YES Network.com

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The day after the Nets made no moves at the trade deadline they lost for the 50th time this season. In other words, there’s no relief in sight.

What you see is what you get and what you saw Friday night was a bad team get beaten up by the Raptors with its franchise player Chris Bosh back in Toronto with an ankle injury.

This was a winnable game and one the Nets had to get if they really want to avoid the record for fewest wins or most losses -- how ever you choose to look at it -- in a season. But the Nets were predictable.

Just like they couldn’t capitalize against the Heat on Wednesday with Dwyane Wade in the locker room the last three quarters, the Nets could take advantage of the Raptors with their best player in another country.

So, loss No. 50 was a 106-89 debacle that featured a breakout game by Rasho Nesterovic. He made one move on Brook Lopez that a Raptors’ writer dubbed "The Slovenian Dream Shake." It was the first time Nesterovic did it all season.

To put it in perspective, his 16 points in place of Bosh was the most points Nesterovic has scored this season. He had 11 in his previous five games, which spanned nine contests for the Raptors. He’s their fifth big, but against the Nets Nesterovic was just Big.

You have seen the Nets lose, but they were down 20 in the third in this one and no matter how you want to look at it the Raptors just wanted the game more. It's cliche, yes, but so true. They shot 60 percent, thanks to many wide-open shots, and out-rebounded the Nets by seven.

Did we mention they were without their best scorer and rebounder?

"Guys fought back," interim coach Kiki Vandeweghe said. "Unfortunately, we had three or four guys who couldn’t throw it in the ocean tonight. And they kept getting open shots. Defense was pretty good for the most part. They made their shots, so you’ve got to give credit. Our offense, we executed, we got all the shots that we could have asked for. We just got to get working on our shooting."

We respectfully disagree with the defense being pretty good. The Raptors were open all night.

They shot 43-for-72 from the field (59.7 percent). including 6-for-12 from three. Perhaps Vandeweghe meant the Nets' free-throw defense. The Raptors were only 14-for-25 (56 percent) from there.

Of course we're kidding.

Just like we were kidding at halftime when we went up to Mick Foley, aka Mankind of WWE Fame, shook his hand and said to him, "I would rather you give me the mandible claw than have to watch the second half of this game." He laughed and said, "It's not that bad. Is it?" I said, "I've been watching this all year."

They all haven't been this bad. For the most part, the Nets have played better lately, but this was a little bit of a surprise. They were down 11 after one and 15 at the half and then it hit 20 in the third before the Nets rallied to get within six. That turned to 15 pretty quickly and that was the game.

There are still 27 games left so the odds are we'll see many more games like this. But the Nets need five wins to avoid matching or making history. If they really want to avoid it they won't continue to play this way.

It looked like they were headed in the right direction, but this was a step backward on another night where they had a team without its best player.

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Devin Harris sprained his left knee in the third period. He played on but wasn't effective. He said he would play Sunday's game against Memphis.

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The Nets will host their second annual Evening of Chinese Culture Sunday night.

Al Iannazzone covers the Nets for The Record (Bergen County, N.J.).