Blake Murphy Sports Writing

The long wait to watch Scottie Barnes play basketball again is over. Meaningful basketball? Basketball in a game that resembles NBA action? Well, give it another week or two. But Barnes got his first game action since March 1 on Friday, and he showed a little bit of everything you remember, and even some of what you’ve been hoping for.

Barnes wasted no time making his presence felt against the Washington Wizards, opening up each half with big plays that sent the Wizards scrambling for quick timeouts (68 and 57 seconds into the respective halves).

In the game’s opening few plays, Barnes used a Jakob Poeltl screen to find his way into a bucket in the paint, then walked into a pull-up mid-range jumper with a newfound smoothness and quickness of mechanics, then connected with Poeltl on a nice transition feed. It was 6-2 Raptors in a blink, and while the rest of his first stint didn’t go quite as well – Barnes picked up three quick fouls and was charged with a few early turnovers – he looked calm, strong, and decisive at both ends of the floor.