Barnes exits with injury in Raptors’ dominant pre-season win

The most important job for any team through training camp and the exhibition season is to not get hurt.

The Toronto Raptors haven’t been perfect on that front but heading into their last of four pre-season games Friday night against the Washington Wizards they were at least whole.

Returning to action was starting centre Jakob Poeltl, who hadn’t played since Toronto’s first pre-season game on Oct. 8 in Vancouver due to illness.  His ostensible back-up, Precious Achiuwa, who missed the Raptors three games with a groin injury also was available for the first time. Even Otto Porter Jr., who played eight games last season and has been on a slow ramp up after having toe surgery last January, was in uniform and ready to go.

Of course, almost on cue Scottie Barnes – who has been outstanding in pre-season and was again against the Wizards in Toronto’s 134-98 blowout that improved Toronto to 4-0 in pretend games – appeared to step on someone’s foot late in the third quarter and immediately limped to the locker room. He didn’t return with the initial diagnosis a sprained right foot.

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Hopefully it’s just something minor. Presuming it is, the Raptors have at least made the coming season something to be curious about and maybe downright encouraged.

As an example: Not only did Porter Jr. play dress, but he also actually played. The careful moving oft-injured 30-year-old ambled onto the floor early in the second quarter and gave a brief glimpse of why the Raptors signed him as a free agent shortly after he helped the Golden State Warriors to a title in 2022. He cut sharply and got fouled, making both free throws. He made a slow-motion drive that got far enough into the defence that he was able to whirl and find a wide-open Scottie Barnes for a triple. He blocked a shot, he spaced the floor. He didn’t break.

These are all positives. For a team that could use some elite shooting and basketball IQ, a healthy Porter Jr. would be house money. It’s not something you can bank on yet – the reality is the Raptors will be managing his readiness all season – but it’s fun to think about.

Yes, as Dennis Schroder said earlier this week: “The preseason don’t mean nothing at all.”

Ultimately, this is inarguable. The games don’t count.

But it’s not entirely accurate. If the wrong player steps on the wrong foot, the pre-season can sink regular season before it starts.

And you don’t want to think about the Raptors, coming off a frustrating season a year ago and trying to get to know a new, first-year head coach, and stumbling to a sloppy 0-4 record in pre-season.  It wouldn’t mean the season was doomed, but it wouldn’t be the best tone setter.

Saying all that, and yes, for what it’s worth, the Raptors pre-season has gone just about perfectly – though  Barnes leaving the floor will have everyone holding their breath that it’s not anything serious.

Head coach Darko Rajakovic’s top priority with his new team was to have them generate more ball movement and more player movement on offence. Well, so far, so good.

“I’m just pleased with the way we’re moving the ball,” said Rajakovic. “We’ve got to understand that moving the ball is not just like pass, pass, pass and we stay outside the three-point line. It’s also having the paint touches and being aggressive and reading defence.

“We’ve got to be aggressive to create paint touches and score easily in the paint with drives, with our rolls, with cuts. And then we go read the defence. If the defence is allowing that, they’re not helping, we’ve got to take that opportunity. But if they’re collapsing the defence, we’ve got to be able to move it to the next guy and trust that the guy is going to make the right decision.”

The Raptors entered Friday’s game averaging 28.3 assists per game, seventh in the NBA and a notable improvement from the 23.9 per game they averaged last season, which placed them 23rd in the 30-team league.

They blew the game open in the third quarter with 14 assists on 17 field goals as they trounced the Wizards by 43-22 in the third. They finished with 36 assists for the game.

Now, the Wizards are projected to be a high lottery team and gave every indication why as they embark on a long overdue rebuild, but you can only the dominate the teams in front of you, and that’s what the Raptors did.

Rajakovic wanted to have a 10-man rotation which might have been considered ambitious given that under former head coach Nick Nurse the Raptors ran the shortest rotation in the league.

But you can see the outlines of it, particularly with the return of Achiuwa and the possibility of Porter Jr. being a contributor. And hey, rookie Gradey Dick was 4-of-5 from three and looked by far the most comfortable he has yet as a professional, even going back to Summer League.

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Achiuwa looked sharp in his eight first-half minutes as he helped the Raptors come back after a slow beginning from the starting unit had seen Toronto fall behind by nine. But Achiuwa scored on a pair of lay-ups off some high-speed cuts, had a steal, stymied Wizards guard on the perimeter – a reminder of Achiuwa’s potential as an elite, switchable defender – and blocked a shot too. He looked excellent and finished with nine points, six rebounds and three assists in 17 minutes

But perhaps most encouraging last night – as he has been in all four of the Raptors pre-season – games – was third year forward (point guard?) Scottie Barnes. If the former No.4 pick has a swing skill it’s his perimeter shooting: become passable to good and he’s an all-star in waiting, maybe something more; struggle with it and his ceiling remains high, just lower overall. It can’t hurt that Barnes finished the pre-season shooting 50 per cent from beyond the arc after going 3-of-6 in 25 minutes Friday on his way to 23 points on 14 shots.

This time a year ago Barnes was still trying to find his form after missing the month of August with an ankle injury. He started the season slowly and never quite developed the kind of momentum everyone was looking for after his electric rookie season.

This season he came into camp bolstered – he said – by an off-season running program that built out his fitness while also adding nearly 10 pounds of muscle to his already powerful frame. He’s been in peak from since the pre-season started. Hopefully his ankle issue is nothing significant and he can hit the regular season in full stride.

Otherwise the Raptors as a whole certainly seem poised.

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