RJ Barrett Gets Real Honest About Raptors' Lack of 'Fight'

Toronto Raptors forward RJ Barrett was disappointed in his team's lack of fight on Monday night against the Milwaukee Bucks

Nov 27, 2024; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; Toronto Raptors guard RJ Barrett (9) brings the ball up court against the New Orleans Pelicans during the first half at Smoothie King Center. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-Imagn Images / Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

RJ Barrett could hardly find the words.

It wasn’t just another loss—it was the weight of mounting frustration. Sitting quietly, Barrett dragged his hand across his face, scratching his chin as he tried to articulate what had gone wrong.

Earlier in the season, losses felt different. Back then, the Raptors clung to optimism, convinced brighter days were ahead. Close overtime losses to the Denver Nuggets and Boston Celtics, along with hard-fought battles against the Dallas Mavericks, New York Knicks, and Houston Rockets, offered glimpses of untapped potential. All they needed, or so they believed, was time and health.

That optimism has since vanished.

An 11-game losing streak followed by back-to-back humiliations, has left the Raptors shaken. Barrett sat quietly on Monday night, deflated and searching for answers after yet another disappointing defeat.

“We’ve got to do a better job, straight up,” he said. “It was just not good enough.”

That hardly scratched the surface.

The Raptors were dismantled by an Orlando Magic team missing its two best players and four of its top five scorers for most of the night. Then, against the Milwaukee Bucks, Toronto was so thoroughly outclassed that Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard didn’t bother playing in the fourth quarter.

“Tonight wasn’t about us getting used to each other,” said Barrett, whose return to the lineup against Milwaukee marked the first time he, Scottie Barnes, and Immanuel Quickley had played together since March. “We just didn’t play hard enough, top to bottom. We have to figure it out. Just playing hard, being that team we were at the beginning, fighting—we didn’t have our fight tonight. So that’s disappointing.”

It’s one thing to lose.

Nobody in the organization is alarmed by losses in isolation—rebuilding and development have been the Raptors’ mantras since Media Day. But for a team that has long prided itself on effort and fight, the lack of competitive fire has been alarming.

“It's OK if you lose a game, but you fought, you played hard, and you did all that you could,” Barrett said. “I don’t think we did that tonight. That’s the disappointing part of it.”

This isn’t an occasional off-night. It’s becoming a troubling pattern.

The Raptors surrendered 430 points over three games in late December, prompting their head coach to unleash a profanity-laden tirade that got him ejected. The response? A 54-point annihilation by the Boston Celtics, the most lopsided loss in franchise history.

“There’s no excuse for what’s happening right now,” Barrett said, his voice almost breaking. “We’ve shown we can do it already. We all have to be better, we all have to lock in completely and bring a certain level of fight and compete from the jump all the way through. That’s all of us. It starts with me, Scottie, and Quick, but it’s all of us. We have to be together and play harder than we are right now.”