RJ Barrett’s best game sparks Raptors to easy win over Cooper Flagg, Dallas Mavericks

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They needed that one.

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After dropping four of five games and four straight at home, the Toronto Raptors overwhelmed the visiting Dallas Mavericks on Sunday night.

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RJ Barrett was spectacular, scoring a season-high 31 points and rarely missing shots, Scottie Barnes was solid all around, and Jakob Poeltl went 7-for-8, while Dallas was wretched offensively in the 122-92 Raptors win.

The Mavericks struggled to get to 40% from the field or 20% on three-pointers (falling short on both counts in the end), committed 10 more turnovers than the Raptors and didn’t take advantage of their edge in size at most positions.

Rookie Cooper Flagg impressed with 17 points, seven rebounds, six assists and three blocks, while Daniel Gafford went 10-for-10 for 21 points, but the team really struggled to score.

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Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic had said Saturday was one of the team’s best practices of the year and, in some ways, it showed a day later. As Barrett put it, “that translated. When we play like that, we’re hard to beat.”

Toronto now heads to the road for games at Houston and New Orleans.

More takeaways from an easy one for the home side:

BARRETT BREAKING OUT

Barrett had bounced back pretty quickly earlier in the season after missing about a month due to injury, but hadn’t quite looked like himself after missing seven games in late-January. Defending had been a particular struggle, but even offensively, he’d seemed a tad off for a while.

But he was the best player on the floor Sunday, absolutely terrorizing the Mavericks. He admitted afterward he continues to feel healthier, which leads to more confidence.

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When the Raptors run they are at their best and Barrett is a key contributor in the open floor, but he also added three three-pointers.

Barrett was coming off one of his best games of the year against Minnesota and had been strong offensively against the Knicks before that and against Washington the game prior. In fact, he had been strong in four of Toronto’s previous five before levelling up against Dallas.

With Brandon Ingram (he was recovering from a stomach bug) and Immanuel Quickley off with their shooting, Barrett’s play was badly needed.

He also moved past 8,000 career points, becoming just the eighth Canadian to achieve that feat and he’s the youngest of the active Canadians (Andrew Wiggins, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jamal Murray, Kelly Olynyk and Dillon Brooks) to get to 8,000.

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“I’ve been able to be blessed to be in this position and to be doing this for some years now,” Barrett said. “It’s a thing that I don’t know, you play basketball, scoring is a part of it, part of being able to win the game. I just try to play winning basketball as best I can so those things come along with it. I’m very thankful,” he said.

Barrett is also second to Gilgeous-Alexander’s 25.2 career points per game (all averages before Sunday) amongst Canadians at 18.8, just ahead of Murray’s 18.7 per game. Wiggins averages 15.9, Dillon Brooks 14.8, while Steve Nash, the total Canadian points leader, 14.3. Told by the Toronto Sun he’s second in Canadian PPG, Barrett said he was unaware, but smiled.

At the podium he had said: “I’m very proud, very proud Canadian. I think doing it for the Raptors is even more special. So just, you know, hope that I’m able to continue this,” Barrett said.

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FINDING THE MARK

Barnes turned heads with his outside shooting to start the season, hitting half of his first 24 attempts in six October games. He followed up by making a solid 37% of his 46 November attempts, but it’s been a different story since. Barnes dipped to 28.6% on 49 December attempts, to 11.4% (4-for-35) in January and 16.7% (3-for-18) in February, the worst stretch of his career from beyond the arc.

Outside shooting might never become a strength for Barnes, but he can’t be a complete non-threat the way he was in January and February. The good news for the Raptors is Barnes is starting to improve significantly from three this month. He went 1-for-3 against New York on Tuesday, 2-for-3 against Minnesota on Thursday and nailed his first look, from the corner.

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Barnes later hit another and finished 2-for-4.

CAPTURE THE FLAGG

Flagg had been listed as questionable for the game and it actually came down to how he felt after going through his pre-game warmup. Happily for Canadian basketball fans, the teenage star decided he was good and suited up.

It would have been tough had Flagg been unable to play. Fans here have already been denied the lone visits by some of the NBA’s biggest superstars this season. Hamilton’s own Gilgeous-Alexander, perhaps on his way to a second straight MVP award, was injured when Oklahoma City played at Toronto, Luka Doncic was out because his child was about to be born and Nikola Jokic, a three-time MVP, was hurt when Denver visited Toronto.

Flagg showed off his defensive prowess with a monster early block on an Immanuel Quickley attempt. Less than a minute later Flagg skied to throw down a two-handed alley-oop, drawing oohs from the crowd. He also made some strong early passes for Mavericks scores, showcasing his all-around abilities. Later he spectacularly blocked Poeltl, a play so surprising it was initially ruled goaltending, though video review overturned it after a Dallas challenge.

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Flagg talked afterward of not responding to Toronto’s physicality well and to trying to speed things up a bit too much.

Flagg was the easy first choice in a loaded 2025 draft and has looked the part. He’s already a plus defender and has had a 49-point and 42-point game, five with at least 30. Plus, he’s averaging over 20 points and shooting 47.3% from the field. That’s solid for any player, let alone a teenager.

The 2025 crop also boasts Charlotte’s Kon Knueppel, who is having the best shooting season ever by a rookie, Philadelphia’s explosive VJ Edgecombe, San Antonio’s big guard Dylan Harper, Memphis wing Cedric Coward and Toronto’s Collin Murray-Boyles (who like Flagg defends like few rookies). Derik Queen, Ace Bailey, Yanic Konan Niederhauser, Jeremiah Fears, Tre Johnson, Maxime Raynaud and Nolan Traore have also had their moments.

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It’s a good class.

DUKE WELL-REPRESENTED

If you’re a Duke fan, there were plenty of familiar players on display Sunday. Even with Kyrie Irving (picked first in 2011) and Dereck Lively (12th in 2023) out for the Mavericks, the team still had Flagg and Marvin Bagley III (the second pick in 2018) in the lineup, while Toronto had Ingram (second in 2016) and Barrett (third in 2019) starting.

For years Kentucky was the pre-eminent NCAA factory of future high-level NBA talent, but Duke is pretty clearly now the cream of the crop in that department.

Flagg said he has known Barrett for a long time, but it actually goes back beyond his year at Duke. Both played some high school ball at Montverde, the Florida powerhouse where Scottie Barnes also attended. Flagg said Barrett practised with the team while he was there.

@WolstatSun

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