RJ Barrett leads the Raptors over the Heat and to a winning record at home

Coming into this game against the Miami Heat, the Toronto Raptors were a modest 4-4 at home in the cozy confines of Scotiabank Arena, and 1-11 on the road, an absurd disparity, really.

Is home cooking that good? Is the city of Toronto’s night life that alluring for road teams? These questions have been asked for a long time, but at least for tonight’s game the Raptors took control early by making the most of every transition possession (find RJ Barrett), out-passing the Heat’s zone, and, as per usual, rebounding a lot of their own misses.

A lot of the interesting, secondary storylines that have defined the Raptors season — unique rookie performances, really — weren’t that present early on. This game started out with a huge reliance on Barrett, Scottie Barnes, and Jakob Poeltl to carry the game. The trio opened the game shooting 13-15 inside the arc, and bludgeoning the Heat’s defense, just like they did on Friday night – by punching gaps often and looking for post entry mismatches for Poeltl.

The Heat had answers of course, and it was mostly Tyler Herro’s tremendous offensive stylings — he’s averaging nearly 24-5-5 on 61% TS — that kept the Heat churning forward, but true to form, the Heat found 3-pointers all across the roster to keep pace with the Raptors, and were holding onto a 13-0 advantage in points scored off turnovers. All this as they waited for Jimmy Butler to input himself into the game, as he could hardly be bothered to take a shot over the first 12 minutes of play. Regardless, the Heat held the lead for the majority of the first quarter after climbing out of the 12-point deficit in the first quarter.

The Raptors took the lead back with a super fun stretch of play that included a Barrett triple that rattled around every part of the rim, a Poeltl And-1, and the first “get off me” shoulder check of Ja’Kobe Walter’s NBA career before hit a push shot in the lane; afterwards he banged an above the break triple after Barrett drove a closeout to initiate side-top action, and after that he hit a step-back in the lane. Best stretch of his early career.

Then the t-shirt cannon came out. I love the t-shirt cannon. What an invention.

A Barrett and-1 after a bully drive on Pelle Larsson took him up to 21 points in the half (on 11 shots) and extended the Raptors lead to 5 heading into the break.

Of course, undergirding everything was the Raptors All-Star, Barnes. He put up a relatively quiet 13 points, 6 assists and 6 rebounds (considering how strong a stat line that is) as he picked his spots on offense – never scoring in a flurry, but every once in a while throughout. After a fairly passive first quarter, Barnes started to drive the ball a lot in the second quarter and that helped create a lot of offense. Most importantly though, Barnes’ presence really helped the Raptors shore up the gaps on defense. Coming into this game the Raptors were 6 points better on defense with him on the floor, and that always has to do with his versatility, size, and ability to read what the offense is trying to do.

Coming out of the second half the Heat made the call to seal off more of the paint — rotating harder, digs come earlier, play a bit farther off shooters — and it really helped slow down the pace of the Raptors offense with Barnes in particular having trouble navigating the more contested paint area going 1-4 in there during his stint.

The Raptors still dinked and dunked their way through it all, as most teams that don’t shoot the three that well do. Walter snaked a pick n’ roll and hit a floater in the lane, Davion Mitchell knifed into the lane for a great reverse, and Barrett scored 8 points on his first 3 shots (shooting 100%) keeping the Heat at arms length after Butler & Herro defined the first half of the third quarter.

In fact, Barrett’s creation defined almost everything the Raptors did well in the third quarter – there were even giftwrapped layups from him that were left on the cutting room floor by teammates. Jonathan Mogbo was the other big contributor. The Raptors big man grabbed every available rebound he could (and especially the contested ones), but maybe most importantly he helped pace the Raptors offense as their zone buster. The catch and read aspect of his game has always been really quick, and he consistently undid the Heat zone with his quick decision making. All in all, the Raptors took an 11-point lead into the final quarter.

Ready to claim a winning record at home.

In the closing quarter, it was still Barrett — whose driving game opened the floor for everyone else — providing look after look for the Raptors offense. After running a lot of Barnes actions that ended 17 feet from the rim with a picked up dribble and pivot-pivot-pivot resets, the Raptors finally ran a small screen for him (Ochai Agbaji) and he rammed his way into the paint for a left handed hook – a nice change of pace for the Raptors as they continued to keep the Heat at arms reach. The Raptors were competent enough finding their own offense for the time being, the Heat needed a burst from somebody.

The Heat got their burst, largely from Terry Rozier — on the other side of the court Poeltl took an insane 18-foot jumper — and the Raptors got into a bit of a funk offensively as a lot of the Barnes possessions kept seeing switches and going nowhere, and both Barnes & Barrett had costly turnovers. Barnes made a big three that was immediately answered by Herro, and the Raptors had a 3-point lead with 37 seconds left. Herro missed a huge 3-point shot, and the Raptors played an effective 15 second game of keep-away before we got into the inbound/foul rigmarole.

3-point lead, 12 seconds left, Barnes to the line. He split them.

Heat ran a SLOB that sent Duncan Robinson sprinting into the corner (the Raptors have done this with Gradey Dick quite often), and Robinson airballed his 3-point attempt. Barnes back to the line, and he hit both. Bam Adebayon sprints down the court and cashes a triple, only the Heat don’t pressure the inbounds and Barrett holds onto the ball as the game unceremoniously slips away from them.

Glad it was in Barrett’s hands as the time ticked down, as his play (37-7-5 on 75% shooting) brought the Raptors to the win more than anything else, and brought them to a winning record at home on the season. They’ve been a lot of fun in Toronto.

Have a blessed day.

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