It wasn’t easy, but the Toronto Raptors survived Friday night against the Orlando Magic to eke out a 110-109 victory and regain a .500 record.

For a game that would appear on the surface to not be particularly exciting, this one had plenty: a highly anticipated rookie-on-rookie matchup, another test against a team with size, and a nail-biting finish.

It was a win the Raptors should have gotten—they were on the first night of a back-to-back against a lowly Magic squad (who now fall to 1-5) at home—and yet it proved to be a tougher job than the first two blowout wins of the season.

Here are some of the night’s key takeaways:

Toronto Raptors Takeaways After Win Vs. Magic

3. Scottie Barnes vs. Jalen Suggs

Immediately following the game, Fred VanVleet summed it up best: “Both of those rooks, man, the league's in good hands. We're happy with who we picked and I think Orlando is happy with who they picked.”

In their first game against one another as professionals, both Scottie Barnes and Jalen Suggs showed out. The former kicked things off with a monstrous first half, torching the Magic for 19 points on 8-1of-1 shooting and taking advantage of his size on a plethora of jumpers, able to see pretty clearly overtop of his defender.

“They obviously game planned to let [Barnes] have those shots and he just kept taking them one after another,” head coach Nick Nurse said postgame. “I love it. When that well’s producing you might as well keep going to it. I’m not that surprised, he’s a good player.”

Barnes capped it off with a shiver-inducing sequence in which he grabbed a rebound on one end of the floor, and then immediately took off down the other at a breakneck pass, tearing through the Magic and rising for a thunderous one-handed jam that sent reverberations throughout the very foundation of Scotiabank Arena.

Barnes finished with 21 points, though, scoring just two in the second half largely because Orlando changed their defensive game plan around him, sending a center his way to make his life much more difficult via added length.

By contrast, while Suggs had a quiet first half (just six points), he erupted in the second and scored 15 to end the game matched with his fellow rookie. He responded well to the Raptors’ physical play and was the engine of a late 11-0 run that nearly saw the Magic steal the game.

While where they went in the draft will forever tie them together as rivals from a narrative perspective, both Barnes and Suggs talked about how, prior to Friday’s matchup, they’ve long been friends and hold immense respect for one another.

“Me and Suggs are great friends. He’s like a brother to me,” Barnes said. “Social media is gonna do its thing regardless of what happens, but I don’t think [where we went in the draft] mattered to either of us, we’re both just happy for each other.”

2. Gary Trent Jr. is a defensive specialist

It was perfect encapsulation of his season thus far that Gary Trent Jr. sealed Friday’s Raptors victory by poking the ball away from Cole Anthony at the end of regulation.

That's the area of his game questioned about the most prior to the season, and it's the one he’s been most impressive on to this point. That continued against the Magic, a night where he garnered two steals and a block and flitted about the hardwood, limbs always out, hands always looking to dig in somewhere to try and wrench the ball free.

“All open ears, like a sponge,” Trent said about getting better on defensive end. “I’ve been listening, I’ve been learning. They play a certain way, guys on the team play a certain way—OG [Anunoby], Freddy [VanVleet], everybody defends. I can’t be the weak link out there, I’ve gotta be able to hold my own and show I can defend as well.”

The Raptors lead the league in deflections by a wide margin (137, with the next-closest being the Charlotte Hornets at 98), and the top-two individual leaders in that category are VanVleet (28) and Trent (26).

Trent's stalwart defensive play has not only made him a viable option to start games and play lengthy minutes, but a superior one—the Raptors are 5.3 points per 100 possessions better defensively when he’s on the floor.

It has seemed to take some time for Trent to learn and get comfortable with the Raptors' hyper-aggressive and malleable defensive schemes, but now that he has, he's proving he has a level of potential as a two-way guard that not many were sure he could reach.

1. Sticking with Dalano Banton

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It looks like he's here to stay, folks.

After Dalano Banton completely surpassed veteran Goran Dragic in the Raptors' rotation on Wednesday and had his best game yet, Nurse rewarded him by playing him a career-high 23 minutes against Orlando.

His faith was remunerated once again, as Banton looked increasingly comfortable running the show as the club's backup point guard in units with and without VanVleet. He injected his now trademark energy into the game at multiple points.

Banton played so well, in fact, that Nurse stuck him in the closing lineup to end the game.

“He is doing what he’s doing every time,” Nurse said. “There’s something there that’s deceiving when he’s got the ball ‘cause he’s boom, he’s at the rim for a layup or two and he’s finishing them. He seems to get us some easier, flowing-type baskets when he’s out there.”

Banton finished with his most well-rounded performance to date, scoring 10 points, grabbing five rebounds, dishing two assists and nabbing two steals without committing a single turnover on a 31.7 percent usage rate.

Some of the credit here needs to be given to Nurse and the coaching staff, too, who are allowing Banton a fairly long leash as opposed to rookies past who have not received the same treatment. So long as Banton continues to show signs of improvement and a growing degree of comfort, though, that trend should continue.