There’s the temptation to cut Scottie Barnes some slack having returned from a sprained ankle some felt would sideline him for considerably more time.
There’s also the reality of the Raptors’ situation, which wasn’t ideal to begin with and made worse following Jakob Poeltl’s groin setback and the sudden illness of RJ Barrett.
The need for Barnes to step up and fully embrace the mantle of franchise player cried out Thursday night when the Brooklyn Nets came to town.
The convenience of a light schedule meant Barnes missed only two games from the time he landed on the foot of Karl-Anthony Towns during a home loss to the New York Knicks.
No one expected Barnes to be at his best against the Nets, but more should have been extracted and yet so little was produced.
It all unraveled in the fourth quarter.
Barnes, it must be noted, wasn’t the lone culprit. Given his status with the club and the immense responsibilities he must bear, Barnes has to be singled out because he was not good.
In fact, the fourth quarter may have been one of his worst stretches, perhaps even of his entire young career. Not a single rebound would be recorded, not a single trip to the foul line and just one shot made from the field made on two attempts. More damning were the three fouls and two turnovers committed.
One would be hard-pressed to recall any moment when Barnes had played so poorly, so passively and so out of rhythm.
Maybe his period of inactivity could be cited as a mitigating factor. Maybe the team’s historically young starting group played a factor. Maybe the team’s deficient roster was inevitably exposed.
Regardless of whatever excuse one cares to list, Barnes was healthy enough to take to the floor and he failed to deliver.
The Raptors have the benefit of two days to get ready for a much sterner test Sunday when the Houston Rockets and one-time Raptors guard Fred VanVleet come to town.
Monday, the Raptors will be in the Big Apple knowing only one road win has been produced this season. Having lost six in a row, the streak of futility is likely to grow.
What’s necessary is for Barnes to shake off whatever rust that crept into his game against Brooklyn and rebound against the Rockets.
With 2:46 remaining in Thursday night’s tip, a Barnes basket gave the Raptors a 90-88 lead. Cam Johnson then went off for Brooklyn, scoring 11 successive points before the Nets had taken full control with 23 seconds left in leading 99-90 en route to their 101-94 win.
Why the Raptors didn’t do anything to get the ball out of Johnson’s hands is another story.
The prevailing story focused on Toronto’s youthful starting group, the youngest the franchise ever has fielded on a night the club did its best to honour its past.
Entering the night, the story was Barnes and his return. In the aftermath of yet another loss, the talking point involves Barnes.
He has to be aggressive, more assertive and dominant, especially knowing how undermanned the Raptors were against a Nets team that isn’t exactly the New Jersey-based Nets when Jason Kidd led the franchise to back-to-back NBA Finals appearances more than 20 years ago.
Thursday night, the Raptors were a minus-19 on the boards and a minus-17 in bench scoring.
In the third quarter, the Raptors went 7-for-11 from beyond the three-point line in scoring 30 points in the period.
In the fourth quarter, they shot 1-for-10 from distance in netting 18 points in 12 minutes.
At 7-21, the Raptors are proud owners of the NBA’s fourth-worst record. In the East, only the woeful Washington Wizards have a worse winning percentage.
If the goal is to execute a full tank job, then the club is doing its fans a huge disservice.
They deserve better and Thursday night will rank as the low point to a season that has, by all standards and circumstance, provided some moments of entertaining basketball in the absence of wins.
There’s no shot creator capable of getting baskets down the stretch looming on the horizon, no knock-down three-point shooter about to emerge, no lock-down defender capable of shutting down an opponent, no reason to feel optimistic as the calendar is about to flip to 2025.
The Raptors do have Barnes. He was back in the lineup Thursday and it felt he hadn’t arrived.
Again, it’s easy to give him a break, but this is the NBA and nothing is ever given when everything must be earned.
Toronto outscored Brooklyn by 18 points from beyond the three-point line and yet shot only 39.5% from the field.
The team’s leading scorer was Ochai Agbaji, who was arguably Toronto’s best player. He had 16 double-digit scoring games last season. Including Thursday’s output, Agbaji has produced 17 games of reaching double-figure scoring.
He’s averaging a career-high 11.8 points, while shooting 52.8% from the field, including 44.7% from distance — both career bests.
Kelly Olynyk recorded five assists in the loss, while Jamal Shead wasn’t able to carry over the fourth-quarter excellence he showed in Monday’s loss to the visiting Chicago Bulls.
None of the above is in Barnes’ class.
Lack of finish isn’t new to the Raptors, but it reached a new level in the final two minutes Thursday, highlighting the team’s poor decision-making and shot selection.
One of the lowlights was an offensive foul to Barnes.
Perhaps the warning sign surfaced before the opening tap when the bookies made the Raptors the odds-on favourites for the first time this season.
In all likelihood, the Raptors will be next favoured on New Year’s Day when the Nets return to town.
By then, the Raptors might be in the throes of a double-digit losing streak.