CLEVELAND – It wasn’t a straightforward watch, but Scottie Barnes says it was a vital one.
Barnes told media on the Toronto Raptors’ morning shootaround on Monday that intensive film sessions reviewing Saturday’s 126-113 loss in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal with the Cleveland Cavaliers were eye-opening.
“I feel it’s great for us to see that we played nowhere near where we expect we’re able to,” said Barnes, standing courtside at Rocket Arena. “It wasn’t a superb look ahead to us, to be honest. We would have liked to see that.
“We’d obviously quite win, nevertheless it’s good for us to see that we were nowhere near what we’re able to.”
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Barnes had 21 points, seven assists and only one rebound — well below the 7.5 he averaged within the regular season — within the loss. He said that the Raptors, who had the NBA’s fifth-best defensive rating heading into the first-round matchup with Cleveland, were lacking effort.
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“They only got wherever they wanted, to be honest. That’s really just the way it was,” said Barnes. “They got wherever they wanted and so they were scoring at a high efficiency, high rate. Second half, it got real ugly for us.
“We’ve just got to have the ability to stop that and have the ability to attain instantly.”
RJ Barrett, who led Toronto with 24 points in Game 1, agreed with Barnes that the loss was a very important wake-up call.
“As bad because it probably sounds, it’s sort of good to get a game under our belts,” said the swingman from Mississauga, Ont. “As a team, as a training staff, us as a unit, for a number of guys, that was their first playoff game ever.
“Simply to see what it’s all about, the environment, the physicality, knowing that slightly higher now, we just need to go and execute.”
Game 2 is Monday night, with the series shifting to Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena for Games 3 and 4 on Thursday and Sunday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 20, 2026.
© 2026 The Canadian Press