This one was a 114-107 defeat at the hands of the Denver Nuggets, a loss accomplished in a fashion that hasn't been in vogue around Toronto in the last little while, a defeat brought about by the Nuggets beating every Raptor off the dribble and dishing off for easy baskets.

Fifty of Denver's points were scored in the paint, an indictment of Toronto's perimeter defence that repeatedly broke down and allowed the Nuggets nearly free passage to the rim.

"As we knew, they can break you down off the dribble and they did," said coach Jay Triano. "They got us into the lane and we when we tried to help they dished off for easy baskets and we really couldn't keep anyone in front of us."

Triano had calmed considerably by the time he spoke after the game because he was as mad as he's ever been in his tenure as the head coach during one particular notable timeout in the third quarter.

After his team had twice given up easy baskets by mental defensive mistakes - first allowing penetration that led to a wide-open Chauncey Billups three-pointer and the second allowing Kenyon Martin unimpeded progress to the rim - Triano called timeout to simply make a point. He screamed for a couple of seconds and while his stunned charges tried to grasp what he wanted, he stormed to the bench, leaving his assistants to further hammer home his message.

"I only had one message to say to them," he said after the game. "We had messed up on a couple of coverages, I didn't need 20 seconds, I just needed two seconds. Our timeout was just to clear up a coverage and I got my point across."

Despite missing Jermaine O'Neal (knee) and Jason Kapono (leg) the Raptors were able to match the high-scoring Nuggets almost basket for basket most of the night.

But when it came to crunch time down the stretch after Toronto closed within two, Chris Bosh missed a three-pointer and about a minute later Billups made one that was the decisive swing in the game.

"He makes two a couple of games ago and we win the game," Triano said of Bosh, referring to a Toronto win over the Los Angeles Clippers. "He misses a crucial one tonight and we lose a game. It's not the strongest part of his game but he has made nine so far this year."

Andrea Bargnani, inserted into the starting lineup in place of the injured O'Neal, responded with 26 points and Bosh had 24 and 11 rebounds but it wasn't nearly enough. Even an 18 point, 11 assist night by Jose Calderon couldn't lift them as Toronto lost its third straight.

Nene and Carmelo Anthony were able to operate inside with no difficulty as the big centre had 21 points and Anthony 20.

The frustration level for Toronto is growing every day and has left the coach wondering how to make his team more mentally tough.

"We have to play through mistakes, I said that since Day 1, the game is full of mistakes and it's how you react to them and right now I don't think we're reacting too well when we make a mistake or a team scores on us," Triano said.

"We have to get over that."