The Toronto Raptors‘ franchise player won’t be participating in their second pre-season game.
Scottie Barnes has been ruled out of the Raptors’ game against the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday for an undisclosed reason, the team confirmed.
Jakob Poeltl will also sit out, missing a second straight game with lower back stiffness.
Barnes, 24, scored only one point, adding five assists, four rebounds and three steals in the Raptors’ first pre-season game against the Denver Nuggets on Monday.
The fifth-year forward averaged 19.3 points, 7.7 rebounds, 5.8 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.0 block last season, yet his efficiency declined on both two-point and three-point shots.
Poeltl, 29, averaged 14.5 points, 9.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.2 blocks in 2024-25.
Toronto’s high-pressure defence will be without its back line, as Barnes and Poeltl were the only two Raptors to have greater than one block per game last season and anchored Toronto’s frontcourt as the two primary help defenders and rim protectors.
Barnes missed 17 games last season with separate hand, finger, ankle, hip and face injuries, the most significant being a fractured orbital bone sustained at the beginning of the 2024-25 schedule. Poeltl missed 25 games due to various minor injuries.
This is the first season of Barnes’ five-year, $224-million rookie-scale contract extension. Poeltl signed a four-year, $104-million extension that could keep him in Toronto through the 2029-30 season, dependent on the options in the deal.