The Toronto Raptors may have lost a nail-biter to the Cleveland Cavaliers Wednesday, but Charles Barkley was impressed by the performance.

Barkley has been a vocal supporter of this season’s Raptors team, even predicting an NBA Finals appearance for Canada’s lone franchise earlier this month. Barkley threw more praise Toronto’s way after Wednesday’s defeat, telling Richard Deitsch of The Athletic that he thought the Raptors sent Cleveland a message in the way they opened up the game and refused to roll over.

Barkley specifically drew attention to DeMar DeRozan‘s improvements and the Raptors’ vaunted bench.

That was a good loss to the Cavs (a 132-129 Cleveland win in Cleveland on March 21). I think they have the best bench in the NBA by far. I also think DeMar DeRozan has taken his game to another level. But let me tell you why that was a good loss. I know the Cavaliers wanted to come out and punch them in the mouth and say, “Y’all still the little kids on the block.” But the Raptors came out and punched the Cavs in the mouth. I watched the Blazers-Rockets the other night (on March 20). The Blazers were talking all this trash, they had won like 13 in a row, and the Rockets went into Portland and punched them in the mouth. That is the one thing that happens in the NBA. There are very few games where you get a “we need to send these guys a message” games. So the Rockets said, “Listen, Portland Trail Blazers, you had a cute little winning streak but we are going to come into Portland and kick your ass.” And that is exactly what they did. So when the Raptors came out, they wanted the Cavs to know, “Hey, we ain’t the same old Raptors.” That was one of the best games I’ve seen this year and it is a totally different Raptors team. Three years ago, they would have been blown out. LeBron would have said, “Hey, let me send these guys a message.” But the Raptors sent them a message saying, “Hey, when you come to Toronto for the conference finals, we will be waiting on you.” That’s what I took out of that game

Read the full article on The Athletic here.