Toronto's 127-97 defeat was unwatchable from the get-go, the listless visitors giving up a season-high 42 points in the first quarter as they dug themselves a 20-point hole that grew as big as 38 points before the merciful buzzer.

Though the Raptors had talked beforehand of the game's importance in their alleged assault on a playoff spot, the loss left them a full six games out of eighth spot. But as the 14th-place team in the 15-team conference, they're also just seven games clear of cellar-dwelling Washington. And judging from last night, their spirit is broken.

"We showed no confidence and no pride tonight," said Chris Bosh, the Raptors all-star.

Said Jose Calderon, the starting point guard: "I think we've got to stop talking about playoffs and we've got to get pride. We cannot play like that. We can be hurt, injured, whatever, but we've got to keep fighting."

They are, to be fair, hurt. Bosh, playing for the first time in 16 days after missing five straight games with a still-sore right knee, was held to 12 points on 4-for-13 shooting. Calderon, nursing a hamstring injury, had nine points and 10 assists, but he looked at times as though he was impersonating a highway median. Traffic, specifically a steady flow of New York guards, blinked by him on both sides.

The Raptors were led by Joey Graham's 19 points while Shawn Marion, in his second game for the visitors, chipped in 14 points and a team-high 12 rebounds. On a regular night around the NBA, those might have been respectable top-of-the-roster stats. But not against the East's foremost pace pushers, who shot a nifty 50 per cent from the field to Toronto's 41 per cent, and who had no less than four players outscore the top producer on the Toronto roster. Wilson Chandler led the bunch with 32 points.

The three-point line was an undefended no-man's land from where the Knicks made 17 long bombs, tying the Raptors' franchise record for an opponent.

"Our goal was to protect the paint and protect the three-point line," said Jay Triano, the Raptors coach. "We did neither."

With the Knicks in Toronto tomorrow at noon, the Raptors were searching for some remedy to their many deficiencies. At one point, Bosh interrupted Toronto's coaches as they huddled during a timeout to offer his input. At another juncture Calderon, who was resting on the bench, prowled the sideline like a bench boss to offer in-game pointers to his backup, Roko Ukic.

But it was ugly in the beginning, when the Raptors shot 42 per cent from the field in the opening frame to New York's 73 per cent, and it was ugly in the end.

Until Knicks guard Nate Robinson turned to some late-game showmanship, shovelling a cocky dish to Chandler for a rousing fourth-quarter slam, the home crowd was sedate.

Knicks superfan Spike Lee spent long stretches of action thumbing his BlackBerry from his courtside lounger. And the Raptors, sadly, looked just as interested. "It shouldn't have been too tough to get up for this one," said Triano. "We talked about the importance of this game. The players know it. Our fans know it. Everybody knows it. We're going to have to bounce back and find out if we have some pride."

ANATOMY OF A BLOWOUT

42

Knicks points in first quarter, season high for Raptor opponent

73%

N.Y.'s first-quarter field-goal percentage

38

N.Y.'s biggest lead, with 4: 27 left in third quarter