TORONTO – The Toronto Raptors made history in the primary and second quarters of their 139-87 Sunday rout of the Orlando Magic they usually didn’t really know or care about it because it happened.
Orlando led by as many as seven points but then the Raptors reeled off a 31-0 run, holding the Magic scoreless for seven minutes and 48 seconds in a span that stretched from the primary to the second quarter. That 31-0 stretch was the biggest unanswered scoring run by a team within the 30 seasons that the NBA has tracked play-by-play data.
Scottie Barnes, playing out of his natural position as an influence forward and acting as Toronto’s point guard, had his twenty eighth double-double of the season with 23 points and a career-high 15 assists. He was instrumental within the dominant 7:48 span but said he was just feeling the flow of the moment.
“I didn’t know that that was even happening,” said Barnes. “I just know we were all just super locked in, just attempting to keep causing turnovers and keep playing as hard as we will on defence that it just helped the lead grow for us.”
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The previous record for longest scoring run was when the Dallas Mavericks reeled off a 30-0 span against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Dec. 2, 2023. AJ Lawson of Brampton, Ont., currently on a two-way contract, shuttling between Toronto and the G League’s Raptors 905, played in Dallas’s 30-0 and Toronto’s 31-0 run.
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Backup centre Sandro Mamukelashvili added 19 off the bench. His first substitution helped kick-start Toronto’s historic run and he finished with a game-high plus-47 defensive rating.
“I feel it was so fun playing that you just just don’t realize anything like (the run). You simply keep going,” said Mamukelashvili. “I feel like everybody enjoyed it.
“We were so physical. We were attempting to like, trap and hit and simply to do some stuff we often do during practices. So it was just a very fun game.”
It was a critical win for a Raptors team attempting to skip the play-in tournament with eight games left of their regular season.
Toronto (42-32) was fifth within the Eastern Conference, half a game up on the Atlanta Hawks (42-33), who held the ultimate playoff spot after Sunday’s games. Orlando (39-35) was eighth within the conference, holding the second play-in spot 2 1/2 games behind the Raptors.
“I do know we want every game,” said Barnes. “So then we’re pretty consistently checking (the standings).
“We all know we want every game, and each game we’ve got to bring it.”
The Raptors are guaranteed to play at the very least one game once the regular season is over due to the Milwaukee Bucks’ 127-95 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday. That eliminated Milwaukee from the post-season and ensured that Toronto would reach either the play-in tournament or the playoffs.
Mamukelashvili said he’d be lying if he said he doesn’t check the standings.
“I feel everybody goes home and checks it. We’re right there,” he said. “We fought throughout the entire yr to get ourselves in an excellent position. We slipped up, we got here back.
“Now the whole lot’s so stacked, the margin of error is so small, and I feel such as you’ve got to pay attention to it.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 29, 2026.
© 2026 The Canadian Press