Vince Carter finished one of the worst shooting nights of his career on the bench. (Bill Kostroun/Associated Press)Six Toronto players scored in double figures, and the Raptors shut down Vince Carter in a 101-79 road win over the New Jersey Nets on Friday.
Carter, the ex-Raptor who poured in 39 points and threw down the game-winning dunk in Jersey's overtime win in Toronto last month, had a miserable night. He missed all 13 shots from the field and didn't score his first point until sinking a free throw with 8:21 left in the fourth quarter.
Carter wound up hitting three shots from the charity stripe before taking a seat on the bench for good with a few minutes left in the game. It was the first game in his career that he failed to make a shot from the floor when playing at least 10 minutes.
The fragile guard left without speaking to reporters, leaving others to explain his poor performance.
"Unfortunately, you have nights like that," Nets coach Lawrence Frank said. "It's just one of those things where they have everyone in the paint, so they're giving you the jump shot. It's not just him. We couldn't buy a shot."
Devin Harris and Yi Jianlian scored 14 points each for New Jersey (11-10), which lost its second in a row.
As usual, Chris Bosh was the ringleader for the Raptors, notching a game-high 18 points.
Jason Kapono put in his second straight solid performance as a starter filling in for Anthony Parker, who's day-to-day with a sprained ankle. Kapono, who had 26 points in Wednesday's win over Indiana, followed up with 16 — a dozen coming by way of the three-pointer.
Starting point guard Jose Calderon had 13 points, and the bench did the rest of the damage thanks to Joey Graham (16 points), Andrea Bargnani (11 points, seven rebounds) and Roko Ukic (10 points, five assists).
With Carter unable to find his shooting touch, the Raptors (10-12) outscored the Nets 31-19 in the third quarter to propel themselves to a second straight win after a five-game losing streak.
It was the first road victory for interim head Jay Triano, who took over for the fired Sam Mitchell on Dec. 3.
"We're getting to where we want to be," Triano said. "We really have to clean up our rebounding. The job isn't done on the defensive end until we rebound the basketball. That will come. That's the final part of what we're trying to do.
"On offence, we're starting to get some flow running the ball. Instead of looking over for plays, run the floor and create on your own."
With files from the Associated Press
