Basic Basketball learned in grade school.

But it was a practice that eluded the Raptors here Monday night like it's eluded them so many times in the past, and it cost them another game.

Outhustled, outworked and out-thought by the short-staffed San Antonio Spurs, the Raptors suffered a 131-124 loss underscored by a frightful lack of effort on the glass.

The Spurs, minus Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, turned 16 offensive rebounds into an astonishing 32 second-chance points to wipe out any hopes Toronto had of stealing a win over a weakened opponent.

And the Raptors have no one to blame but themselves.

"It's just focus," said a dejected Chris Bosh. "We forced a lot of jumpers and they missed a lot. It's all about wanting the ball and wanting to finish the possession; their guys were hungry for the ball and they got second-chance points.

"I saw some times, (San Antonio guard Keith) Bogans was getting down there and trying for a rebound and they retained possession. No offence to him, but that can't happen. That's just lack of focus."

The Raptors actually shot a far better percentage from the floor than the Spurs did (59.2-48.3) and made 11 of the 17 three-pointers they took. But as good as the offence was - and 124 points should win every NBA game - the defensive rebounding was worse.

"There are guys who are born to go get the Basketball; we've got one that can't play right now in Reggie (Evans)," said Raptors coach Jay Triano. "Everybody has to go get it. We don't have guys leaking out (on field goal attempts), we're not supposed to be leaking out or going anywhere.

"You're supposed to stick to your man and go get the Basketball. Obviously we didn't do a good job of that."

In what was a delightful game for fans of offensive Basketball, the Spurs got a brilliant night from Manu Ginobili to drop Toronto to 3-4 on the season and end a two-game slide of their own.

Ginobili had 36 points - including six three-pointers, and he patiently waited on the perimeter for a teammate to either break down the Raptors and kick the ball to him or grab an offensive board and pass it back out.

"I wasn't so concerned about the threes, the threes happen because guys get blown by," said Triano. "If you get straight line drives lke that it makes it tough for a guy to stop the ball and then get out to his man

"We have to man up and keep guys in front of us and we're not doing that right now."

Toronto had more than enough offensive firepower - Bosh had 32 points, Hedo Turkoglu 20 and Andrea Bargnani 17 - but not enough grit.

"I don't know if we underestimated them but we didn't come out and play hard like we needed to play," said Bosh. "I think the opportunity was there for us. We made 'em miss a lot of initial shots but we didn't finish the job by getting rebounds and that kind of kept them in the game.

George Hill, starting in Parker's place, had 22 for San Antonio while Richard Jefferson had 20 and Matt Bonner added 18.

"When guys have a chance to step up, usually they're going to play good because they want to play," said Bosh.

There was a question if the game would even be played because some kind of oily substance had leached up through seams in the ATT&T Center floor and made the court like a skating rink.

Arena and Spurs officials were working right up until just before tipoff to try and dry the court well enough for the teams to play.