TORONTO — Does Scottie Barnes care about setting personal records or reaching milestones? Well, 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 fell to the Orlando Magic 121-114 on Friday in their first NBA Cup game of the season. Barnes said that in the immediate aftermath of the loss he didn’t particularly care about his new single-game points high. “Right now, no. I think I’ve got to let some time go by. I think that, for sure, before the season I think I wanted to break that,” said Barnes. “But it’s just about trying to be aggressive. I think I did a great job going downhill, being aggressive.” Part of Barnes’s frustration on the night was that despite making 34 field-goal attempts - many of them as he drove to the net - he only drew three free throws. The Magic as a whole were awarded 29 free throws while Toronto had 15. “Definitely think I could have got to the free-throw line more,” said Barnes. “I think being that aggressive, only shooting three free throws is kind of crazy. “But no, it just wasn’t going our way. It is what it is.” Barnes was asked directly if he thought it was harder for the Raptors to get fouled. After a long pause, he answered with a chuckle. “Trying to have good P.R. today,” said Barnes, smiling at a nearby member of Toronto’s communications team. “It’s tough out there. Like I said, we’re trying to be as aggressive as we can. I think they’re being aggressive as they can. “I think that’s enough for me to say. I’m raging on the inside right now, but it is what it is.” Head coach Darko Rajakovic was willing to be more direct in his post-game news conference. “For me, a player that gets three foul shots in a game, who scores 41 points and goes to the free-throw line three times, that’s kind of B.S., to be honest with you,” said Rajakovic. “They got to the free-throw line 29 times. We got to the free-throw line 15 times, and I don’t think that we’re more physical or a more aggressive team than them. “I think that both teams played really aggressive, good basketball, and I think that criteria should be the same on both ends of the floor.” It was the 16th game of Barnes’s career where he had 30-plus points, five rebounds and five assists. That tied DeMar DeRozan for fourth most in Raptors’ history. Starting centre Jakob Poeltl had by far his best game of the season. He entered play on 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,” sad Poeltl. “It doesn’t really matter to me if I at the end of game have 10 points, 10 rebounds, or if I have like two points and four rebounds, like whatever, as long as we’re winning the game.” This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2026. John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press
