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Johnson, Bosh lead Raptors past struggling Nets

Dec 19, 2009 - 3:35 AM TORONTO(AP) -- The New Jersey Nets are making life easy on their opponents.

Amir Johnson scored a season-high 18 points, Chris Bosh had 16 points and eight rebounds, and the Toronto Raptors easily dispatched the Nets 118-95 Friday night.

"They got whatever they wanted," New Jersey swingman Chris Douglas-Roberts said. "That's how teams are going to start looking at us, if they haven't already. You will get whatever you want on the Nets. That's how I'd be looking at us."

Toronto finished with a dozen dunks and led by 40, extending New Jersey's losing streak to six games. The Nets are 2-25 overall, the worst record in the NBA.

"We jumped on them first and they let up," Toronto guard Jarrett Jack said. "When you start off 0-18, uphill battle is kind of an understatement. You kind of see it on their faces that if they get down early, they're kind of like 'Here we go again."'

Andrea Bargnani and DeMar DeRozan each scored 16 points while Hedo Turkoglu and Marcus Banks each had 14 for the Raptors, who had lost four of five coming in.

Nets guard Devin Harris called it an "embarrassment."

"We've all been a part of these games and it's not fun," Harris said. "I don't like sitting on the bench in the fourth quarter."

Sonny Weems scored 10 points and Jack had nine assists for Toronto.

"Our guys, from the jump ball, did a great job," Raptors coach Jay Triano said. "We pressured the basketball, caused turnovers and had more deflections tonight than we have had all year."

Douglas-Roberts returned to the starting lineup after missing three games with a sore left knee and scored 16 points. Brook Lopez scored 14 and Rafer Alston had 13.

Courtney Lee scored 11 and Sean Williams had 10 for New Jersey.

"This was one of those games, and I've been through a number of them, where we had no energy on either side of the ball," Nets coach Kiki Vandeweghe said. "It was no fun tonight, no fun to coach, no fun to play."

Losers of eight of their past 10, things won't get any easier for the Nets, who host the defending NBA champion Lakers on Saturday night.

"You always hear 'It could always get worse,"' Douglas-Roberts said. "It can. If that's the mindset we come out with, it could get worse."

With Toronto up 94-60 after three quarters, the Raptors' starters spent the rest of the night resting up for Sunday's home game against New Orleans.

The Nets committed 16 turnovers in the opening half and made just one free throw, while Toronto had only two turnovers and went 13 for 19 at the line. New Jersey trailed 70-33 at halftime, the lowest total Toronto has held an opponent to this season.

"There's a lot of different things that are going wrong out there," Harris said. "We're not shooting the ball well, we're turning it over and then we're not getting back on defense and they're getting dunks. We're facing a lot of different hurdles."

Notes: The Raptors scored 74 first-half points in a Nov. 24 victory over Indiana. ... Toronto is 9-0 when holding opponents below 100 points. ... This was just Toronto's second game against an Atlantic Division opponent. The Raptors lost at Boston on Nov. 27. ... Raptors G Jose Calderon (sore left hip) did not play for the sixth time in seven games. ... Toronto wore the blue and white uniforms of the 1946 Toronto Huskies of the Basketball Association of America, the second of six times this season they'll wear them. ... Former Raptor Muggsy Bogues sat courtside.