It’s the beginning of a week-plus long home stand for the Toronto Raptors, as they welcomed the Portland Trail Blazers to Scotiabank Arena Tuesday night. After losing in back-to-back games against Charlotte and New York on the road this weekend, the Raptors got the news that Scottie Barnes was the Eastern Conference’s Defensive Player of the Month for October/November. Darko Rajakovic was also nominated for Coach of the Month, but lost to Detroit’s JB Bickerstaff.
Regardless of those nods, it was time to get to work and kick off a condensed week of games with a good start. While Portland were surely a formidable opponent, their injury luck hasn’t been the best this season. A win tonight was necessary to stop the bleeding from the losses of the weekend and start this stretch with confidence.
With the winning streak now behind us (for now?), the Raptors will have a challenging stretch of games ahead of them. Back-to-backs, star players, West Coast teams, and the NBA Cup single elimination round. That’s okay, though; part of growing as a team is learning how to face the adversity that is inevitable in the NBA.
Darko’s Coach of the Month nomination relates back to this, too, given that he is such a great coach to lead a developing team through growth. It’s why he was hired, and it’s why he’s seeing a lot of progress this season. Gone are the tanking days, and now Darko can lead this team to the best of his ability to some success this season.
When Darko was asked about his Coach of the Month nomination before the game against Portland, he didn’t really have much to say about it, but noted that he doesn’t really have many feelings about it. The team is just focused on “getting 1% better every day,” as he put it. That was also the message during their nine-game winning streak — don’t lose focus, don’t let ego (from these recognitions) get in the way of the real work. It’s that humble and connected team culture that is being talked about around the league by guys like Kendrick Perkins and others. Darko doesn’t let anyone get too inflated, but also instills confidence in pride in them as well. Immanuel Quickley said it best after the game, this team thrives on “staying even-keeled.”
A big reason why the Raptors faltered over the weekend is because of RJ Barrett’s absence from the lineup. The Canadian is averaging nearly 20 points a game for the team and brings a ton of physical offence and efficiency to his role. His importance had been emphasized in his absence as he recovers from a minor knee injury and hopes to return during this home stand.
Yet, that means the Raptors are down a starter, and while their top replacements are great defensively, it’s hard to replace that offensive impact.
That’s only hindered the Raptors some of the time over the past week. On Saturday, it was their inability to get anything going in overtime, and on Sunday, they were just overpowered by the Knicks.
Tuesday night’s game was more of an even contest, with the lead flip-flopping more. The Raptors were able to recover from a huge discrepancy in three-point shooting to start the game, and while they definitely let Portland continue to come back, they always recovered. It was easier for them to maintain a 15-point lead in the second half, with their shooting recovered and with Immanuel Quickley and Scottie Barnes both scoring 20+ points in the third. Ultimately it came down to a clutch game situation for the Raptors… again. Feels like a lot of those lately, but the Raptors have a winning record in these situations this season, 7-3.
Scottie Barnes, in particular, was proving he earned a league-wide nod this week with his contributions on the court. Barnes has been playing at an All-Star level this season, averaging 19.9 points per game with 8.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 3.0 stocks per game.
“I’ve been guarding the best player [on opposing teams] since middle school,” Barnes told the media on Tuesday.
It was Barnes and Quickley who continued to show up offensively for the Raptors, especially when Ingram sat for a lot of the 4th quarter after rolling his ankle. Despite another clutch game situation for the Raptors, they were able to get the win 121-118 over Portland.
Barnes scored 28 points in the win shooting 10-18 from the field and 3-7 from three, with 7 rebounds, 7 assists, and 2 blocks. He does everything for this team, and the way he is putting together his leadership on and off the court in his 5th year in the NBA is pushing this team to new heights. If the Raptors keep winning like they are, now with a record of 14-7 on the season, Scottie should already be a lock for an All-Star spot.
“This was a big time win for us, we really needed it,” Barnes said in his post game media session.
The Toronto Raptors play again this Thursday when they welcome the Los Angeles Lakers to Scotiabank Arena.