Shorthanded Raptors miss out on storybook win on Leonard's pay day

Los Angeles — It couldn’t have been intentional, could it? I mean, why would they? 

The Los Angeles Clippers got the player, the Toronto Raptors have the championship, everyone’s happy, no need to rub it in.

But who knows the pettiness of billionaires hundreds of times over. 

Anyway it didn’t escape notice — mine anyway — that the Clippers announced they had reached an agreement on a three-year, $153-million contract extension with the former Raptor and 2019 Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard on the morning his old team was in town for their one visit to Los Angeles. 

Was that necessary? Couldn’t it have waited a day? Given Leonard left Toronto for Los Angeles before they finished cleaning up the mess from the championship parade seeing him always inspires some mixed feelings: thanks for the memories, but wow, that was short. 

We’ll see if Leonard can recapture the magic the Raptors were able to bottle (with his help) in 2018-19. He’ll be a Clippers employee for four more seasons after this one. If he can stay healthy you have to like his chances. He may have only played 161 out of a possible 308 games due to injuries prior to this season since leaving Toronto and the tender care of Raptors director of sports science Alex McKechnie, but when he’s played he’s been... well, he’s been Kawhi. 

Man, if only the Raptors had a player who can lift a franchise like Leonard has and can. 

Except maybe they do, or they at least believe they do. He's named Scottie Barnes.

Wednesday night wasn’t Barnes’ night or the Raptors’ as it turned out. Leonard was able to celebrate his big pay day by leading his current team to a 126-120 win over his old one. 

Barnes — who has delivered so many times for Toronto this season — wasn’t able to find an extra gear, especially since the Clippers were able to put multiple eyes and multiple bodies — one of them Leonard — on Barnes for long stretches. It was a task made easier since Toronto was trying to make do without their leading scorer, Pascal Siakam (back spasms) and their starting centre, Jakob Poeltl (ankle). 

For the budding third-year star, it was a first-hand glimpse of what the league’s very best are like. Barnes isn’t far off; he got the better of none other than LeBron James in the Raptors' controversial loss to the Lakers on Tuesday. But at the moment, Leonard is younger, hungrier and when he’s healthy, a different kind of beast, on both ends.

“He’s very strong and he knows how to get to his spots really well,” said Barnes. “He’s very efficient with every move he does, so just being able to get right to the spot, not wasting a lot of dribbles, trying to find a mismatch and attack that from there.”

And defensively? 

“I definitely love how he guards the ball,” said Barnes. “And how physical and strong he is. He doesn’t allow people to back him down.”

Apparently. It’s not often Barnes encounters someone who is his equal in terms of overall basketball strength, but Leonard is that. It’s perhaps no coincidence that Barnes — who is averaging a career-high 20.7 points per game so far this season — finished with 12 points, six rebounds and six assists. Unlike his effort against the Lakers in the same building, he didn’t have the legs to lead a fourth-quarter charge. Barnes — with Leonard in his kitchen most of the time — only managed three points and three shots in the fourth quarter after putting up 11 points and three assists in the fourth against the Lakers.

The Raptors were led by Immanuel Quickley who finished with 25 points and six assists while RJ Barrett continued his excellent play since joining the Raptors by adding 24 points on 10-of-16 shooting, along with converting four of his six three-point attempts. Dennis Schroder, starting in place of Siakam, had 22 points and four assists. 

Toronto, who fell to 15-23, got some excellent minutes from two-way signee Jontay Porter who finished with nine points, seven rebounds and four assists in 18 minutes. 

Leonard? He put up a ho-hum 29 points and seven assists in 38 minutes, while Paul George added another 29 and six assists. 

It’s been a typical night for Leonard this year, which has been most impressive in that he’s been been available for 33 of the Clippers' 36 games. He’s reminding everyone why he’s the kind of player you bet everything on if the goal is to win an NBA title. After a slow start as he got up to speed following off-season knee surgery, Leonard is averaging 25 points a game on immaculate shooting splits, his typically ferocious (when required) defence and barely looks like he’s warmed up, most of the time. The Clippers (24-14), having fully integrated the early season addition of James Harden, are 21-6 after a 3-7 start.

The Raptors started the fourth quarter down by by one in what was a close game throughout. They fell behind by 11 with 3:19 to play when old friend Norm Powell (13 points) converted a lay-up. But the Raptors tried to hang on. A triple by Barrett with 1:28 left pulled Toronto to within four before Leonard answered with a dunk, beating Barnes. A three-point play by Quickley cut the lead back to three before an end-of-shot-clock triple by George put the Clippers up six with 36 seconds to play, effectively icing things. 

As the Raptors head to Salt Lake to finish their six-game western swing on Friday, it’s worth recalling that a lot of stuff has happened over the course of the Raptors' road trip. For the second straight season, the Raptors are considered pivotal players as the NBA trade deadline approaches, with the future of Pascal Siakam being debated and speculated on at every turn. The injury bug has finally shown itself with starting centre Jakob Poeltl out indefinitely with a sprained ankle, and Siakam having to sit out against the Clippers due to back spasms that came on Wednesday morning.

And head coach Darko Rajakovic put himself on the NBA map with his all-time referee rant after the Toronto lost in dramatic fashion to the Lakers on Tuesday. 

But not to be over-looked was the substance of the first-year head coach’s tirade. It wasn’t just that the Lakers were getting too many calls, but that third year do-everything-forward wasn’t getting enough, with Rajakovic going so far as to say not only was Barnes a future all-star — it only seems a matter of time — but one of the faces of the league. It’s quite a statement given Barnes has yet to be an all-star or win a playoff series, but if you’re paying attention you can see it.  

Barnes certainly appreciated the gesture and the sentiment. 

“It makes me feel great,” he said Wednesday. “I think it makes our team feel great as well. Good to have a coach that’s gonna stand behind our back no matter what. 

“He doesn’t care, he’s gonna tell it like it is.” 

The ‘face of the league’ comment is quite a statement given Barnes has yet to be an all-star or win a playoff series, but if you’re paying attention you can see it.  

Certainly among the Raptors, Barnes, 22, has no shortage of supporters and believers. 

In front of a packed pre-game press conference Rajakovic doubled down on both points before his shorthanded club took on the Clippers and the newly-signed Leonard. “I’ll always stand up for my guys,” he said.

And as for Barnes?

“He wants to be great, he does not want to be good, he wants to be great,” said Rajakovic of Barnes, who had 26 points and six assists — but just two free-throw attempts — in his standout showing against the Lakers. “Seeing how invested he is every single day, how much film he watches, all the work that he’s putting in on the court, just talking to him this summer, he’s such a humble and down-to-earth kid. But at the same time with amazing ambition, he wants to be really, really good. 

“… He’s one of those guys, when you’re long enough in this league, you notice certain type of players. I was lucky enough in this league to coach and work with some of the future Hall of Famers in the league and he has a lot in common with those guys and one of those traits is when he walks on the court, he walks in the gym, he notices everything. He notices your Khaki pants and your glasses and your earrings, he’s going to catch up on every little detail and all the greats do that, 

“They do the same thing in the game, they understand matchups and rotations so there is a lot of traits with Scottie that I really believe in.” 

Barnes and his teammates had their hands full against Leonard and the Clippers, but they didn’t shy away from the fight and for most of the game, Barnes did what he does. He didn’t take Siakam’s absence as his chance to take more shots or force more offence. He took on his matchup with Leonard head on at the defensive and found other ways to score opportunistically, find his teammates when they were open and in general grease the wheels of the game. The Raptors led 29-28 after the first quarter, when the lineups were so random that two-way player Jontay Porter assisted on a three-pointer by seldom-used veteran Garrett Temple, as an example. 

But despite the presence of Leonard, running mate George, Harden and the luxury of bringing future Hall-of-Famer Russell Westbrook off the bench, the Raptors went into the half trailing only by 58-57. Leonard led all scorers with 16, but Barnes was already tracking towards a triple-double with six points, five assists and four rebounds. 

The Raptors opened a crack of daylight with Barnes on the bench late in the third quarter, after Gary Trent Jr. hit a three in transition set up by Barrett. Then, Barrett sprinted to the corner where Porter — playing an excellent all-round effort in just his fifth game since being signed by the Raptors — led the break and found Barrett in the corner for his third triple in four attempts. The Raptors were briefly up five, but the Clippers cut the Raptors lead to 92-91 on a pair of Leonard free throws to close the third quarter. 

The Raptors couldn’t get over the hump. On this night Barnes couldn’t conjure magic against a stacked deck. It wasn’t the storybook ending that the Raptors were undoubtedly hoping for: shorthanded and feeling hard-done by in a league where the biggest names seem to get every break, they avenged their loss to one star-laden Los Angeles team with a win over the other, and on Kawhi’s bid day, no less. 

But the Clippers have Leonard and all the help any superstar his caliber should ever need. The Raptors have Barnes, who may be a superstar in waiting and a group of teammates who gave everything in their two days in LA, but this time around it wasn’t enough. 

Barnes and the Raptors' moments will have to wait.