Kyle Lowry watched as Fred VanVleet laid the ball up off the glass and raised his hands triumphantly as his teammate inched toward history.
“Fifty-two!” Lowry bellowed to the mostly empty Amway Center. A few moments later, Lowry threaded the needle to VanVleet in the paint and No. 23 spun around a defender as he pulled the pass in and scooped it home, setting the Raptors’ all-time single-game scoring record with his 54th point.
As VanVleet bombed away from three-point land, making 11 of his 14 attempts overall and hanging 46 on the Magic through three quarters, the narrative of this historic night started to unfold.