The Raptors have played 2,215 games now, with Vinsanity and Kawhi Leonard, with a championship team and teams unspeakably overmatched, and yet this iteration has set itself apart from all others.
As unlikely as it might have seemed at times this season, this group scored more points in one quarter of an NBA game than any Raptors team before it, pouring in 49 in the first quarter of an important 125-110 victory over the Denver Nuggets at the Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday.
Eclipsing the former record of 48, set in New Jersey in the second season of the franchise’s existence, the Raptors rode the blistering start to a victory that snapped a three-game losing streak.