Raptors destroy Pacers as Barnes shows all-star form

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On Super Bowl Sunday, the Toronto Raptors blitzed the Indiana Pacers, running over another NBA sad-sack squad.

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Toronto improved to 21-7 against teams below .500, using a big third quarter to pull away en route to an eventual 122-104 win at Scotiabank Arena.

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Scottie Barnes dominated with 25 points, 14 rebounds and four blocks, RJ Barrett added 20 and Sandro Mamukelashvili added 17 off the bench. Ex-Raptor Pascal Siakam led Indiana with 18.

Newcomer Trayce Jackson-Davis made a good first impression with 10 points and 10 rebounds in 15 minutes.

Some takeaways from Toronto’s third win in four games and fourth in four tries against the Pacers this season:

KING OF THE QUARTER

Barnes turned in one of the best quarters of his career in the third. He completely overwhelmed the Pacers, going off for 13 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two blocks and a steal in nine minutes. Barnes was plusa-23 in that time. It was a spectacular display from the soon-to-be two-time all-star.

Barrett was strong in the third too, hitting all three shots, two of them three-pointers, along with three rebounds and two assists. Barrett was plus-20 in his seven minutes.

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Ja’Kobe Walter also impressed in stretches for the Raptors, especially defensively.

JAK NOT BACK

It was hoped that Jakob Poeltl would return to the lineup after missing 23 games, but that was not the case. Poeltl went through his first full practice in ages on Saturday, but was held out again. The team hopes he’ll be able to play against Detroit on Wednesday, the last game before the NBA goes on its all-star hiatus.

The Poeltl no-go meant once again Toronto had to make do mostly with power forwards pinch-hitting as centres. They’ve had some success with that forced approach, which has impressed Poeltl.

“We have a lot of talented guys on this team and we we know how to make up for a lack of size, we start beating teams with different strengths than other teams that we have available to us,” Poeltl had said after practice.

“We’re lacking a little bit of size. We might make up for it in speed and other stuff like that. So I think I’m overall pretty happy with how we played, but I’m not at all surprised (that they’ve not completely fallen off a cliff without him).”

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NO TRAYCE OF NERVES

Head coach Darko Rajakovic did have a new option available though, with Jackson-Davis in the lineup. The former Golden State Warriors centre entered to start the second quarter, completing Darko Rajakovic’s 10-man rotation.

Jackson-Davis probably got more minutes than Rajakovic initially intended because rookie big man Collin Murray-Boyles aggravated his thumb injury and left the game in the first half. JDS’ first three points came off four trips to the free throw line and his first basket as a Raptor was on a put-back early in the fourth quarter. Right after that he ran the floor and was fouled on a dunk attempt, heading back to the free throw line.

Jackson-Davis made his debut against his local team, since he’s from just outside of Indianapolis. It was impressive, with a lot of hustle, good instincts and aggressiveness. He was advertised as a high-motor player and it showed in his first game.

KEEPING THE PACE

Indiana made one of the more interesting moves of the trade deadline, acquiring Ivica Zubac from the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for a massive haul of draft picks. Zubac is a premier centre, but did not come cheaply. In addition to talented Montrealer Bennedict Mathurin, the Pacers surrendered their 2026 first-round pick and a future one unprotected. What makes the deal intriguing was the protections placed on the 2026 picks. If the Pacers have luck in the lottery and end up in the top four, they’ll keep it in what’s considered to be an excellent draft and surrender a future first unprotected. If it’s 5-9 they lose it.

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The Pacers entered Sunday with the NBA’s second-worst record, one win ahead of the Sacramento Kings.

Zubac didn’t play and probably won’t be in the lineup all that often this year as the Pacers try to increase their odds of keeping the pick. Washington is doing the same with Anthony Davis and Trae Young, though the Wizards keep their selection if they land in the Top 8.

SUPER BOWL MEMORIES

Toronto improved to 12-7 all-time on Super Bowl Sunday. Oddly, that record includes four straight wins as an expansion squad in the ugly, early days of the franchise when they mostly stunk. They’d gone 8-7 since, including a memorable 2001 win over the Philadelphia 76ers and two losses in consecutive years to the LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James “Heatles. The Sixers game was a playoff preview of the classic seven-game loss on a Vince Carter buzzer-beating miss later that year. In this one though Carter got hurt early on, but Toronto still pulled out the victory despite 38 points from Allen Iverson. Alvin Williams, who did the colour commentary on Sunday’s broadcast, played in that game.

More recently, Fred VanVleet scored 35, Pascal Siakam 28 and a sophomore Barnes 20 in a win over Detroit.

@WolstatSun

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