TORONTO — The Toronto Raptors could hardly miss. The Orlando Magic seemed desperate to give them open chance after open chance.
In a key game Sunday among two teams that are in the morass of Eastern Conference teams seeded between fifth and eighth, the Raptors hung a 31-0 run on the Magic, covering 7 minutes, 47 seconds. It was the longest unanswered scoring surge by any team in the Play-by-Play era dating back to the 1990s, surpassing a Dallas Mavericks 30-0 run against the Oklahoma City Thunder in December 2023, according to the NBA.
To make matters more embarrassing for the Magic, the Raptors were without starting guard Immanuel Quickley, leading scorer Brandon Ingram and rotation reserves Collin Murray-Boyles and Jamison Battle.
Still, the Raptors ran the ball down the Magic’s throat, with Orlando contributing 10 turnovers to the cause during the run. The Raptors’ half-court offense is their biggest weakness. Nearly every coach speaks about the importance of taking care of the ball before playing the Raptors, trying to keep their offensive pace down. Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley, who has been under fire recently for the Magic’s disappointing season, was no exception.
“They don’t give you one set way of (forcing turnovers),” Mosley said before the game. “You can bring the ball up the floor and think you’re by yourself, and all of a sudden Scottie (Barnes) is flying in from the baseline to (trap) the ball. The next time you’re in the post, you think you’re alone, and RJ (Barrett) comes with the double team. … They play off each other very well and fly around and cover for each other.”
However, the Magic were doing a lot of this to themselves: There were single-minded drives into traffic, targets for passes not looking at the ball and weak takes in transition. The Magic turned the ball over 12 times in the first quarter, tying a team record for most in any quarter. They turned the ball over 19 times in the first half, after which they trailed 70-43. Since March 16th, the Magic ranked 26th in defensive rating and 21st in net rating entering Sunday’s game.
The Raptors made them pay, with Sandro Mamukelashvili scoring 11 points, including two of the Raptors’ four 3s during the spurt. The Raptors went 9 of 13 from the field and 7 of 7 from the free-throw line.
The Raptors came into the game at 41-32, in fifth place in the Eastern Conference, two games ahead of eighth-place Orlando (39-34).
