MILWAUKEE — If you were ever curious about what it’s like trying to recalibrate your body and your game to the extreme pace and physicality of mid-season NBA play after missing a significant chunk of time due to injury, RJ Barrett is here for you:
“Annoying” was the adjective the Toronto Raptors wing finally settled on after I asked him just that shortly after what was an otherwise thumbs-up-all-around win against the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday afternoon.
A scan of the game tape or the box score provides plenty of positive nuggets for anyone trying to predict the Raptors trajectory over the final third of the season. Not that a blowout win over Milwaukee guarantees anything — the Giannis-less Bucks are scratching, clawing and mostly failing in their effort to pull themselves into a play-in spot in the Eastern Conference.
A home back-to-back against the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs — first and second-place teams in the Western Conference, respectively — will provide a sterner test Tuesday and Wednesday.
But the Bucks (24-31) did come into the game having won six of seven, were healthy other than missing their foundational star and were playing at home. Also, the Raptors — who improved to 34-23 and nudged closer to fourth-place Cleveland — were without their centrepiece, with Scottie Barnes missing just his second game of the season, in this case due to personal reasons that had him back in Toronto.
But the Raptors did what was required, with ball movement, competitiveness on both the offensive and defensive glass, and as determined a perimeter defensive effort as the team has provided all season allowing them to weather early shooting woes and then pull away when the threes began to fall in the second quarter.
The only exception to all the good feels was Barrett’s offensive performance. The Raptors’ leading scorer from last season finished with seven points on just 2-of-10 shooting. Barrett has struggled noticeably in the 10 games he’s played since returning from an ankle injury a month ago, which itself had come only 10 days after returning from an earlier knee injury.
Combined, the two ailments kept Barrett out of the lineup for 24 of 30 games over a two-month period beginning in late November.
He’s yet to return to peak form.
Barrett is as aware as anyone. The problem with having consecutive leg injuries is there is precious little that can be done to keep NBA-sharp while recovering, and regaining the required edge takes time. And even when the body begins to feel willing, it doesn’t mean the shot-making or finishing will simply arrive on command.
“Yeah, it’s annoying,” Barrett reiterated. “Especially because when you’re out, to play a certain way, (the team) has to adjust without you. So now you’re trying to come back into the flow, and then you don’t really feel the same way. But I think it’s just continuing to attack it, and having to get out of that mindset, just work through it and push yourself 100 per cent to get back right.”
It’s been a work in progress. Barrett — who was on a minutes restriction for several games, which complicated things even more — is shooting just 39.8 per cent from the floor (46.6 per cent on twos and 27.5 per cent on threes), for just 14.4 points per game while playing 26.7 minutes per night. Before his injuries, Barrett was averaging 19.6 points per game and shooting 50.7 per cent from the floor (34.5 per cent from three and 60.2 per cent on two-point field goals).
He’s not the only Raptor to struggle to get back to best form. Raptors centre Jakob Poeltl has missed even more time than Barrett this year, with a balky back keeping him out for all but six minutes of a 28-game stretch dating back to Dec. 15. And while he’s earlier in his return than Barrett, he’s had his struggles too. The seven-footer hasn’t blocked a shot in three games, and in his first two starts — one on either side of the all-star break — Poeltl grabbed six rebounds in 36 minutes of action.
But he emerged from each game healthy, and finally looked much more himself against the Bucks as he finished with six points, eight rebounds and two steals in 26 minutes. More importantly, he seemed to be moving more freely and playing more instinctively that he has all season.
“I think, from game to game, it gets a little bit easier,” Poeltl said, when we spoke in a light-hearted Raptors dressing room after the win. “You know, like the game speed comes back, the conditioning comes back more and more. So yeah, felt pretty good today.”
Poeltl’s game is subtle at the best of times — the proper angle on a ball screen, tipping a missed shot to keep a possession alive, sliding over to contest a shot as a helper or simply making himself available as escape valve when a possession is breaking down offensively — but the little plays add up, and when coupled with the kind of production he provided last season (14.5 points, 9.6 rebounds, 1.2 steals and 1.2 blocks), his impact can be significant.
“Jak helps all of us, not just me,” said teammate Immanuel Quickley, who has developed a nice chemistry with Poeltl on pick-and-rolls and dribble hand-offs, which was evident at times Sunday as the Raptors point guard scored 32 points and added nine assists in one of his strongest outings of the season.
“He does a lot of stuff that doesn’t show up in the stats sheet. The way he protects the rim, changes shots, gets us out in the break, changes our defence to offence a lot. So Jak does a lot of stuff that he doesn’t really get credit for and I’m gonna give him that credit right now.”
Quickley had some encouraging words for Barrett too, his teammate since his rookie season with the New York Knicks in 2020-21. Quickley’s playing some of his best basketball this season after various injuries limited him to just 33 games last season, so can relate to Barrett’s situation.
“I dealt with that (coming back from injury) a little bit last year. Sometimes when you’re out, you just gotta find that rhythm,” Quickley said. “The NBA has the 400 best players in the world. A lot of people just look at it (after a player returns) and be like, ‘Oh, he’ll be fine.’ (But) you need time. Sometimes you need time. I don’t doubt what RJ can do. We all see what he can do this year. He’ll still continue being that person.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by Poeltl, who was struggling to find his rhythm even before his long stint on the shelf, when his back issues limited him during training camp and at various points in November and December. Keeping up with the tempo the Raptors like to play with on both ends adds another wrinkle.
“I mean, especially, like on this team, we play with such a high intensity,” said Poeltl. “It’s such a tough game, even for somebody that’s in game shape and hasn’t missed any games all season that have gone through all the off-season training. Trying to come back and trying to fit into that system after being out. … It’s not easy.”
Barrett and Poeltl are each doing their best to get back up to full speed. They can only hope the results show up sooner than later.
Barrett travelled to Los Angeles during the all-star break to get in some work with his trainer, Drew Hanlen, and even arrived in Chicago a day earlier than required after the break to make sure he got in some extra work before the team convened for its first practice last Wednesday.
Poeltl went to Mexico with his girlfriend, but if you happened to see a seven-foot Austrian putting his time in at a resort hotel gym, well that was a certain Raptors centre trying to keep his return-to-play program on track. And if you happened to do a double take seeing Poeltl in the gym or on the treadmill? No worries, he didn’t notice. “I’m kind of used to it,” he said.
Fair point.
But the bigger point is that neither Poeltl nor Barrett are likely to remain off their level for much longer. History is on their side. And when they do hit their stride, it’s fair to wonder if the Raptors game might have another level to reach?
Barrett believes so and is determined to help make it happen sooner than later.
“You know, we got a whole team, man,” said Barrett. “We got a squad.”
The sooner he and Poeltl can return to full strength, the sooner other teams might find themselves annoyed at how to deal with them.