Scottie Barnes returns to Raptors’ lineup

TORONTO – The Toronto Raptors person added Scottie Barnes and subtracted the constituent defender presumption from their starting lineup.

Barnes, wearing protective goggles with reddish frames, returned to the Raptors lineup connected Thursday nighttime for the archetypal clip since helium fractured his close orbital bony connected Oct. 28. To marque abstraction for the all-star guardant successful Toronto’s starting five, caput manager Darko Rajakovic made the unorthodox determination of having nary constituent guard.

That prime paid disconnected with the Raptors earning a 110-105 triumph implicit the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves for Toronto’s archetypal back-to-back wins of the season.

“We’ve got a batch of guys that tin shot handle, bash a batch of antithetic things retired determination connected the floor,” said Barnes aft the game, his close oculus inactive wholly bloodshot. “As agelong arsenic we play our offence and bash the close things, I consciousness similar everything is going to spell great.

“Get the shot implicit fractional tribunal beauteous fast, conscionable effort to run, and past get into what we usually run, our halfway sets, and past fundamentally conscionable play from there.”

Rajakovic said during his pre-game quality league that Barnes would play constricted minutes successful his instrumentality from wounded but the all-star guardant was inactive effective, finishing with 17 points, six assists and 3 rebounds successful 27 minutes of play.

His top interaction was felt successful the 4th quarter.

Barnes returned to the level with 5:43 near to play and Toronto trailling by 3 points. He assisted connected a three-pointer by Montreal’s Chris Boucher 23 seconds later, kicking disconnected a 13-2 tally that turned the crippled astir for the Raptors.

“Scottie Barnes. Man, that was fun,” said RJ Barrett of Mississauga, Ont. “I deliberation specifically for maine personally, I deliberation you benignant of spot erstwhile we were down and past conscionable him being successful the game, the vigor that helium brought (was huge).

“I conscionable deliberation everybody, each together, played large having Scottie successful the lineup for us. He’s a peculiar player.”

Barrett scored a game-high 31 points and had 7 rebounds and 3 assists for Toronto (4-12). Jakob Poeltl had a double-double with 15 points and 12 boards, with Boucher scoring 22 points disconnected the bench.

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Immanuel Quickley, the Raptors starting constituent guard, was inactive retired with a partially torn UCL successful his near elbow. Davion Mitchell had been playing the constituent with Barnes retired but due to the fact that Mitchell is simply a antiaircraft specializer Barrett had often led the team’s offence.

The Canadian’s beardown show arsenic a playmaker gave Rajakovic the assurance to spell with a no-point defender starting lineup.

“The magnitude of prime and rolls and situations that RJ was handling, and the mode helium handled playmaking and scoring conscionable gave maine much assurance that I tin play with some (Barrett and Barnes), that they tin stock the responsibilities of a constituent guard,” said Rajakovic.

As acold arsenic Barnes is concerned, having nary designated constituent defender really plays to Toronto’s strength.

“We’ve got a batch of guys that tin run, truthful we’ve got to tally and get the shot out,” helium said. “We’ve had that arsenic a main accent since we started the play and we’ve conscionable got to instrumentality with that.

“We’re conscionable doing the close things each and each day. We’re putting successful a hard effort, moving unneurotic collectively to effort to get this W.”

This study by The Canadian Press was archetypal published Nov. 21, 2024.