You can’t have shit in Toronto.
The week Mayor Olivia Chow wins re-election and the Raptors smash the Orlando Magic by 30 points, Scottie Barnes scores a season high, career high 41 points, and it’s something nobody can celebrate, including Scottie Barnes.
“It just wasn’t going our way,” he said tonight. Barnes looked sombre tonight in a cutoff hoodie postgame. “Before the season, you know, I think I wanted to break [my record],” he said. But after tonight’s outing he said, things had changed. “By
now, no,” answered Barnes. “I think I got to let some time go off.”
“I think being that aggressive, the only shooting… we thought three free throws was kind of crazy, but… it just, just wasn’t going our way.” Indeed, despite scoring 41 points, Barnes only got to the line three times, making two of the attempts. The rest of his buckets came from field goals, a midrange explosion from the Raptor, who appeared restrained during the presser after the loss.
“Darko called those freethrow attempts ‘BS’,” began Doug Smith of the Toronto Star. Barnes cut him off, as the two stumbled through sentences, trying to avoid criticism of the refereeing of tonight’s game. “Trying to have a good PR… I’m tryna have good PR today,” went Barnes. “And it was tough out there…”
“I’m raging on the inside,” he continued.
“We really wanted this game, for sure. Really wanted it. For our team, obviously, there’s something, an incentive for it… just gotta go get the next one.” Thus ended Scottie Barnes’ comments on his career high in points.
Indeed, Darko Rajaković was not quiet on the subject of the night’s officiating. “That’s kind of like, that’s kind of a little BS, to be honest with you,” the coach argued on the subject of Barnes’ field goal to free throw ratio. The Magic took 29 free throws, compared to the Raptors’ 15, in a night that was characterized by some real physicality and refereeing that at times seemed unreasonably unwilling to take the Raptors’ side.
It’s painful to see what a loss on such a big night can do to a basketball player, especially when his scoring outburst was coupled with the return to form of Jakob Poeltl, who he has noted some closeness with. Subtracting the outcome, tonight’s game was gritty and full of heart. Especially considering the massive gap in fouls and free throws, the Raptors played even more admirably, none more so than Scottie, who is doing a lot to carry the load offensively for the Raps.
No other player on the team scored 20 points tonight, but Immanuel Quickley and Collin Murray Boyles made some meaningful offensive contributions in addition to Barnes. The rookie Allen Graves also snagged three offensive rebounds to go along with his seven points.
The Raptors have now lost their first match of the NBA Cup’s group stage, and will need to invest even more energy into those matchups if they want to make noise in the in season tournament this year. But, as Scottie said, there’ll always be a next one. The Raptors are starting their west coast road trip on Sunday with a matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers.
