Scottie Barnes outplays former teammate: Toronto Raptors shock Indiana Pacers

These 2 teams were involved in a midseason trade earlier in the year, headlined by All-Star forward Pascal Siakam. In tonight’s game, Scottie Barnes outplayed his former teammate and led the Toronto Raptors to a shocking 130-122 victory over the Indiana Pacers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

Following the trade deadline, both of these teams looked like they had different goals in mind. The Pacers pushed all their chips into the table and wanted to build the best team they could around Tyrese Haliburton to make a deep playoff push.

Meanwhile, the Raptors were sellers and looking to retool around their franchise player and former Rookie of the Year, Scottie Barnes. They acquired traded away core pieces such as Siakam and OG Anunoby and during the deadline made a few more trades to offload some contracts.

However, despite all this change, Toronto still came out on top tonight behind an impressive game by Barnes. He finished with a triple-double, ending with 21 points, 12 rebounds, and 12 assists while also getting 5 blocks. RJ Barrett scored 24 points while Immanuel Quickley had 19 points. Jakob Poeltl recorded 15 points and 10 rebounds while Gradey Dick scored 18 points and shot 4/4 from behind the arc.

For Indiana, it was a tough game for All-Star Tyrese Haliburton as he finished the night with 9 points and 7 assists on 2/11 shooting. Bennedict Mathurin led the team in scoring with his 34 points while Pascal Siakam finished with 27 points and 9 assists. Myles Turner recorded 16 points and 11 rebounds.

This win improves the Raptors to 22-36, which makes them 11th in the Eastern Conference and 3.5 games behind the Hawks for the last play-in spot. Toronto is in a tough spot right now, as they need to decide whether they want to compete for a potential playoff spot or throw the season away and prepare for next year.

They currently do not own their first-round pick (it is top-6 protected) because of the Jakob Poeltl trade so right now the Raps are in “no man’s land”. They’ve been on a streak as of late, winning 3 in a row and going 5-5 over their last 10 games. Their next game will be on Wednesday against the Dallas Mavericks.

On the other hand, this loss drops the Pacers to 33-26, which makes them 6th in the Eastern Conference and 0.5 games above the Miami Heat. This loss is not ideal for Indiana who hopes to make their first playoff berth since 2020, as winning would’ve increase the cushion of them avoiding the play-in tournament. Indy is now 6-4 over their last 10 games and will look to bounce back on Wednesday against the New Orleans Pelicans.