Playing without their leading scorer, the Toronto Raptors waltzed into the Prudential Center and whipped the Nets.
There was no Andrea Bargnani but plenty of DeMar DeRozan.
The guard punished the Nets, scoring 27 points in a 94-73 Raptors’ blowout win.
DeRozan made up for his disappearing act when the Raptors first played the Nets this season.
DeRozan, blanketed by DeShawn Stevenson, scored just three points on 1-of-8 shooting in a 97-85 Nets’ win in Toronto on Jan. 6.
The Nets had no such luck guarding DeRozan Sunday night.
He was not just a one man show, though. Point guard Jose Calderon scored 10 points, dished out nine assists, and grabbed five rebounds and Jerryd Bayless added 17 points.
Avery Johnson dispelled the notion that his team, riding a two-game winning streak, looked past the injured Raptors.
“We’re not good enough to look past anybody,” Johnson said. “We’re not the favorites. We play 66 games this year, and we’re the underdog in all 66 games.”
Deron Williams painted a different picture.
“I don’t think we put as much emphasis on this game as we should have,” Williams said. “After the two wins we just had and coming back home, this was a winnable ball game. A game we should have been a little more ready for.”
The Raptors, also without Leandro Barbosa, shot 51.5 percent from the field.
“Our defense was horrible,” Williams added. “It just wasn’t what we need to do to win.”
The Nets’ offense delivered quite the opposite.
They shot 36.5 percent and had three starters go scoreless from the field in the first half. Kris Humphries did not register a point until the 5:36 had elapsed in the third quarter.
Deron Williams scored 24 points and dished out six assists, but he did not have much help. Anthony Morrow was the only other Net to score in double-figures with 14 points.
“I didn’t see the swagger and the energy that I’ve seen,” Avery Johnson said.
DeRozan got on a run when the Nets lost DeShawn Stevenson to a collision 14 seconds into the third quarter.
Avery Johnson praised Stevenson for his containment of DeRozan when the teams first met, and Stevenson’s absence made a difference.
Without Stevenson guarding him, DeRozan scored 11 points in the third quarter as the Raptors opened up a 70-53 lead.
The Nets only trailed by five points early in the third, but the Raptors promptly went on a 10-0 run to blow the game open, 56-41.
The Nets trailed by as many as 18 points in third quarter and 23 in the game.
“We just didn’t have the energy there defensively,” Morrow said. “We didn’t execute defensively and we put a lot of pressure on the offense.
“It just wasn’t there for us tonight altogether.”
The Nets failed to carry the momentum of their two-straight wins into their match-up with the Raptors.
The Raptors led, 44-39, at halftime and had seven players with four-plus points. The Nets, on the other hand, shot just 34.2 percent.
MarShon Brooks found Johan Petro unguarded underneath for a reverse dunk to give the Nets a 30-28 lead with 9:45 left in the second quarter.
The Nets proceeded to go cold.
They failed to score a field-goal in 7:01 following Petro’s dunk and saw the Raptors embark on a 12-1 run.
Jerryd Bayless cruised to the rim for a layup, capping the run, to give Toronto a 40-31 lead with 2:52 left in the second quarter.
Brooks returned to the Nets lineup after a three-game absence due to a sore left Achilles tendon.
He came off the bench in the first quarter and picked up two fouls in 37 seconds.
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