Scottie Barnes is excited to watch his former teammates face off in the playoffs.
The Indiana Pacers will meet the New York Knicks in the second-round, which pins Pascal Siakam against O.G. Anunoby with a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals on the line.
Barnes along with many others can’t wait to see this matchup:
cant wait to watch this🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/lffPddPYjp
— Scott Barnes (@ScottBarnes561) May 3, 2024
Barnes spent a lot of time with both Anunoby and Siakam, getting close to each player. When the Raptors finally decided to rebuild and traded both players, it was an adjustment period for Barnes.
Now Barnes is the face of the Raptors franchise and he seems ready to fully embrace that role.
Meanwhile, Siakam and Anunoby will be in a heated playoff battle.
Anunoby has been tremendous for the Knicks. He scored 12 of his 19 points in the second-half of the Knicks’ series-clinching Game 6 win. The Knicks are 24-5 with Anunoby in the regular season and playoffs combined. New York has yet to lose back-to-back games with him in the lineup.
As for Siakam he was huge in the Pacers first-round series win over the Milwaukee Bucks. He put up 36 points in Game 1 and then 37 points in Game 2. In the closeout game against Milwaukee in Game 6, Siakam had 15 of his 19 points in the second-half. Siakam has gelled well with Tyrese Haliburton and his other Pacers’ teammates.
It will be fun watching Siakam and Anunoby matchup against each other. The two obviously know each other very well and spent many practices together.
Unfortunately for the Raptors they were never able to take that next step with Siakam and Anunoby still on the roster. Therefore, the team traded both players and centered their new direction around Barnes.
In his third season with the Raptors, Barnes showed that he is more than capable of leading Toronto back to the top of the mountain.
2024 NBA Draft Lottery date and start time
The Raptors will be a topic of discussion once again when the 2024 NBA Draft Lottery takes place on May 12 at 3 p.m. ET.
Toronto will find out whether they’ll keep their top-six protected pick or transfer it to the San Antonio Spurs as part of the Jakob Poeltl trade last year.
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