RJ Barrett, right, celebrates with Scottie Barnes after the Toronto Raptors downed the Cleveland Cavaliers in overtime on Friday to send their first-round playoff series to Game 7.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
RJ Barrett, meet Kawhi Leonard.
Down by one with under 10 seconds to go in overtime, Scottie Barnes drove on Cleveland’s Dean Wade. The 24-year-old drew a double team and, with five seconds to go, kicked the ball out to the Mississauga, Ont., native sitting just beyond the three-point arc.
Barrett locked, loaded and fired from deep. The ball hit the back of the rim and shot straight up.
“I know it was half a second, but it felt like an eternity,” Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic said.
The basketball dropped through the netting. After getting a final defensive stop, the Canadian now has his own iconic game-winning shot for the Toronto Raptors in front of a sellout Scotiabank Arena.
“Glory be to god, I didn’t make nothing the whole fourth quarter, the whole overtime,” Barrett, who scored 24 points on Friday, said. “So, for that shot to drop.”
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The shot reminded Raptors rookie Collin-Murray Boyles of another iconic moment for Canada’s lone NBA franchise.
“Kawhi 2.0, literally,” he said.
Barrett only needed one bounce to Leonard’s four. Now, the Raptors will look to close out the series in Game 7 on Sunday in Cleveland.
“Glory to god, that was a fun one,” Rajakovic said.
Ahead of Game 6, Raptors forward Jamison Battle said it’s do-or-die moments like Friday night in Toronto that can “define this year,” but “the rest of your career” as well. Barrett’s game-winner will define his career for the foreseeable future.
“To do it in the city where he grew up? That’s truly amazing,” Scottie Barnes said. “The way that shot went in when we needed it most – he showed up – that’s big time.
“It’s a hard thing to wrap your head around.”
For Barnes, his Game 6 performance will go a long way in defining his young career. His first-half showing made him the eighth player to post 14-plus points and 10-plus assists in a single half since 1997.
Barnes had a team-high 25 points and game-high 14 assists in Toronto’s 112-110 win.
MVP chants rained down on the two-time all-star following the match. Moments before, Barrett, arms stretched in the air, welcomed the cheers from the Raptors faithful after the game’s final buzzer sounded.
But Toronto’s young guns – as they have all series – continued to learn while meaningfully contributing to the outcome of tight games. Murray-Boyles, 20, Ja’Kobe Walter, 21, and Jamal Shead, 23, make up some of the Raptors’ playoff first-timers getting sizeable minutes.
The three are all averaging over 25 minutes per game and scoring at higher rates in the playoffs than their regular-season totals.
“It was kind of what you hear about it, you know, that the physicality, speed of the game and everything – the focus is up,” Walter said about his postseason experience thus far. “That’s definitely what I experienced.”
Walter made the most of Friday night with the Raptors’ backs against the wall. He eclipsed his playoff career-high of 20 points – set in Game 5 – by reaching new heights of 24.
“It’s definitely a learning experience, especially for us young guys that don’t have any experience before this,” Walter said. “It’s just something that we’re gonna be able to use in the future.”
This Game 6 experience will be something Walter can use as early as Sunday.
As for rookie Murray-Boyles, who played nearly 40 minutes on Friday, he’s learned how adaptable he can be to match any challenge Cleveland throws his way.
“I’m just trying to rise to the occasion,” Murray-Boyles said. “That’s the biggest thing in the playoffs, it’s when the lights are brightest, everything is maximized, so you’ve got to do your best – put everything out there for your team – because it’s a do-or-die situation.”
And according to the Raptors forward, Game 7 will be the series’s grittiest yet.
‘That is literally the biggest game of our season,” Murray-Boyles said.