Raptors relish Magic moment by overcoming poor start to beat Orlando

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The way things began, the way the Raptors approached Tuesday night’s tip against the depleted Orlando Magic — with no sense of urgency or inclination to defend — doom loomed.

But another embarrassment was averted the moment the Raptors figured out that the Magic wasn’t deep enough to sustain an early 30-11 surge that had them reeling.

Scottie Barnes led the way, his teammates followed and the Toronto bench outplayed its ever-thinning Orlando counterpart as the Raptors prevailed 109-93 at Scotiabank Arena.

Stylistically, this was not a thing of beauty, pitting two teams that endured long stretches of offensive futility. But at least the Raptors did earn a degree of redemption following an ugly Friday night loss to the host Milwaukee Bucks.

Once all of its injured pieces are available, Orlando figures to be a solid team. On Tuesday night, the Magic looked good at the beginning before reality kicked in, going from making every shot to missing every shot.

The Raptors aren’t accustomed to winning, which is why any win, regardless of the state of the opposition, must be savoured. Toronto improved to 11-32 with 10 of those wins produced at Scotiabank Arena.

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The Raptors’ scoring was equally distributed with Jakob Poeltl emerging as the only player who would struggle on this night before fouling out after playing only 19 minutes.

It didn’t matter because the Magic was in trouble once the opening quarter had expired. The only real threat Toronto had to contend with was Paolo Banchero, who posted a double-double, including a game-high 26 points, in the loss.

Kelly Olynyk and Bruce Brown were effective off the bench for the second game in a row.