TORONTO — The old saws stay in circulation for a reason. More often than not, they are more true than not.

Accordingly, “don’t get too high and don’t get too low” is solid life advice, and solid sports advice. You have to be able to absorb information in wins and losses, and a brief run of success — or failure — shouldn’t change your overall feeling, especially if that run happens in December.

Still, try to wrap your head around the Toronto Raptors’ weekend: a 138-117 loss in Washington to the abysmal Wizards on Friday, and a 141-127 overtime win over the Golden State Warriors on Sunday, complete with multiple stops of the previously scorching Steph Curry.

“Part of the loss against Washington,” Raptors coach Darko Rajaković said, “was us coming back with much more urgency and grit tonight.”

That word, “urgency,” gets thrown around a lot with Scottie Barnes. It wasn’t hiding on Sunday, as Barnes put up 23 points, 25 rebounds and 10 assists, the first 20-20 triple-double in franchise history. Still, he did it in his own way.

SCOTTIE COOKING 🔥🤯 pic.twitter.com/k24SkZnNSy

— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) December 28, 2025

Barnes is not a scorer by nature. As the Raptors struggled to put up points with RJ Barrett out of the lineup, Barnes’ lack of pure scoring prowess stood out. As Barnes generates nice looks for himself through brute strength — making establishing deep paint position look so easy — it can be confusing when he doesn’t.

With one of the Raptors’ most important scorers out, Barnes didn’t change who he was. And as his early-season hot shooting faded dramatically — Barnes was down to 49.2/31.4/77.8 percent shooting splits (from the field, 3-point range and the free-throw line, respectively) over the 13 games heading into Sunday — it was easy to fixate on what Barnes is not as opposed to what he is.

No, he is not going to be a go-to scorer. That conclusion is the biggest reason the Raptors traded for Brandon Ingram. Sunday showed, though, Barnes can still find ways to dominate games.

Against the Warriors, who are small and perimeter oriented, he stood on his tippy toes and grabbed rebound after rebound. He tipped in the game-tying bucket near the end of regulation off of an Ingram miss. He had three offensive rebounds over two possessions early in overtime, all of them leading to open shots, two resulting in buckets.

Barnes had four points and six rebounds in overtime alone, all the result of hanging out in the paint and being a bully.

Scottie ➡️ Ja’Kobe pic.twitter.com/TO5nUNn4xM