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TORONTO – Does Scottie Barnes care about achieving personal records or milestones? Yes, it depends on the time of year.
Barnes scored a career-high 41 points and added five rebounds and five assists as the Toronto Raptors lost to the Orlando Magic 121-114 on Friday in their first NBA Cup game of the season. Barnes said that immediately after the loss, he wasn’t too concerned about his new high in points in a game.
“Right now, no. I think I have to let time pass. I think, for sure, before the season starts, I think I want to figure it out,” Barnes said. “But it’s just about trying to be aggressive. I think I did a good job going downhill, being aggressive.”
Part of Barnes’ frustration that night was that even though he made 34 field-goal attempts – many of them when he scored – he only made three free throws. The Magic got 29 free throws overall while Toronto got 15.
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“I definitely think I can make more free throws,” Barnes said. “I think being aggressive, just shooting three free throws is crazy.
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“But no, it didn’t go the way we wanted. That’s what happened.”
Barnes was asked directly if he thought it was harder for the Raptors to break. After a long pause, he answered with a chuckle.
“Trying to get some good PR today,” Barnes said, smiling at members of the Toronto communications team nearby. “It was tough out there. Like I said, we tried to be as aggressive as we could. I think they were as aggressive as they could be.
“I think that’s enough for me to say. I’m raging inside at the moment, but that’s what happened.”
Head coach Darko Rajakovic was willing to be more blunt in his post-match press conference.
“For me, a player who gets three foul shots in one game, who scores 41 points and gets to the free throw line three times, to be honest, that’s kind of BS,” Rajakovic said. “They got to the free throw line 29 times. We got to the free throw line 15 times, and I don’t think our team was any more physical or more aggressive than them.
“I thought both teams played very aggressive, good basketball, and I think the criteria should be the same for both teams.”
It was the 16th game of Barnes’ career in which he had more than 30 points, five rebounds and five assists. That ties DeMar DeRozan for fourth-most in Raptors history.
Center Jakob Poeltl had his best game of the season so far. He entered play Friday averaging 2.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and 0.5 assists per game, but finished with 12 points, 11 rebounds and three assists against Orlando.
“To be honest, I don’t really care about the numbers,” Poeltl sad. “It doesn’t matter to me if at the end of the game I score 10 points, 10 rebounds, or if I score two points and four rebounds, like whatever, as long as we win the game.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2026.
© 2026 Canadian Press
