Barrett delivers 'unbelievable' performance at home as Raptors get back in series

TORONTO — The tone was sincere. The message heartfelt. 

RJ Barrett used to come to Toronto Raptors games when he was a rising young basketball prospect in Mississauga. He’s experienced the environment at Scotiabank Arena as a fan, one of the few in the building who could think to himself, ‘Hey, that could be me one day’ and actually believe it.

On Thursday night it was him out there, living out the visions he had of himself as kid. The 25-year-old took the court to chants of ‘Let’s go Raptors’ like it was 2014 again. 

Barrett has worn his heart on his sleeve ever since he was traded from the New York Knicks to the Raptors midway through the 2023-24 season. He’s never hid the passion he feels for playing in Toronto and for the Raptors. Over the franchise’s 31-year history, not everyone has said that and meant it. 

Barrett can and has. 

He was at it again Thursday morning as the Raptors were preparing for a pretty cut-and-dry task that night: Win Game 3 of their first-round playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers and they can live to keep trying and plausibly convince themselves that they can put some fear into the minds of the heavily favoured Cavs. 

Lose? The Raptors surprising return to competitive relevance would be over. Lose and they would be down 3-0 and destined to become the 160^th NBA team to fall behind 3-0 and fail to win the series. 

Lose and the questions would start. Fall behind 3-0 and have a sweep staring them in the face? The questions could get uncomfortable. There was smoke, and the fire was heating up. 

Barrett couldn’t wait to step into it. 

“It's gonna be crazy in there tonight,” he predicted. “The atmosphere is gonna be nuts. I'm excited. I had trouble sleeping I was so excited. But this would be a great opportunity for us to play, just play hard in front of our fans, and get a good win. Down two games. Get one tonight and it’s a series.”

Well, it’s a series. The Raptors were in almost every measure the better team against Cleveland and most importantly it showed on the scoreboard as they blew open a tight game with a dominant fourth quarter, coasting home with a 126-104 win to cut the Cavs lead in the best-of-seven series to 2-1 with Game 4 scheduled for Scotiabank Arena for 1 p.m. Sunday.

The win had the fingerprints of many contributors. So many different Raptors had memorable nights, you could make a list:

• Scottie Barnes was a dominant force on both ends of the floor, exploding for a playoff-career-best 33 points on 11-of-17 shooting, including 3-of-5 from three. He added 11 assists, a steal and a blocked shot and made just one turnover while driving the Raptors offence for most of his 35 minutes. He’s averaging 26.7 points and eight assists for the series, while shooting 56 per cent from the floor.

• Raptors rookie Collin Murray-Boyles set a franchise rookie playoff scoring record with 22 points on 11-of-15 shooting; while adding eight rebounds. He also earned his way onto highlight reels everywhere as he climbed the ladder to block a Jarrett Allen dunk attempt by pinning it against the backboard. He’s averaging 17 points on 72.7 per cent shooting for the three games. 

• Little-used Jamison Battle got his first action in the series and went off for 14 points in just less than nine minutes of playing time in the fourth quarter as the Raptors turned a two-point game into a rout thanks to a 43-23 avalanche in the final 12 minutes. Battle was 5-of-5 from the floor, including 4-of-4 from three. It’s the second time this season Battle has had a direct hand in a win over Cleveland. He was 6-of-6 from three in the second half in a win on Oct. 31 and is now 10-of-10 from three on the season. 

But it some ways, the game belonged to Barrett. It was the cumulation of years of dreaming and planning. His 33 points was a playoff career high. He’s now averaging 26.3 points on 64.4 per cent shooting for the series and connecting on 60 per cent of his threes. It’s peak Barrett. 

Like any father-and-son that shared a passion for sports — basketball in this case — Barrett and his father, former Canadian Olympian Rowan Barrett, would come to games to see the stars. The difference is that Barrett would meet them. Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter. 

“We were always trying to expose him to the environment,” said Rowan as he waited with his wife Kesha for their oldest son in the hallway outside the Raptors locker room. “When you see it, it starts being normalized, it becomes more believable that it’s something you can be a part of.”

Barrett entered the league as a third-overall pick in the 2019 draft, the same year the Raptors won the NBA title. He’s now tasked with forging his own place in franchise history. 

Barrett has been a force for the Raptors, even in the two losses. He scored 24 and 22 points in Games 1 and 2 and was shooting 17-of-26 from the floor, including 3-of-7 from three.

But he elevated his game again in Game 3.

Was the atmosphere at Scotiabank Arena a replica of what the environment was like during the Kyle Lowry-era, when playoff runs were an annual event? 

Who's to know.

But if you squinted, you could see it. If listened, you could hear it. A beautiful spring day giving away to evening, crowds of people in Raptors jerseys milling around outside the building, chants inside it. 

And then Barrett took the floor and lit the fuse. He hit a pair of threes in the middle of the first quarter as the Raptors began finding their feet. Their 31-25 lead at the end of the first was the first time the Raptors had led after any quarter in the series. By halftime the game was tied and Barrett had 13 points. Just as important, he was holding up defensively. 

Head coach Darko Rajakovic has moved Barrett around a lot in the series. At times he’s guarded Cavs centre Allen, he’s had to fight in the post against Evan Mobley. He’s had to square up Harden and Donovan Mitchell on the perimeter on several possessions also.

Barrett’s defensive contributions can oscillate between ‘oops’ and solid. On Thursday night he was solid, more often than not. More than once he used his sturdy six-foot-seven frame to blunt Harden’s drives. The Cavaliers guard had 18 points — he came into the series averaging 25 — but also had eight turnovers. He was 3-of-10 from three and Barrett’s long reach was often the one contesting them. 

“He’s doing so much for our team, attacking, going downhill, making threes,” said Barnes. “You see him guarding Mobley, switching on to Harden, going to Donovan Mitchell. He’s doing so many things for our team, it’s unbelievable. He’s stepped out of his comfort zone as well. He’s destroying the narrative of how people think about him. He’s helping out our team so much. … RJ’s been amazing.”

Playing in your hometown isn’t for everyone. Play well and it’s easy to lose focus and be pulled in every direction. Struggle and it’s hard to hide. 

Barrett has played some of his best basketball this season for the Raptors, finding a way to meld in with the arrival of Brandon Ingram and slowly changing his reputation as a shoot-first gunner he developed — fairly or not — with the Knicks and to show a fuller side of his game: the ability to cut, to pass, to hint at a wider range of skills. But at his core has always been the ability and willingness to use his body as a blunt-force object. It’s not always pretty, but it’s a handy thing to have in your back pocket come playoff time, when the floor shrinks and the whistles are fewer and farther between. 

“It's not hard getting there [to the paint],” Barrett said. “Being a vet, it’s just learning when, I think, is a big key … You got to pick your spots. But at the end of the day, you go throughout the game that's why there's transition, all sorts of things. But I am stubborn. I'm going to continue to get in there every night.”

He did it against the Cavaliers and when his three-point shot is falling, the combination makes him a handful. 

Heading into the fourth quarter, the Raptors were leading by two and the building was alive. It was everything Barrett could have seen in his mind’s eye as a kid. 

Barrett turned the volume up even more with 16 points in the final quarter. He scored eight straight points in less than two minutes in the middle of the period. The Raptors lead jumped from eight to 14. He hit his sixth and final three of the night a couple of minutes later to push the lead to 20 with three minutes left. 

The Raptors will live to fight again. Barrett will get his chance to live out his boyhood dreams a little longer. 

“To represent, to have that Toronto across his chest, being at home, it’s a special feeling,” said Battle of Barrett. “There’s a lot of pressure that comes with that, but I think he knows better than anyone that the team’s got his back. And with that, he’s going to go out there to play his heart out because he has so much on the line and he’s representing so much. The three games he’s had are unbelievable and I know he’s ready for Game 4.”