The Toronto Raptors have experienced injury woes of their own to begin the 2024-25 season; most notably, Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley have missed plenty of games. In turn, RJ Barrett has been thrust into a larger role — and he has been delivering monster stat lines on a regular basis. On Thursday night, Barrett put up 31 points on an excellent 10-14 shooting from the field to lead the way for the Raptors in a huge 110-105 win over the Timberwolves.
The Raptors have asked Barrett to take on a larger, do-it-all role and he is proving capable of shouldering the heavy burden. It’s not an easy thing to put up an efficient 30-spot against a Timberwolves squad with plenty of good defenders, but Barrett managed to do so, and in so doing, he’s slowly establishing himself as one of the most explosive scorers in franchise history.
According to Sportsnet Stats on X (formerly known as Twitter), Barrett became just the fifth player in Raptors franchise history to tally five or more 30-point games through the first 13 games played in the season. He joined four of the greatest players in franchise history, with Vince Carter (2000-01), Chris Bosh (2008-09), DeMar DeRozan (2016-17), and Pascal Siakam (2019-20) also accomplishing the feat.
It’s a testament to how strong of a start Barrett is having to his first full season with the Raptors that he already finds himself among some of the most decorated players to ever suit up for the team. And even with Barnes returning from injury, Barrett appears to be seizing the controls of the team’s offense — which could lead to plenty of huge scoring nights moving forward.
Barrett has been in the league for six years that it’s easy to forget that he’s only 24 years old, and the Raptors definitely have a quality piece to build around as they look to return to contending ways in the immediate future.
RJ Barrett is on a hot streak for the Raptors
One of the major problems that RJ Barrett encountered when he was with the New York Knicks was that he was an inefficient volume scorer. But with the Raptors, Barrett appears to be figuring it out, especially as of late.
Over his past two games, Barrett is averaging 35 points on on 65.7 percent shooting from the field while leading the Raptors to two victories against two teams that made the playoffs last year (Indiana Pacers and Timberwolves). And perhaps the return of Scottie Barnes allows him to be more efficient on a game-to-game basis, as he won’t be drawing as much defensive attention anymore.
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