{"id":71120,"date":"2024-03-29T20:35:29","date_gmt":"2024-03-30T00:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=71120"},"modified":"2024-04-08T06:02:35","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T10:02:35","slug":"raptors-scottie-barnes-rj-barrett-return-practice-extended-absence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/29\/raptors-scottie-barnes-rj-barrett-return-practice-extended-absence\/","title":{"rendered":"Raptors Star Duo Returns to Practice After Extended Absence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Toronto Raptors weren\u2019t having the greatest season to start with. Nonetheless, they\u2019ve been up the river without a paddle since All-Star forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/barnesc01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Scottie Barnes<\/a> sustained <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/02\/scottie-barnes-injures-hand-out-indefinitely\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">a left hand fracture<\/a> while playing against the Golden State Warriors on Mar. 1.<\/p>\n<p>23-50 on the season, the Raptors have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statmuse.com\/nba\/ask\/raptors-record-since-march-3\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">gone 1-12 since<\/a> that game. They\u2019ve lost 12 straight, averaging 104.0 points per game and shooting 32.1 percent from 3. They\u2019re also surrendering 119.5 points per game. Each number ranks 28th in the NBA.<\/p>\n<h2>Raptors Star Duo Returns to Practice After Extended Absence<\/h2>\n<h3>Scottie Barnes<\/h3>\n<p>Barnes has returned to the court. On Friday, the third-year pro used his left hand for the first time since his surgery. He was filmed at the end of a post-practice shooting drill, knocking down a shot from just inside the three-point line.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Today is the first day that Barnes has been able to use his surgically repaired left hand, per Darko. He\u2019s shooting with a smaller wrap on his left hand after practice. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8d9J0EQYZb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/8d9J0EQYZb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JLew1050\/status\/1773742412503896114?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 29, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>With nine games remaining, Barnes may hope to become eligible for league honors by meeting <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/explaining-nbas-65-game-rule-030826797.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the 65-game threshold<\/a>. He\u2019s played 60 games this season. That said, if he was targeting the 65-game minimum, he could sit out until Apr. 7.<\/p>\n<p>Averaging 19.9 points, 8.2 rebounds, 6.1 assists, 1.5 blocks, and 1.3 steals per game while shooting 47.5 percent from the field, Barnes is both an All-Defensive team and Most Improved Player Award candidate. Barnes has a better chance of earning an All-Defensive team selection. His 2.8 stocks per game are tied for fourth in the NBA among players that could meet the 65-game minimum for All-Defensive honors.<\/p>\n<h3>RJ Barrett<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/barrerj01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">RJ Barrett<\/a> has missed the last eight games as he grieves the loss of his younger brother, Nathan. This week, Toronto got Barrett back at practice as well. Opening up about his brother\u2019s death, Barrett says:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a hard time, for sure. He was my best friend. I&#8217;m always missing him. I still text him. I still call him sometimes; I don&#8217;t know why. But I&#8217;m thankful for all the support from everybody and definitely from the Raptors.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;He was the best, man,&#8221; Barrett reminisces. &#8220;I got basketball but he got everything else&#8230; Whatever he put his mind to he could do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The No. 3 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, Barrett has <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/11\/raptors-former-lottery-pick-rj-barrett-flourishing-after-trade\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">been brilliant since his trade<\/a> to the Raptors. In 27 games, he\u2019s averaging 20.8 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 4.0 assists per game, shooting 55.3 percent from the field and 41.7 percent from 3. With his best years ahead of him, the 23-year-old is signed through the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Basketball is my sanctuary,&#8221; he says of returning to practice, &#8220;so this actually brings me peace&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">RJ Barrett on the death of his little brother: &#8220;Even while I was playing, I knew it was kinda happening&#8230;&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/tMBXX2TGlm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/tMBXX2TGlm<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 \ud835\ude6f\ud835\ude64 (@ogchabzo) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ogchabzo\/status\/1773792485048811822?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 29, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If I know my brother he would want me to be here, to try to continue to make the Barrett legacy grow.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Toronto Raptors weren\u2019t having the greatest season to start with. Nonetheless, they\u2019ve been up the river without a paddle since All-Star forward Scottie Barnes sustained a left hand fracture while playing against the Golden State Warriors on Mar. 1. 23-50 on the season, the Raptors have gone 1-12 since that game. They\u2019ve lost 12 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":71127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1608,62,3],"tags":[4745,1964,3852],"class_list":["post-71120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-raptors","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-nba-injuries","tag-rj-barrett","tag-scottie-barnes"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}