5 Who balled and 2 who stalled in Raptors' gut-punch overtime loss to Nuggets
Scottie Barnes balled out
Against a contending team and the greatest player alive, Scottie Barnes was incredible, having one of the best all-around games of his life. He missed some shots, but facing a defense keyed into him and often facing the elite defensive stylings of Aaron Gordon, Barnes put up 21 points and had nine assists as he worked the ball to his teammates.
On defense he was truly special; he was everywhere, often taking the Nikola Jokic assignment while Jakob Poeltl matched up with Gordon. Barnes was strong, he was fast, and his hands were everywhere; he had a whopping five steals and a block, and pulled down 12 rebounds.
Unfortunately for Barnes and the Raptors, he was inadvertently struck across the face by Nikola Jokic, taking a hard elbow to the eye socket that had him dizzy and needing help to walk back to the bench, and eventually the locker room. He missed the final few plays of regulation and all of overtime, and there is not yet an update on his condition.
A gut-punch loss becomes even worse if Scottie Barnes misses any time. This team simply can't catch a break when it comes to injuries.
Gradey Dick stalled out
Gradey Dick played extremely hard on Monday night, and he is not the reason the Raptors lost the game. However, he was the defensive target once the Nuggets locked in, and they attacked him again and again down the stretch. That's been the reality for Gradey going back to Kansas, and he needs his offensive game to be strong enough to counteract that.
He hit a couple of bigtime shots during the game, but overall he was just 5-for-13 from the field and 2-for-7 from deep; the Raptors could have used another creator in overtime without Scottie Barnes, but Dick wasn't able to step up and be that player as RJ Barrett labored through possessions and Davion Mitchell instead took up the mantle, as well as he could. It's a learning process for Gradey and he played hard, but he stalled out as an effective two-way player in this one.