That's the most assists without a turnover in a 2-game span by a Raptor since Jose Calderon in 2008.— Keerthika Uthayakumar (@keerthikau) November 30, 2023 Schroder’s best assist of the night is the last one of these clips, nutmegging Kevin Durant and setting up Pascal Siakam for a dunk. Barnes had a pretty good view, trailing that nutmeg play in transition. Here are his thoughts. 3. Fourth Quarter Scottie Mentioned this off the top but Barnes has a flair for the dramatic with the game on the line. We saw glimpses of crunch time greatness in each of Scottie’s first two seasons. He also had the 17 point fourth quarter in the Raptors comeback win in San Antonio earlier this month. Barnes added more clutch plays to the archives last night. The emergence of a respectable three point shot (37.9 percent) this season has given Scottie another weapon to work with when he needs to score. Barnes received high praise from Darko Rajakovic (and also got the chain) postgame. Durant has always had good things to say about Barnes, going back to his rookie year. I asked Kevin Durant how Scottie Barnes is growing as a player:
Says he’s getting “more comfortable” as “Darko is trusting him to bring the ball up the court, play point forward, and he's shooting threes at a high right now. So sky's the limit for him” pic.twitter.com/BlVGujMNx6— Bryan Meler (@BryanMeler) November 30, 2023 Sidenotes
- HUSTLE: Sounds simple but this isn’t displayed by the Raptors every night. Shoutout to Precious Achiuwa who bounced back from a tough game against Brooklyn to record his first double-double of the season (14 pts, 10 reb). Diving on the floor to ensure a Raptors possession that they later scored on and grabbing one of his six offensive rebounds are examples of Achiuwa’s impact on the win. The key for Precious is to repeat these type of games more frequently, not just occasionally.
- FREE THROWS: The Raptors came in ranked 28th in free throw percentage, including shooting under 75 percent in the last three games. 18-21 is more like it. Along with his fourth quarter heroics, Barnes also went 8-8 and continues to step to the line to take free throws on violations. It’s odd when Schroder is in the game (an 87 percent shooter compared to Scottie’s 78) but you have to respect the confidence.
- DRAKE: Drake attended his second game of the season. He didn’t join the TSN broadcast and make fun of Payton Pritchard this time. But Drake made a rare locker room appearance.
Open Gym: Moment presented by @bell pic.twitter.com/dUYU7TdrPw— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) November 30, 2023 Up next: Raptors stay home, take on the Knicks before the In-Season Tournament knockout stage gives them a few days off.The post Raptors hang on in tight fourth quarter, beat red hot Suns first appeared on Raptors Republic.
Source: https://www.raptorsrepublic.com/2023/11 ... ns-streak/