Scottie Barnes showing all-around impact in January

Raptors forward Scottie Barnes has been an impactful player in his January games as he shows signs of better health and defensive intensity.

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AMIT MANN: My B, my B.

KATIE HEINDL: [LAUGHS]

AMIT MANN: But yesterday he didn't have the best first half, and you enjoyed watching him bounce back. He had a really strong second half.

KATIE HEINDL: Mm-hmm.

AMIT MANN: And it's stuff like that that you're encouraged by, especially with-- yesterday's game, it looked like the Raptors were laboring more so in this game than they were in the Portland game, which was on a back-to-back. Their legs, they couldn't find them. They came out in the third quarter. And they looked great.

Whatever happened, Red Bull-- Red Bull gives you wings. I don't know. Bugs Bunny magic, who knows? But they found something. And then obviously it kind of went downward a little bit--

KATIE HEINDL: Yeah.

AMIT MANN: --as the game went on. But his spirit, his energy came through. And up until that last little stretch there, he was a big reason why they were able to at least stay afloat. His numbers over the past little while, I mean-- what did I have it here? What did I have here?

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

In January, the Raptors-- yeah, the Raptors have been outscoring opponents by 6.4 points per 100 possessions with Scottie Barnes on the court in the month of January.

KATIE HEINDL: It's great.

AMIT MANN: That's-- yeah, that's great. And those are the kind of impacts that you want from Raptorsy-type players. Those are things that Fred was notorious for, Kyle was notorious for, Pascal was notorious for. You would want him to be a high-impact player on-- when you're on the floor.

And earlier in the season, it wasn't always they're. His fault, team's fault, whatever. I mean, who the hell knows what's been going on with this team this season?

KATIE HEINDL: Yeah.

AMIT MANN: But you like that he's a positive-- a highly positive impact player when he's on the court. And I love seeing him with his off-ball blocks. His defense has really improved. I think you and I talked earlier this season about, what's going on with Scottie Barnes? Why isn't he moving well?

He was injured. I think he's been. He was hurt for a few months. But he is noticeably-- I was looking at clips a few days ago. He's noticeably looking, feeling, and moving much better than he was earlier in the season on the defensive end. If you have ankle problems, as a person who has had ankle problems, defensive shuffles don't feel good when you've got into problems.

KATIE HEINDL: Yeah, yeah.

AMIT MANN: Going east-west really, really hurts. And that movement is much better for him this year.

KATIE HEINDL: Yeah, he's definitely looking a lot more fluid. I think he doesn't look so tentative in some of those moves. And I think that goes back to what you're saying. When you're playing hurt, it's hard in the moment to watch it, I think. Then, yeah, it can get chalked up to, what's up with Scottie? He's not confident, da, da, da.

It's well, it's because he's guarding his body while he's playing, right? He's trying to be careful.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

KATIE HEINDL: And when you have someone, all of a sudden, they're feeling better, I think that's why you're also seeing these little bursts of confidence, e.g., staring DeAndre Ayton down. It's good. They're good, those are good signs. That's what you want from him.