Toronto Raptors vs Golden State Warriors Final: 120-105 — Toronto flails after losing Barnes

The Raptors were leading the Warriors until Scottie Barnes left the game with a hand injury.

The Toronto Raptors four-game home stand continued tonight when they welcomed the Golden State Warriors to Toronto — and along with them, fan favourite Stephen Curry.

The Warriors had some flight issues after their game last night and did not arrive in Toronto until 7am this morning. There were hopes that some lack of energy from them would help the Raptors compete with this hot hot hot team.

There were also no injuries to report for Toronto — to start. Curry was confirmed to be playing in his first game in Toronto since the 2019 finals series, and energy was high going into the game. Unfortunately it didn’t last very long for Toronto.

We’re getting ahead though…

The Raptors started off hot, with a few quick three’s out of the gate helping then gain a lead on the Warriors. Obviously, despite their early morning flight, it did not take long for Steph and Klay Thompson to wake up and catch up to Toronto.

A string of poor play from Golden State cause Steve Kerr to to call back to back timeouts, becoming very animated to his team about their lack of defence on the perimeter, allowing Toronto to shoot freely. They seemed to listen, playing better.

By the second quarter, the Warriors had surpassed the Raptors three point shooting (and then some) — and it was off to the races for them.

Yet the Raptors still managed to stay ahead for a lot of the quarter. It unfortunately did not last, because disaster struck the Toronto Raptors, and their best player.

Scottie Barnes left the game with under three minutes to go in the half with what looked like a hand injury. It seemed like he tweaked it first on a pass, and then fully injured it by hitting it up on the rim during a dunk attempt. He left to the locker room right away.

The Raptors stayed strong despite missing Scottie, and were up 64-61 at halftime. RJ Barrett led Toronto with 14 points in the half, and Barnes had 10.

Suspicions rose of Scottie Barnes’ injury when he did not come out to start the second half. He was eventually ruled out for the remainder of the game with a left hand injury, leaving the Raptors to have to defend the Warriors without him. It didn’t take long into the second half for the Warriors to catch up to and tie Toronto.

Steph Curry got to work draining three’s and was up to 23 points on 7-11 shooting from three by the end of the third. It was because of this that the Warrior’s lead quickly increased to 10 points, and without Scottie to try and defend Curry or contribute to the Raptors’ offence, it was hard to keep up.

Though that 10-point lead continued into the fourth quarter, the young kids were trying to keep the vibes alive in the game. The youngster DJ Carton got third quarter minutes, leading to a very entertaining alley-oop and reverse dunk from Gradey Dick.

It was 93-83 for the Warriors heading into the fourth.

Without Barnes, obviously it was hard for the Raptors to not only defend the Warriors but keep up with them. Barrett was the only player with 15+ points in the fourth quarter and after starting out hot from three the whole team cooled down.

The lack of size in the paint due to Barnes’s absence also led Jakob Poeltl to rack up some fouls. He was subbed out for Kelly Olynyk for a lot of the fourth, but Olynyk was also struggling with some back issues throughout the game.

Darko Rajakovic used this time to test out some new lineups, and DJ Carton got a few playing minutes. Javon Freeman-Liberty got a few minutes at the end there, after being signed to a standard NBA contract earlier in the day.

JFL has been averaging over 20 points per game with the Raptors 95 in the G-League, leading the Raptors to reward him with a full NBA contract.

In the end, the Raptors lose 120-105 to the Golden State Warriors. They will be back in action Sunday afternoon when the Charlotte Hornets arrive in Toronto.