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Barrett enjoys more home cooking as the Raptors bounce back and beat the Heat

Barrett enjoys more home cooking as the Raptors bounce back and beat the Heat

TORONTO – The Toronto Raptors could be forgiven for not having their orientation precisely calibrated as they rolled into Scotiabank Arena on Sunday night.

Wait, were you at the Scotiabank Arena?

The confusion is understandable. The Raptors spent significantly more nights away than at home. They lead the league in air miles.

But if they needed to double-check which city they were in, all they had to do was look at the score next to RJ Barrett’s name to confirm that they were, in fact, sleeping in their own beds and eating out of their own refrigerator.

No single player on the roster embodies Toronto’s home game discrepancy more than the sixth-year winger who grew up in Mississauga.

The Raptors improved to 5-4 at home with a 119-116 win over the road Miami Heat on Sunday night that had Barrett’s fingerprints all over it as Toronto split its weekend home series with the Heat.

The 6-foot-2 left-hander finished the game 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 shy of his season-high and career-best as a Raptor, which he set earlier this month at, yes, Scotiabank Arena.

This season, Barrett has been brilliant at home, looking every inch an All-Star and is now averaging 30.4 points per game on 53.5 percent shooting, including 43.9 percent from behind the arc and 82 percent from the free throw line . Barrett has had six games with 30 or more points at home this season and five of them have come in the five starts he made in Toronto.

But the win was just the Raptors’ sixth of the season, as Toronto came home from their last four-game road trip with an 1-11 record outside Ontario, and Barrett was a big part of that story, too.

Away from home, Barrett struggled, averaging 19.4 points per game (along with six rebounds and 6.5 assists) while shooting 39.7 percent from the floor, 30.2 percent from three and 59.7 percent from the free throw line.

“I think he likes the Canadian language, Canadian food and just enjoys being here,” Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic said.

It was just a joke, but Barrett didn’t have much more insight.

“I don’t know,” Barrett said, although he pointed out — rightly — that he had two of his best road performances of the season in New Orleans, where the Raptors got their first road win, and Friday against Miami. “I think I need to focus a little bit more and focus on it a little bit.”

Why he plays well at home is a simpler mystery.

“We have such great fans at home, they really pick us up. Whenever we go running, everything feels better. Even when we’re down, they’re still there to pick us up,” Barrett said. “On the road you’re competing against the other team’s crowd, so you have to bring your own energy and focus.”

Barrett isn’t the only one who plays better at home than away. That’s not unusual with younger teams and younger players, but he had plenty of help at home on Sunday.

Scottie Barnes narrowly missed his second straight triple-double against Miami as he tallied 23 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists and Jakob Poeltl had 17 points and 11 rebounds. Rookie Ja’Kobe Walter scored 12 points on 10 shots in his 17 minutes.

Combined, the Raptors shot 53.4 percent from the floor and were 10 of 29 from three games while committing 14 turnovers. The Heat shot 44.3 percent from the floor and made 15 of 40 from three with 14 turnovers. They shot the Raptors 28 free throws to 20. Tyler Herro led Miami with 31 points while Bam Adebayo had 13 points and 20 rebounds.

Toronto started the game aggressively, leading 34-20 after the first quarter and remained in control throughout the night, leading at halftime and building a 14-point lead on a Barrett drive early in the fourth quarter. Miami cut the Raptors’ lead to three with 64 seconds left as they had to drain a few late threes, but the Raptors survived.

With the win, the Raptors begin their season-best seven home games, but there is little time to relax. Each of the Raptors’ first five opponents in this 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 plan to be back .

The Raptors will need Barrett to be at his SBA best if they want to pass this gauntlet.

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  1. Jonathan Mogbo has a knack. There’s more to it than that, but it’s the simplest explanation for the way the rookie seems able to keep making things happen on the floor. In his first seven minutes, which spanned the first and second quarters 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 loss of the ball was interesting because it came moments after the Heat gave the ball in an erratic left-handed dribble. He came down on the other end and forced Miami into a turnover to make up for his mistake. He was not credited with a steal, but his pressure forced the Heat to fumble. It was clear from his reaction that Mogbo was more frustrated with the loss of the ball than with winning it back, but at least he had brought the Raptors level in the sequence.
  2. When asked if Walter would start for the third straight game as the Raptors look to be without a traditional point guard in their starting lineup until Immanuel Quickley recovers from a partial tear of the tendon in his right elbow, Rajakovic replied simply: “I don’t see why not.” Considering that Walter missed all of training camp and exhibition games due to a shoulder injury and played four games before getting injured again and being sidelined for another three weeks, one can understand why why the trainer is not doing anything wrong. The rookie played well, averaging 10 points, seven rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.5 steals in just 27 minutes per game as a starter. He had trouble shooting, making just three of 18 three-pointers before Sunday. But he got into a little turmoil in the second quarter against Miami, hitting a pair of threes and then — when a Heat defender bumped him off the line in the corner — drove into the paint and scored a classy-looking fade away. In the third quarter, he showed great patience, holding the ball handler in a pick-and-roll with Poeltl on his hip before pulling himself up for another jump. Walter looks anything but overwhelmed at this point.
  3. Injuries remain a concern as the Raptors continue to be without starting point guards Quickley (elbow) and Gradey Dick (calf), as well as two veteran backups, Bruce Brown and Kelly Olynyk, who haven’t played a minute this season because of knee problems and back problems . None of these are believed to be too far away, but there is still no set date for each to return. Dick seems to be the closest. He is expected to train and test his calf in a practice that could take place as early as Monday, when the Raptors are scheduled to practice at the OVO Athletic Center. Hopefully, assuming this goes well, Dick will be added to the lineup sometime this week. Brown likely won’t be far behind as he’s just working on his conditioning at this point, as is Olynyk.

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