Scottie Barnes Shows Superstar Potential But Raptors Season Keeps Slipping Away

Scottie Barnes is the future. He’s been the bright spot for this Toronto Raptors team that has been otherwise disastrously disappointing all season. But no matter how bad this year gets, Barnes’ emergence as a potential superstar talent means Toronto still has hope. Not that a 119-116 loss to the Charlotte Hornets is some sort of pronouncement of NBA arrival, but it’s how Barnes operates that makes it so clear he’s special. When everything else seemed to be failing for Toronto, he showed the kind of potential the Raptors have been looking for.

The Barnes-plus-bench lineups aren’t supposed to be some difference-maker for Toronto and yet when the fourth quarter rolled around Barnes took over, leading a hodgepodge of bench players on the kind of comeback the Raptors were desperate for. He nailed a pull-up three-pointer and threw two perfect passes to Chris Boucher for wide-open layups. Almost single-handedly, he lifted Toronto’s second unit, grabbing offensive rebounds, playmaking, and scoring seemingly at will. His only hiccup of the night came when he missed a crucial free throw in the final seconds after being fouled by Terry Rozier on a three-point attempt. It forced Barnes into a last-second three-pointer to the tie game that never had much of a chance.

Barnes finished the night with his third career triple-double scoring 31 points to go with 10 rebounds and 10 assists. It would have been an even more impressive night had his teammates made their open looks. He set up OG Anunoby with a nearly wide-open three-pointer late in the fourth, but the Raptors’ forward was ice-cold from behind the arc all night. In typical Barnes fashion, it didn’t exactly start with a bang. The Raptors’ starters didn’t do themselves any favors to dispel the growing talk that maybe there should be a change. The Hornets jumped ahead by six points by the time the Raptors called their first timeout and it wasn’t long before Charlotte — who had gone 381 minutes without a double-digit lead — found itself up double-digits. Turnover trouble continued to plague the Raptors who not only couldn’t generate much of any offense early but were allowing the Hornets to score with little to no resistance. P.J. Washington nailed a pair of three-pointers and Gordon Hayward stuck Charlotte to a 20-point first-half lead on a mid-range jumper.

It would have been a whole lot uglier had Pascal Siakam not decided to take over in the second quarter. He converted a pair of and-1s, repeatedly taking it to the hoop as he tried to breathe life into Toronto’s stagnant offense. Of his 25 points on the night, 14 came in the second quarter as the Raptors began to close the gap. If there has been a silver lining in the past few games, it’s been the reemergence of Precious Achiuwa. The fourth-year forward started Friday a perfect 5-for-5 with back-to-back three-pointers to start the second quarter, leading Toronto’s bench with 17 points on the night. It took a while, but in the second half, Barnes got going. Siakam passed out of a wide-open three-point attempt to find Barnes for an above-the-break three. Barnes followed that up with a pull-up three on the very next Raptors possession as Toronto whittled the lead back down to nine. He returned the favor to Siakam moments later, throwing an alley-oop pass to his All-Star teammate, but the Hornets wouldn’t go away.

It’s alarming that Toronto has been so inept defensively, especially against a Hornets team without LaMelo Ball. The offensive struggles were to be expected for a team without much shooting, but the defense was supposed to be there every night. Instead, Charlotte shot 56% from the floor and 52% from three-point range. In the fourth, Barnes and Siakam took turns picking on Rozier, backing down the Hornets guard for buckets in the paint. But Toronto was trading twos for threes with a Hornets team that couldn’t miss from deep. Miles Bridges and rookie Brandon Miller nailed a pair of late threes, to put the Charlotte up four with two minutes to go. At this point in the season, the writing is on the wall for how Toronto’s year is going to go. The loss moved the Raptors to 9-13 on the season and these squandered opportunities are going to be too costly to overcome before the trade deadline rolls around.