Date: November 13, 2025
Source: Toronto Raptors (YouTube)
Head coach Darko Rajaković spoke postgame after the Raptors’ 126–113 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, highlighting Scottie Barnes’ two-way dominance, improved rebounding habits, strong bench play, and the team’s ongoing push for defensive consistency and chemistry.
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On Scottie Barnes’ Performance
“I see Scottie playing on a high level a lot of nights. It’s easy when you look at 28 points and eight assists and that offensive stuff. It’s easy to identify that he had a good game, but he does so much more for us defensively with five block shots, deflections that he’s creating, rotations, how he’s covering for us defensively.
I think Scottie Barnes definitely deserves to be in consideration for defensive lineup of the year this early in the season. He’s showing a lot of progress there, a lot of improvements. It’s really good to see when he puts both ends of the floor together, doing it defensively and then being a force and playmaker on the offensive end as well. This was a great game for him.”
On Barnes’ Rebounding in Traffic
“A big emphasis for us was securing rebounds. We do a decent job of getting involved there, but we did not do a good job of securing rebounds. That was better tonight. A lot of times it comes from hitting an opponent and going to get it and securing it with two hands. I thought he did a good job tonight.”
On Playing One of Their Most Complete Games
“We played against a really good team. For me, the most important thing is focusing on this game and taking it one game at a time. It’s very early in the season. We’re still building our habits.
Yes, we won today, but we have so many things that we can improve and get better at and clean up. I asked our guys in the locker room how many perfect games we played so far this year. They said none. The same answer is how many perfect games we’re going to play the rest of the year. None. There is no such thing as a perfect game.
There is always room for improvement and growth. I’m glad to see that our team is sharing the ball well — 37 assists — playing off each other, communicating, improving our chemistry. Those are things in our control. I thought we did a good job in that aspect tonight.”
On the Barnes–Poeltl Combination
“I think that Yak is providing so much for us. He was great defensively today. He converted on the offensive end, made all of his free throws. He’s doing so much for us. He’s that calming force for us on the offensive end. Once the ball gets to him, it looks like the whole team settles and we know what we need to do.
Scottie and Jakob’s connection in the post is really good. I thought Jakob did a good job running in transition as well, and Scottie was able to find him a couple of times. A lot of positive stuff to build on.”
On the Bench’s Consistency
“From the start of the year, we know how talented all the guys off the bench are for us and how much they bring to the team. We talked before the game about Jamal playing together with Quick, and they shared the floor quite a bit tonight.
It gives us a lot of flexibility to adjust during the course of the game, and I have utmost trust in those guys that they will continue finding the best ways to help the team on the floor.”
Pulse Takeaway
Rajaković praised Barnes’ defensive growth, highlighted improved rebounding discipline, and stressed that the Raptors are still building toward their identity. The Barnes–Poeltl pairing continues to shine, and strong bench contributions gave the Raptors balance on both ends of the floor.
Quotes from Darko Rajaković via Toronto Raptors (YouTube).
Quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
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