TORONTO — Three-point shooting is the weapon of choice in the modern NBA but the Toronto Raptors are struggling to find consistency from beyond the arc.
RJ Barrett of Mississauga, Ont., made one of Toronto's five three-pointers as the Raptors made 33 attempts from beyond the arc in a 111-101 loss to the Boston Celtics on Tuesday. That amounted to a woeful 15.2 shooting percentage from range for the Raptors against the reigning NBA champions after Toronto was 20 for 35 on threes, 57.1 per cent, in a 127-109 win over the Phoenix Suns on Sunday.
"Sometimes you make shots, sometimes you don't," said Barrett, who finished with a team-best 22 points despite going 1 for 5 on three-pointers against Boston. "I think we actually got a lot of good looks, honestly, probably better looks than we got against Phoenix.
"But, you know, they just didn't drop today. I think even with that, we still played hard, and we still played well, even though we weren't making shots."
The Raptors went 8 for 8 on three-point attempts to close out their victory on Sunday. Toronto then went 0 for 11 from beyond the arc to start Tuesday's loss to the Celtics, not making a three until well into the second quarter.
"We make some shots, it looks totally different," said Scottie Barnes, who had 21 points on Tuesday despite missing all five of his three-point attempts. "But, you know, we didn't. It didn't fall tonight.
"We still have got to clean up some things. It's not an excuse."
Boston won the NBA title last season thanks, in part, to its proficiency with the three.
The Celtics have leaned into that, putting up a league-high 47.7 three-point attempts per game this season. Toronto has attempted the second-fewest threes in the NBA in the 2024-25 campaign, with 33 per game heading into Tuesday night.
"If you take a lot of them, you're going to make some," said Barrett. "They take a lot of attempts, they make a lot of threes.
"You definitely try to play the game, try to make their threes hard contested, and then try to shoot as many as we can. … They just made theirs, and we didn't make ours."
Head coach Darko Rajakovic agreed with Barrett that the quality of Toronto's three-points attempts against Boston were as good, if not better, than the looks the Raptors got against Phoenix.
"I wish that from last game those 20 that we made, that we did not make four of those, that we kept them for tonight," joked Rajakovic. "In this scenario, we win the game. I thought that quality of those shots were good. The ball did not go in tonight."
Forwards Kristaps Porzingis (illness) and Al Horford (left toe sprain) as well as point guard Jrue Holiday (rest) didn't play for Boston. Porzingis was a late scratch and Holiday had a planned night off as the Celtics were playing the first game of a back-to-back.
Despite woeful three-point shooting throughout the game, Toronto hung in, even taking a brief one-point lead in the second quarter. The Raptors managed that by an impressively efficient game from in close, going 37-for-50 (74 per cent) on two-point field goals.
"Horford and Porzingis didn't play, so it definitely opened up a lot more things at the rim for us today," said Barrett. "We were trying to convert as many of those as we could.
"I believe that if we make some of those threes, just four more, and it's a completely different game."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 25, 2025.
John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press
