TORONTO —The Toronto Raptors can be excused for not having their bearings exactly calibrated by the time they rolled into Scotiabank Arena Sunday night.
Wait, were they at Scotiabank Arena?
The confusion is understandable. The Raptors have spent more nights on the road than they have at home by a significant margin. They lead the league in air miles.
But if they needed to double-check exactly what city they were in, all they needed to do was look at the box score beside RJ Barrett’s name to confirm they were indeed sleeping in their own beds and eating out of their own fridge.
No individual player on the roster embodies Toronto’s home-road discrepancy more than the sixth-year wing who was raised in Mississauga.
The Raptors improved to 5-4 at home with a 119-116 win over the visiting Miami Heat Sunday night that had Barrett’s fingerprints all over it as Toronto split its home-and-home weekend series with the Heat.
The six-foot-six lefty finished with 37 points, seven rebounds and five assists on 15-of-20 shooting, including 3-of-4 from behind the arc. Barrett finished two points off his season high and his career-best as a Raptor set earlier this month at – yes – Scotiabank Arena.
For the season, Barrett has been brilliant at home, looking every inch an all-star, and is now averaging 30.4 points a game on 53.5 per cent shooting including 43.9 per cent from behind the arc and 82 per cent from the free throw line. Barrett has had six games of 30 points or more at home this season and five of them have come in the five starts he’s had in Toronto.
But the win was only the Raptors' sixth on the season because Toronto came home from their latest four-game road trip with a 1-11 record outside of Ontario, and Barrett has been a big part of that story too.
On the road, Barrett has struggled, averaging 19.4 points per game (along with six rebounds and 6.5 assists) while shooting 39.7 per cent from the floor, 30.2 per cent from three and 59.7 per cent from the free throw line.
Why is the question.
“I think he likes the Canadian language, the Canadian food and just likes being here,” was Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic’s explanation.
He was kidding, but Barrett didn’t have much more insight.
“I don’t know,” Barrett said, though he pointed out – correctly – that he’s coming off two of his best road efforts of the season in New Orleans, where the Raptors got their first road win, and against Miami on Friday. “I guess I need to concentrate a little more, put a little focus to it.”
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Why he plays well at home is an easier riddle.
“At home we have such amazing fans, they really pick us up. Whenever we go on a run, everything feels better. Even when we’re down, they’re still there to pick us up,” said Barrett. “On the road, you’re going against the other team’s crowd, so you have to bring your own energy and focus.”
Barrett’s not alone in playing better at home than on the road. It’s not uncommon with younger teams and younger players, but at home on Sunday, he had plenty of help.
Scottie Barnes just missed notching his second consecutive triple-double against Miami as he counted 23 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists and Jakob Poeltl had 17 points and 11 rebounds. Rookie Ja’Kobe Walter had 12 points on 10 shots in his 17 minutes.
Collectively, the Raptors shot 53.4 per cent from the floor and were 10-of-29 from three while making 14 turnovers. The Heat shot 44.3 per cent from the floor and were 15-of-40 from three with 14 turnovers. They shot 28 free throws to 20 by the Raptors. Tyler Herro led Miami in scoring with 31 points, while Bam Adebayo had 13 points and 20 rebounds.
Toronto started the game aggressively and was leading 34-20 after the first quarter and stayed in control for the night, leading at half and building up a 14-point lead early in the fourth quarter on a Barrett drive. Miami cut the Raptors lead to three with 64 seconds left as they got some late threes to drop, but the Raptors survived.
The win starts the Raptors' season-high seven-game homestand off on the right foot, but there’s little time to relax. Each of the Raptors' first five opponents in that stretch – first Miami, then Indiana on Tuesday, Oklahoma City on Thursday, Dallas on Saturday and the New York Knicks on Monday – were in the playoffs a year ago and all project to be there again.
The Raptors will need Barrett to be at his SBA-best if they are going to run that gauntlet.
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Three points:
- Jonathan Mogbo has a knack. There’s more to it than that, but it’s the simplest explanation for the way the rookie seems to be able to consistently make things happen on the floor. In his first seven minutes stretched over the first and second quarter Sunday, Mogbo didn’t score, but had three rebounds, three assists, a blocked shot and a turnover. His three assists sparked a 10-0 run that gave the Raptors a 12-point lead in the first quarter. But his turnover was interesting because it came a moment after he simply handed the ball to Heat on a wayward left-handed dribble. He came down at the other end and forced Miami into a turnover to make up for his mistake. He wasn’t credited for a steal, but his pressure forced the Heat to fumble. You could see from his reaction that Mogbo was more frustrated with losing the ball than he was happy about winning it back, but at least he had got the Raptors back to even on the sequence.
- When asked if Walter would get the start for the third straight game as the Raptors opt to go without a traditional point guard in their starting lineup until Immanuel Quickley recovers from a partially torn tendon in his right elbow, Rajakovic said simply: “I don’t see why not.” Considering Walter missed all of training camp and the exhibition games with a shoulder injury and played four games before injuring it again and sitting out another three weeks, you can understand why the coach isn’t messing with anything. The rookie has played well, averaging 10 points, seven rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.5 steals as a starter in just 27 minutes a game. He’s struggled shooting, connecting on just 3-of-18 triples before Sunday. But he got on a little bit of a heater in the second quarter against Miami when he hit a pair of threes and then – when a Heat defender ran him off the line in the corner – drove into the paint and hit a classy-looking fade away. In the third quarter, he showed nice patience, keeping the ball-handler on his hip in a pick-and-roll action with Poeltl before rising up for another jumper. Walter looks anything but over-matched at this stage.
- Injuries remain an issue as the Raptors remain without starting point guard Quickley (elbow) and Gradey Dick (calf), as well as a pair of veteran reserves, Bruce Brown and Kelly Olynyk, who haven’t played a minute this season due to knee and back problems. None are thought to be too far away, but there is still no firm date for their respective returns. Dick seems like he’s closest. He’s expected to ramp up and test his calf in a practice, which could come as soon as Monday when the Raptors are scheduled to train at the OVO Athletic Centre. Presuming that goes well, Dick will hopefully join the lineup sometime this week. Brown isn’t likely to be far behind him as he is simply working on his conditioning at this point, as is Olynyk.
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