The Toronto Raptors are fleshing their offence out this season, and that begins with taking more three-pointers.<\/p>\n
Nearly half of Toronto\u2019s field-goal attempts in a lopsided 148-98 pre-season win over the New York Knicks on Tuesday were from beyond the arc. The Raptors went 51 for 89 on field goals in the victory, including going 17 for 44 on threes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were running to the corner, sprinting to the corner, we got some corner threes and some were off the catch,\u201d said all-star forward Scottie Barnes after practice on Wednesday. \u201cI think every shot that we took was a really good look. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think when we draw the defence in and get good kickouts, that\u2019s the best shot we can take.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recently acquired star forward Kawhi Leonard went 4 for 8 from beyond the line, sophomore Collin Murray-Boyles was 2 for 2 and G League player Tyreke Key was 3 for 4. Starting point guard Immanuel Quickley is a career 37.5 per cent three-point shooter but missed all five of his attempts against the Knicks.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all part of a plan to take at least 35 three-point attempts per game this coming season after Toronto averaged 32.1 three-point attempts per game in 2025-26, fifth worst in the NBA.<\/p>\n
That should be easier as Leonard\u2019s presence on the court demands more attention from opposing defenders.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust getting downhill, even in some of the ISO situations, just being able to get downhill, running transition, seeing him wide open, just giving him the ball,\u201d Barnes said of Leonard, who averaged 6.8 three-point attempts for the Los Angeles Clippers last season, making 38.7 per cent of them. <\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time he shoots the ball, it just looks like it\u2019s going in every single time, and it feels that way. He\u2019s going to draw so much attention.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murray-Boyles is the perfect example of how all the Raptors are expected to take more threes this season. He averaged 0.9 three-point attempts per game in his rookie campaign and worked all summer on taking more in 2026-27.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust building that confidence to shoot it more, I think that was my biggest focus,\u201d said Murray-Boyles. \u201cNot really like trying to fix my jumper or anything like that. Just getting confident with getting shots up. Obviously, me reading the defence is the biggest part. If they\u2019re sagging off me, then I have to shoot it. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to shoot more threes. We want to get to that 35-ish per game number. So I\u2019m just helping the team out with that as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Head coach Darko Rajakovic said it\u2019s critical for teams to establish themselves as a three-point threat in the modern NBA.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re making those three-point shots, it just relieves a lot of pressure. It makes the defence more honest, less help, opens up the paint more,\u201d said Rajakovic. \u201cI think those things are very, very connected. The better shooting you have, in theory, should open up more space and get more paint touches. <\/p>\n
\u201cOnce we touch the paint, we\u2019ve got to convert those, and we\u2019ve got to be making the right decisions to find that open man if the defence collapses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the Raptors looked like world-beaters against the NBA champion Knicks on Tuesday, Barnes doesn\u2019t expect it to be so easy when they meet again in New York on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, they didn\u2019t really have their guys out there on the floor,\u201d said Barnes, referring to the fact that the Knicks didn\u2019t play any of their starters. \u201cIt felt solid to win the game, but we\u2019ve got a game tomorrow.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt should be better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Raptors (2-1) will play their final pre-season game in Detroit on Friday. Their home opener will be on Oct. 21 against the Chicago Bulls.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 14, 2026.<\/p>\n
John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n
Related Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Raptors are fleshing their offence out this season, and that begins with taking more three-pointers. Nearly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":933283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,82,3302],"class_list":["post-933282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=933282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/933283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}