This should completely change their plans...

Six minutes and 30 seconds were left in the game in L.A. last night. On the second night of a back-to-back, no Kawhi Leonard, no Jakob Poeltl. Scottie Barnes was questionable coming into this game. But nonetheless, the Toronto Raptors were favorites, and this was a must-win game. And candidly, this game looked over. The Raptors didn't lead for a single second at that point. And they're down 12 points. They look defeated. It was just a complete mess on the road. However, from that moment, the The Raptors went on a 32-13 run for the rest of the game. Their first lead of the whole night came with 2 minutes and 8 seconds left, and they did not give it back as the Raptors end up getting the W at 125-118. Now, I've seen a bunch of Raptors comebacks over the years, but very few times did the Raptors look this dead with 6 minutes left in the 4th and they're able to turn it around. But what changed for this Raptors team? Because it wasn't the shooting. This game was a mess. It was a disaster. It was ugly pretty well throughout the entire... Wait, but the two people that ended up flipping this game are two guys that everyone's just currently arguing about right now. But before we dive into that, I really want to emphasize why this game mattered, because it feels like, oh, the L.A. Clippers, it's a team out there on the West Coast, it could be a trap game, whatever. This game was extremely important for Toronto, and for a few reasons, but the first one, you just have to look back 24 hours. On Sunday night against the Lakers, the Toronto Raptors fell behind by 26 in the third quarter. Luka Doncic put up 45 points and 15 rebounds, and it was ugly. The Raptors held true to their strategy. They ended up firing up 54 threes and only made 17 of them. But even though that game was a mess as well, the Toronto Raptors almost came back. They scored 43 points out there in the fourth quarter against the Lakers, but it was just too late. In fact, Darko Rajakovic threw in the bench. I was live streaming that game. It was late at night out here in Newfoundland. I said, okay, the Raptors are quitting. I'm quitting. I subbed off. And then they went on a crazy run to close it all off. So it ended up being a six point loss, which made it too straight for the Toronto Raptors after dropping that mess of a game against the Magic. And that Orlando game was really demoralizing. Scottie Barnes had a career high 41 points out there in that game, and they still ended up taking the L. Josh Lumbergh called it probably Scottie Barnes' best game ever, and it did not matter. Then facing off against Luka and his antics and putting up a one man show and ended up beating you. That's a demoralizing stretch of games, and then if you come in against the 1-6 Clippers and find a way to lose, sure it's on the road, sure it's on the second night of a back-to-back, they were as well. If you lose that game, that could be the start of a downward spiral. And for three quarters, it looked really, really bad. So what the heck happened in this game? Jakupovics, of course, as we mentioned, was sitting with a sore shoulder, and Trace Jackson Davis started at center against the Lakers, but that wasn't the case tonight. He ended up getting replaced by Colin Murray-Bowles, and he ended up starting this game, which I thought would be the starter the first time Jakupovics was out, but nonetheless, he had a very strong first quarter. Some people might call it a bold move by Darko Rajakovic because CMB went 1-6 against the Los Angeles Lakers and Walker Kessler, who of course has a lot of size on him and all that, and for the first time in CMB's Raptor career, I've seen a lot of Raptors fans actually Throw some shade out there on the Raptors' younging, but nonetheless, he started this game. And he came out flying. He had six points in the first quarter. When nothing else was working, Blake Murphy said it in real time. That was a great start for CMB, and nothing else was really working for the Toronto Raptors. Now, as is the case with pretty well every Toronto Raptors big man this season, foul trouble ended up slowing him down. So CMB went scoreless in the second, but Darko stuck with his guy, kept him out there in the rotation to close off this game, and it ended up paying off. The small lineup the Toronto Raptors ran ended up changing this entire game. Against the Lakers, the Raptors attempted 54 threes, and tonight, it was almost half. They shot 29, and they went to the rim instead. They got 62 points in the paint, which is up from 46 the night before. And they also lived at the line. They shot 48 free throw attempts, which is up from 25 yesterday. Now, the shooting percentage from the stripe was a catastrophe, it was disastrous, they made 31 of their 48 attempts, so 17 free points, they just lived at the stripe. And against a better team, that's not the Los Angeles Clippers or the Sacramento Kings or one of those squads, that will guarantee lose you a game. Nonetheless, the Toronto Raptors missed all those free throws, they only made 8 three point shots all night, and still somehow, someway found a way to put up 125 points. I do want to pose one question to you folks that are watching. Do you think the Toronto Raptors should start Colin Murray-Bowles' night-in, night-out basis versus a Jakupovics? Of course, they're smaller. Of course, he's going to get into foul trouble, and you deal with all these scenarios and stuff that you dealt with tonight against the Los Angeles Clippers, but CMB is really good at basketball, so I'd like to hear what you guys have to say. But let's get back to that turning point mark out there in this game, that 6:30 mark, because that's when the Toronto Raptors' comeback ended up starting. They were down by 12, and the first bucket on that run ended up being Colin Murray-Bowles from 22 feet, a knockdown three-point shot. A minute later, Brook Lopez picked up his sixth foul and was gone with five minutes and 26 seconds left. And that's one of the benefits of attacking the rim. You're going to put the other team out there in foul trouble, especially their big men, and where the Toronto Raptors are certainly undersized, especially without Jakapertel, that puts them in a position where they can start playing more of the game of basketball that they want. Also, Chris Dunn, their best perimeter defender, had a really good first half in this one. He ended up fouling out too with 45 seconds left. So with Brook Lopez and Chris Dunn out, again, Dunn was dealing with foul trouble till the very end. Manu Quickly was the guy that really was cashing in out there on these LA Clippers. He had 27 points and 14 in the fourth quarter and shot 10 of 11 from the free throw line. And off the bench, it was Jamison Battle who ended up hitting four of eight, four or six, sorry, of his three-point shots. which ended up being half of the team's threes. And on defense, this definitely wasn't the Toronto Raptors' best showing by any stretch of the imagination. There were some blown coverages by IQ, by RJ Barrett. You could see it from the eye test. It wasn't a good defensive game for the Toronto Raptors, but they did lock in a little bit more in the fourth quarter, kept the Clippers to 27 points, and Darius Garland did finish the night with seven turnovers. But if you put these two nights together, that is 90 points in the fourth quarter alone, across two games in two nights. The fight is there every single time. Darko commended it for this young group. For the bench squad group, Kyle Anderson was a part of that squad as well. He got some early run in this game as well after earning his minutes against the Los Angeles Lakers, but nonetheless, the Toronto Raptors are fourth quarter fighters right now. I also do want to mention Grady Dick played a very solid game for the Clippers in this one, had 12 points against his old team. Not enough to get them to victory, but that's exactly what we like to see. Former Toronto Raptors playing well out there in their new uniforms, but still losing to the Raptors when you face up against them. But the guy that really sealed the deal for the Toronto Raptors in this one was Scotty Barnes. And he was dealing with that hip injury. You could see it at times show through. Scotty sometimes just limps randomly out there on the court, but you could see it in certainly some possessions. But he ended up sealing the deal for the Toronto Raptors and we probably don't win it without him. As I mentioned earlier, Scottie Barnes was questionable for this game with hip tightness, but That didn't stop him from playing 38 minutes. Through three quarters, it looked like a guy that was questionable for that game. He only scored seven points, which of course is a downgrade from the Scottie Barnes we've been getting in recent performances. But the fourth quarter turned around and Scottie Barnes had 15 points in that quarter alone. He had a tip in, he had a dunk, he had an alley-oop from Jacoby Walter. And then with the game tied at 109, he had a 12-foot turnaround jumper. And that was the Raptors' first lead of the game with two minutes and eight seconds left. He finished the night with 22 points, a season-high 15 rebounds, and 8 assists. Was it a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination? No chance. The guy shot 8 of 15 from the free-throw line, which has been an issue with him since he's come down to LA. I mean, he started off the season shooting 100% from the free-throw stripe, and now he has gone ice cold. On a sore hip, no rest, missing his free throws, a touch off, he still found a way to get the Toronto Raptors the W. 15 rebounds are a matter of history as well. He is now just 20 rebounds away from passing to DeMar DeRozan on 7th in all-time Raptors history. Blake Murphy put it simply, saying that Scottie Barnes was huge through his hip issues. And remember a week ago when people were asking what was wrong with him after his 0 point game and 0 of 12 shooting from the field? Well, since that point, he's scored 28 points, 41 points. 29 points and 22 here against the LA Clippers and a very, very clutch performance at that. He's currently averaging 24.4 points per game on the season and that's not a dude that's waiting for Kawhi Leonard to come back to sort of lock in and really take his, you know, put his foot on the gas. He's trying to keep this team afloat and he is locked in right now. And then there's the guy I've been backing since he got here and that is RJ Barrett. Yes, like many members of this team, the defense was ugly for him. He dealt with some foul trouble. There was a lot of stuff. Going on with RJ Barrett in this game, but nonetheless, he scored 26 points. 10 of 19 shooting was a plus 18 in this game, which is by far the best out there on this team. That's 20 or more points in six of their seven games with his only miss, the nine point game he had against the Orlando Magic. And that nine point game, he probably could have scored more, but Scottie Barnes ended up putting in 41 that night. RJ should have stepped up, we ended up losing that game, but nonetheless, RJ Barrett has been fantastic, especially on the offensive end to start off this season. Once the Kawhi Leonard injury report came out, RJ Barrett said he was expected to have the ball a lot more and that everybody has to play better and not just him. And he's doing exactly what he told us he would do, and he's doing it in a year where he's an expiring contract, you know, it's a contract season. And every single game, I keep saying it, every single game, R.J. Barrett continues out there on the floor. It feels like the price could be going up out there on that contract, which is why his name continues to be brought up in trade talks and extension discussions and stuff that feels annoying for a guy that just wants to watch R.J. Barrett play on this Raptors team and not worry about him getting dealt or moved or anything like that. But that is the reality of the situation. Expiring deal for a team that is pretty handcuffed financially over the coming seasons. That's a guy that's most likely to be moved, regardless of how he is performing. But TSN's Josh Lewenberg basically said the opposite. He said, if there's ever any doubt, R.J. Barrett is not an expendable piece for this Toronto Raptors team as it's currently constructed. And he came out and said, if they do move on from him, they better have a good plan B. I feel like I say this in literally every game the Toronto Raptors play, with maybe exception of that Orlando Magic one, but this just continues to prove that case. With Kawhi Leonard out, R.J. Barrett is the other guy that can go out there, create his own shot, and get some buckets out there for this Toronto Raptors team. And when Kawhi is in there, the lanes just open up for him wide. And he can go out there and score at an efficient rate as your third scorer. So I get the people complaining about his on-ball defense. I get the people, it's fine. You can be critical of R.J. Barrett on the defensive end. But the impact that he has for this squad, it's there. You see it watching the game. Not just losing a 20. You're not just losing a 20-point-per-game, empty-calorie guy. R.J. Barrett is really the heart and soul of our offense. I know Scottie Barnes is a lot of the creation, and has stepped up as that number one option since Kawhi is out, but really the guy that's combating these runs, that's turning these games around. Sure, Scottie's the closer and the big game-shot taker, all that type of stuff, but R.J. Barrett's really that offensive engine that we have, and you see it in the big moments of this game. Two minutes, 44 seconds left. It's R.J. Barrett on the drive, then with 59 seconds left, After Clippers 3, R.J. Barrett once again knocks down a shot to put the Toronto Raptors back up by 3. My stance has been pretty clear on this this season. You do not trade away a guy that's your most consistent scorer on a team that is trying to be competitive right now. It's not something that you do. So here's where it leaves the Toronto Raptors. They're 4-3 now and 1-1 on this road trip so far. And yes, it's against a 1-6 team. The LA Clippers are a disaster, but this was a must-win game for the Toronto Raptors. This would have been the start of a very bad downward spiral without Kawhi Leonard and the narratives Just the mental, how it would affect the human beings on the Toronto Raptors. You lose this game, especially in the fashion it was looking in the first three quarters of this one, that would have been very, very bad for the squad. But nonetheless, they found a way to get the W, and Kawhi Leonard is still out for this team. ESPN lists his return date on my birthday, November 23rd, so we'll see if that actually ends up happening. But nonetheless, he's going to be out for at least a couple more weeks, which means the formula that turned around this game last night for the Toronto Raptors Is the formula that they have to move forward with. I get wanting to shoot more threes. And if your players are hot, shoot more threes. You know, people talk about the hot hand theory not existing. That's fake. Like, that is something that math nerds try to shove onto people. And that is proven wrong by other math nerds. Basketball, anyone that's played it, you knows. If you get hot, if you have a rhythm, if you have your shot feeling good, you will hit more shots. Sure. If Scottie Barnes scores a few buckets in the paint, hits his middies, step out from the three-point line. Take a couple. That can't be strategy A. That can't be plan A. Plan ABC should be Scottie Barnes getting downhill, RJ Barrett getting downhill, getting a paint touch, handing it off to Colin Murray-Boyles, giving it to our most talented guys and getting them to do the things that they are most talented at. The Toronto Raptors are next up against the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday. They're currently in the midst of a four-game road trip. They split the two games out there in LA and then they face Denver and then, of course, Milwaukee on Friday. And Denver is a real test, especially if Jakub Purtle is going to be out in that game. If CMB starts at center again, his matchup is going to be Nikola Jokic, and I'm very interested to see how that plays out. Small ball worked against Brook Lopez, but against the best big man out there in the world, that's going to be a whole other story. Let me know in the comments, how are you feeling about this Raptors team, and how do you feel about RJ Barrett at the deadline? Do the Raptors end up keeping him? Do they trade him? Let me know down below. And if you want to stay up to date on all the latest Raptors news, especially these Domantas Sabonis rumors going around, click this video right here.