Bargnani, Bosh lead 9-man Raptors past Wizards

WASHINGTON(AP) Andrea Bargnani offered a
simple secret for his success against the Washington Wizards, an
explanation that applied to his Toronto teammates, too."I never shot with a defender on me,'' Bargnani said.Down
to nine players, the Raptors still easily beat worst-in-the-East
Washington 99-93 on Wednesday night by making 54 percent of their
field-goal attempts.Bargnani had 25 points on 8-for-9 shooting.The
crowd was sparse and the atmosphere dull for a game between two losing
teams that fired their head coaches this season and are missing a
half-dozen starters combined.The Raptors traded Hassan Adams to
the Clippers in a money-saving move earlier in the day and were without
three starters who did not make the trip: Jermaine O'Neal (right knee),
Jose Calderon (right hamstring) and Jamario Moon (wife gave birth to a
baby)."Gutsy performance,'' Raptors interim coach Jay Triano said.Not surprisingly, his Washington counterpart did not see things that way."We
met the opposition, and it was us,'' Washington interim coach Ed
Tapscott said. "We took a step back, defensively and offensively
tonight. Compared to the last few games that we've played, clearly I'm
not happy.''Toronto's 21-point lead was cut to as few as five in
the fourth quarter, and the advantage was only six at 89-83 with a
little more than 2 minutes left. But that's when Chris Bosh set up
Bargnani for a 3-pointer that effectively sealed the outcome.Bargnani
went 4-for-5 on 3s, and 4-for-4 on other field-goal attempts. Bosh
scored half his 18 points in the fourth quarter and added eight
rebounds and six assists."They're familiar with each other,'' Triano said, "and they're starting to jell.''The
Wizards have been having trouble figuring each other out, with
constantly shifting lineups as they try to mix in youngsters while
dealing with injuries."We're developing a lot of players this
season. It's no secret,'' said Caron Butler, who scored 15 points. "You
see a lot of young guys playing that probably wouldn't see the court at
all if everyone was healthy.''Antawn Jamison scored a
season-high 32 points for Washington, which hasn't had Gilbert Arenas
(left knee) or Brendan Haywood (right wrist) all season, and is without
starting shooting guard DeShawn Stevenson, who has missed a week and is
expected to be out at least another 1 1/2 weeks with a bad back.The
Wizards opened a stretch in which they play eight consecutive games
against opponents whose records are currently below .500, a soft spot
in the schedule they hoped to exploit.Instead, the Wizards (7-27) might have hit a new low by falling to the short-handed Raptors (15-21)."It's
a step back, not because of who wasn't on the court for them, but just
the way we played. We didn't play good basketball at all. We didn't get
effort. We got outrebounded by one of the worst teams in the NBA,''
Jamison said. "We thought the outcome should have been different.''Toronto came in 28th of 30 teams in rebounding average, but had a 39-28 edge Wednesday.The
Wizards had plenty of other problems. They committed two shot-clock
violations in the first 10 minutes. And they missed a whole bunch of
jump shots - precisely the sort of laziness on offense that Tapscott
blamed for the franchise-record-low six points scored during a quarter
in Tuesday's loss at Orlando.Toronto led by as many as 13 points in the first quarter and 27-16 when it ended, thanks to a 71-40 edge in shooting percentage.Bargnani's
3-pointer with a little more than 4 minutes left in the first half made
it 46-25, prompting Tapscott to call timeout - and many in the
announced crowd of 13,864 to boo.It was 50-38 at halftime, but
no lead has been very safe in the Raptors' hands. They entered
Wednesday having lost eight games in which they led by at least 10
points.This time, though, they held on."We've been here before,'' Bosh said. "No reason to get nervous.''Notes:
With seven rebounds, Jamison pushed his career total above 6,000,
making him one of eight active players with that many boards and 14,000
points. ... Triano expects Moon to be back for Toronto's next game, at
home Friday against Memphis. "I told him, 'You can go for the birth,
but you don't need to babysit,''' Triano said.