Scottie Barnes Shows How Far He's Come This Season Despite Raptors Loss to Celtics

Scottie Barnes stood at the top of the arc reading the defense.

It hadn’t been a great start for the Toronto Raptors newly appointed point guard against one of the league’s best defensive backcourts, but the 22-year-old wasn’t fazed. He threw a pass to Jakob Poeltl in the high post then ran toward Toronto’s big man as if to begin a pick-and-roll.

A year ago, Barnes would have received the pass, dribbled into the paint, and settled for a mid-range jumper.

This time, though, he caught a short pass from Poeltl, took one side step, and let it fly over the outstretched arms of Jaylen Brown

Swish.

The road ahead for Toronto this season is going to be bumpy. A 120-118 loss to the Boston Celtics showed that, but the development the Raptors have seen this season from Barnes should ease whatever pain may lay ahead.

The jump Barnes has made as a three-point shooter this season has been remarkable. He went from a low-volume bad three-point shooter nailing 28.1% of his threes last year to a player letting it fly with confidence this season, nailing over 38% of his looks this year.

Barnes has somehow become Toronto’s best three-point shooter this season, outshooting both Gary Trent Jr. and OG Anunoby on the season. Against the Celtics, led Toronto with 30 points, nailing a career-high seven threes on 7-for-15 shooting from behind the arc, blowing past his previous career-high of 11 for three-point attempts in a game.

The third-year burgeoning star, of course, still has room to grow as a point guard in just his second start at the position this year. He had pocket picked by Derrick White late in the fourth and then forced an ill-advised turnaround jumper over Jrue Holiday. But he also showed his ability to respond, nailing another three-pointer in the clutch to tie the game late.

It just wasn’t enough.

Boston took the lead moments later and Barnes couldn’t sink the driving layup that would have forced overtime.

The Celtics showed their firepower early with Brown leading the way with 15 of his game-high 31 points coming in the first. He nailed three straight three-pointers in the middle of the first quarter, turning a narrow Celtics lead into a 15-point margin almost instantaneously thanks to seven made threes in the quarter for Boston.

The defensive woes have been Toronto’s most alarming issue. There’s no reason the Celtics should have been able to carve the Raptors up as easily as they did. Sure, the three-point shooting was impressive, but Boston was picking apart Toronto’s defense with easy cuts right to the hoop.

Even worse, Toronto twice had to burn first-half timeouts after the Celtics somehow scored transition buckets after Raptors made field goals. The defensive effort simply wasn’t there for Toronto who found itself down as many as 20 before halftime, surrendering 68 points to the Celtics before the break.

Pascal Siakam did his best to keep Toronto close in the first half, scoring 16 of his 27 points in the second quarter as he and Barnes were the only ones contributing much of anything for the Raptors early.

Toronto’s bench did show up to turn the tide in the second half. Malachi Flynn, who had been evicted from the rotation for the prior three quarters, sparked an 8-3 run for Toronto in his brief stint as the Raptors finally began to clamp down defensively.

Jalen McDaniels opened the fourth quarter with back-to-back and-1s, the second courtesy of an inside dump-off pass from Barnes that allowed Toronto to claw back within three. Dennis Schröder followed it up moments later with a three-pointer off a kick-out pass from Siakam to give the Raptors their first lead since the first quarter.

Even against a shorthanded Celtics team without Jayson Tatum, Al Horford, and Kristaps Porziņģis, Toronto showed there are reasons to be optimistic about the long-term future. No, it might not be fun this year, but Barnes’ development shows there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

Up Next: Detroit Pistons

This game has been circled on the calendar for a while now. Toronto will be right back at it on the road Saturday night when they take on the Detroit Pistons, losers of 28 straight. Another Pistons loss would break the NBA record for most consecutive losses by a team.