Chris Bosh, foreground, Andrea Bargnani and the Raptors are playing out the string of a lost season. (Ron Turenne/NBAE via Getty Images)

How poorly is the NBA season going in Toronto? With 14 games left and the Charlotte Bobcats rolling into town on Friday night (7 p.m. ET), it's the Raptors who are looking to play the spoilers.

Toronto (24-44) will not be making a third consecutive post-season appearance. The Raptors are mired in 14th place in the 15-team Eastern Conference, a comfortable 8½ games ahead of cellar-dwelling Washington but 3½ games behind 13th-place Indiana.

The latest humiliation of this lost season happened on Monday, when the Raptors absorbed a 112-86 spanking on the road against the Bobcats, a team that hasn't made the playoffs since entering the league as an expansion club in 2004-05.

Though they were clad in St. Patrick's Day green, luck ran out for the Raptors, who had snapped a seven-game losing streak with a dominating performance against Indiana in their previous game.

"Sometimes we just feel like we're just there and we're not just there," said Toronto forward Shawn Marion, whose team begins a five-game homestand Friday. "It's hurting. I hate losing. It's frustrating for me."

The Bobcats franchise can relate — it has a combined 139-257 record (that's a .351 winning percentage) as it nears the end of its fifth season.

This year's mark — 30-38 (.441) — isn't anything to write home about, but it's good enough to place the 10th-place Bobcats within 1½ games of Chicago for the eighth and final playoff spot in the top-heavy Eastern Conference.

But before you go and hand the coach of the year trophy to Larry Brown for his commendable work in his first season in Charlotte, consider this: the Bobcats are just one of a half dozen teams within four games of the last post-season berth, and their schedule down the stretch run is not what you'd call favourable.

Beginning Friday in Toronto, Charlotte plays nine of its final 14 games on the road, where it is an abysmal 10-22. The month of April is especially brutal, with six of eight games taking place outside tobacco country.

Wallace bruised but unbowed

The Bobcats also got a scare on Wednesday when star small forward Gerald Wallace took a frightening spill.

Coming off his 25-point performance against the Raptors, Wallace slipped on a drive and clutched his left knee late in the second quarter against Sacramento. But he returned in the second half with a slight limp to finish with 25 points and 12 rebounds in a 104-88 Bobcats victory.

Wallace shouldn't miss any time after an MRI showed only a bruise. He rejected a doctor's suggestion to head to the hospital for an examination after initially suffering the injury.

"I was definitely concerned. I thought he maybe — I'm not even going to say," Bobcats guard Raymond Felton said. "I thought it was pretty bad, I did."

Wallace, who's averaging 16.7 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.6 assists, admitted he's not operating at 100 per cent.

"It's kind of sore, but the way I play, I play with soreness, bangs and bruises," he said.

Wallace and his teammates will have to watch out for Chris Bosh on Friday. The Raptors star averaged 29 points and 13.3 rebounds in Toronto's first three meetings with Charlotte this season.

Toronto beat the Bobcats 89-79 in Charlotte on Nov. 9 and 93-86 in Toronto on Nov. 26 before shooting 38 per cent in Monday's lopsided loss.

With files from the Associated Press