RJ Barrett settling in after trade, leads Raptors past Warriors

RJ Barrett exploded for a season-high 37 points as the Toronto Raptors won for the third time in four games by beating the Golden State Warriors, 133-118, in San Francisco on Sunday, January 7 (Monday, January 8, Manila time).

Acquired from the New York Knicks on December 30 along with Immanuel Quickley, Barrett connected on 13 of 20 shots, including 5 of 8 from three-point range, in the third-highest scoring game of his career.

Quickley chipped in with a game-high 10 assists to go with 9 points for Toronto, which has wins over the Cleveland Cavaliers and Memphis Grizzlies during a 3-1 run since the trade that saw it send OG Anunoby to the Knicks.

Barrett bombed in a three-pointer 12 seconds into the game and the Raptors never gave up the lead. Facing a Warriors team without Draymond Green and Chris Paul, they scored the game’s first 7 points in just 56 seconds, then went on to lead by as many as 14 in the first quarter and 27 in the second.

Despite going without a three-pointer from Stephen Curry, the Warriors closed within 96-87 in the final minute of the third on a pair of Jonathan Kuminga free throws. But Toronto scored the final 5 points of the period and was never seriously threatened in the fourth.

Barrett also found time for 6 rebounds and 6 assists on a night where he fell 9 points shy of his career-high point total (46), set in February 2022 against the Miami Heat.

Jakob Poeltl recorded a double-double for Toronto with 14 points and a game-high-tying 11 rebounds, while Chris Boucher had 17 points and Pascal Siakam added 16.

With Boucher hitting all seven of his shots, including all three of his threes, the Raptors scorched the nets at a 58.5% rate overall. They connected on 45.5% of their three-pointers.

Curry finished with just 9 points, going 2-for-14 overall and 0-for-9 on three-pointers, the second time in his past 11 games that he failed to make a trey. Before missing all eight of his attempts at Portland on December 17, he had set an NBA record with at least one in 268 straight games.

Klay Thompson paced the Warriors with 25 points, hitting five of his seven three-point attempts. Trayce Jackson-Davis matched Poeltl’s 11-rebound total as part of a double-double with 16 points, and Moses Moody supplied 21 points. – Rappler.com