How Scottie Barnes took over vs. Spurs

The Toronto Raptors were in tough against a stingy Spurs team through 24 minutes, but they really ramped it up in the second half, led by rookie Scottie Barnes. Follow Yahoo Sports Canada for all your Raptors coverage.

Video Transcript

- His name is Scottie Barnes!

- He's giving it his all. Love it.

AMIT MANN: Fred VanVleet is back, Precious continues to impress, and Pascal Siakam is dope. And the defense got better over the course of the game. But come on, that Spurs game was all about Scottie Barnes.

Scottie wasn't a huge factor in the first half against the Spurs. I mean, Pascal and Fred had it going on. They combined for 36 points. But there was a shift in that second quarter. And at halftime, the message seemed to be pretty clear-- get the ball to Scottie Barnes.

First two possessions of the second half were the rookie in isolation. He missed one, but hit this pretty turnaround left hook over Jakob Poeltl. Then moments later, he goes end to end. He steals a rebound from Khem Birch, sees he's got a mismatch, gets in the lane, and finishes with his left hand.

- Footwork's excellent. He gets to the sweet spot.

AMIT MANN: When Scottie has mismatches, he is excellent at finishing plays. And he continues to refine his post up game. Currently, he is shooting 68% at the rim and 51% from three to 10 feet. For comparison, Bam Adebayo-- 77% at the rim and just 42% from three to 10 feet.

Barnes is mastering the art of maneuvering in the paint. Between his bully ball physical style and his long strides, he gets deep post position, and is finishing not just with his right hand, but also his left.

SCOTTIE BARNES: I've really been working on it a lot. That's what I really come in the gym, work on. I feel comfortable using it.

And I feel really comfortable being in the post. I work on it every single day. So I felt comfortable [? getting ?] [? to ?] those moves, really.

- Our assistants and player development guys certainly are putting in a lot of time, and so is he, working on some different ways to-- we call it moving it around. You know, you got to sometimes move it around to contest or whatever. I know he likes using that left hand. So he's worked on it, and he's now bringing it out a little bit.

AMIT MANN: The Spurs are a pretty small team. They only have two players over 6' 7", and they're both centers, in Jakob Poeltl and Zach Collins. So after they owned the first half, Pascal and Freddie knew where the ball had to go. And you saw it on these two plays right here.

Pascal sees Scottie has the smaller Josh Richardson on him, makes eye contact with Barnes. He gets deep post position and draws a foul. Then a little two-man between Fred and Scottie.

Fred wants to get the ball there, but Devin Vassell puts up a good fight. Eventually, Barnes gets the ball. In a couple long strides, he's at the bucket to draw another foul.

- Love it!

AMIT MANN: And of course, it's not just about scoring with Scottie Barnes. He's so much more than that. You see here with Dejounte Murray, who was cooking the Raptors all night, he plays some really sound one-on-one defense.

And also, he's using his elite vision to find his teammates. He's making these plays that are really rapid pace down the stretch of the game. 18 points and five rebounds for Scottie Barnes in the second half, 28 overall on 8 of 12 shooting against the San Antonio Spurs.

He is just scratching the surface of what he's going to become. And as he improves his handle and his shooting ability, he's inching towards being that true three-level scorer. And once that happens, he is going to be a problem for the entire NBA.

My name's Amit Mann. Like and Subscribe to Yahoo Sports Canada on YouTube. And we will talk to you later.

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