s rim cage on a drive.

And in the third quarter, Barnes was dramatically limited. He didn’t move as well after his late first-half injury. His shots were fadeaways rather than moving towards the rim. Barrett kept Toronto afloat, grinding his way to points. But the Cavaliers were closing, closing, a shark chasing prey. The Raptors were a boat leaking water, a car out of gas, blood in the water. 

For a time, Barnes seemed to find his legs. Another no-look dime to Murray-Boyles for a layup. He pinned a Mitchell layup from out of nowhere, taking a Mitchell backhand to the eye for his efforts. But he was less mobile defensively, his invisible presence annihilating Cleveland’s offensive flow no longer functioning at top capacity. Mitchell windmill-dribbled into the middle of the floor, dominating for the first time since Game 2. Mobley started finding easy shots fall into his lap. Schroder even found layups.

The Raptors didn’t cave. Shead hit a prove-it triple. Jamison Battle back cut on an overplay and finished a lob from Jakob Poeltl. Toronto found some answers to enough questions to remain competitive. But Barnes wasn’t himself, and without him to be the rising tide and the lifted boat, the Raptors were chum in the water. Shead hit his triple, but he also drove to loft layups into crowds that got swatted. Walter’s uncontested triples vanished. In fact, everyone’s triples vanished. 

Meanwhile, Cleveland started finding very open layups. The Cavaliers’ took the lead, then grew it to two, then seven, then 10. Hobbled, slow, Barnes wasn’t able to seize the spotlight and wrench the narrative of the game that was so firmly driving in the opposite direction. He frequently let Barrett close the game, who drove with fearless élan, but it was like bringing a pistol to a bazooka fight without Barnes’ dominance to lead the way. 

Toronto won every offensive rebound, but it couldn’t hit the triples that came afterwards. And so the Raptors fell. They fell valiantly, and they fell passionately, but they fell all the same. The Raptors are now looking uphill at a Cleveland team that was tottering for the first 36 minutes of Game 5. Barnes, too, is looing uphill at his place in the pantheon. He finished with 17 points, 11 assists, eight rebounds, three blocks, and a steal. It looked like he could have had so much more. That will come. But injury and time will determine whether he’ll be able to seize his place on top of the mountain this postseason, or whether he’ll have to wait — who knows how long.

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