Sports

RJ Barrett Channeled His Inner Kawhi Leonard With Epic Shot to Keep Raptors' Season Alive

By Blake Silverman Sports Illustrated

Season on the line, ball in the hands of a hometown hero.

That's a dream scenario for Toronto native and Raptors forward RJ Barrett, and as Scottie Barnes found him beyond the three-point line down one with five seconds left in overtime it became a reality. The Raptors were in a 3–2 hole to the Cavaliers and hoped to force a Game 7 in Cleveland, but they needed some last-second heroics.

Cavs big man Evan Mobley closed out hard and got a hand in Barrett's face that brought the need for some serious arc on the shot. At first, it looked like there was a little too much arc. Barrett's desperation shot went off the heel and high into the air as the fans at Scotiabank Arena collectively held their breath.

Somehow, the ball sailed as high as the top of the shot clock and straight down through the hoop to put the Raptors up two with 1.2 seconds left on the clock.

RJ Barrett channels his inner Kawhi Leonard

The first instinct many shared after Barrett's shot was, "Oh! I remember this one!"

The Raptors have a rich history of luck off the rim in the postseason. Back in 2019, Kawhi Leonard hit the first Game 7 buzzer beater in NBA history in memorable fashion. Against the 76ers in the second round, Leonard put up a fadeaway over Joel Embiid in a tie game as the game clock dwindled.

The shot hit every part of the rim and somehow dropped through the hoop and lived on in NBA lore as the Raptors went onto win their first and only NBA title behind Leonard. His infamous shot to eliminate the Sixers was in the corner and hit the front of the rim, but how improbably both looks dropped now share a memorable place in Toronto sports history.

We've seen similar crazy shots fall in consequential playoff moments in recent memory. Most notably, Tyrese Haliburton sunk almost the exact same shot in Game 1 of last year's Eastern Conference finals against the Knicks. New York led by two at the time and Haliburton tried to get beyond the three-point line to ice the game, but his foot was on the line and the shot sent the game to overtime before the Pacers emerged victorious.

Haliburton didn't know he just tied the game, so he did Reggie Miller's infamous "choke" celebration as the Pacers legend called the game at Madison Square Garden.

After Barrett's shot, Haliburton had the perfect reaction.

Even more recently, Magic star Paolo Banchero drained a similar shot to ice Game 3 for Orlando against the Pistons in their first-round series that is now headed to Game 7.

What led to RJ Barrett's iconic shot?

Cleveland had possession with 18.8 seconds left in overtime and a one-point lead as the Cavs hoped to close out Toronto on Friday night. The Raptors' pressure forced Dennis Schröder to rush past half court and dish the ball to Mobley. As he received the pass, Raptors rookie forward Collin Murray-Boyles poked it away and luckily for Toronto, the ball brushed Mobley before it went out of bounds.

That gave Toronto the ball with 10.9 seconds left with a chance to win the game. It appeared that Raptors coach Darko Rajaković wanted Barnes, the franchise star, to win the game with the season on the line. He was pressured by Cavs forward Dean Wade and saw Barrett leak out beyond the three-point line. From there, the rest was history. Cleveland had a chance to win after Barrett's shot with 1.2 seconds left on the clock, but Mobley's last second three-point attempt rimmed out.

Clearly, it was Toronto's night. As Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson said postgame, "sometimes the basketball Gods aren't with you."

They were on Barrett's side this time, as the homegrown hero provided a moment he'll remember forever.

"I didn't make anything in the fourth quarter or overtime, I was playing bad," Barrett said postgame on the Amazon Prime broadcast. "But my teammates trusted me, I told Scott right before the shot, ‘If you got nothing, I've got you.' He found me. And thank God I was able to make that shot.

"We're going to do it for Toronto every night. It means a lot, it's huge, so we're going to go and get Game 7."

The series now heads back to Cleveland for Game 7. We'll see if Barrett and the Raptors can ride the momentum to pull off an upset in the decider.

More NBA Playoffs from Sports Illustrated

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as RJ Barrett Channeled His Inner Kawhi Leonard With Epic Shot to Keep Raptors' Season Alive.

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This story was originally published May 1, 2026 at 8:11 PM.

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