PHOENIX — Remember when the biggest gripe around the Toronto Raptors was when they would play good teams tough well into the fourth quarter and then stub sneakers down the stretch?

Well, it wasn’t all that long ago, to be fair. Friday night in Denver, as I recall.

But as frustrating as many of those losses were, for the most part the Raptors competed. The Raptors haven’t been blown out very often this season.

They were blown out Sunday night in Phoenix, though. And by the same Suns team that the Raptors beat in Toronto just two weeks ago, which at the time was the Raptors' first win over a team with a winning record in nearly two months.

Toronto had followed it up with an impressive win over Detroit and a blowout win over tanking Chicago last on Wednesday to start their current five-game road trip.

Those successes seem a long way away after the loss to Denver and especially the way the Suns, missing five rotation players, having lost five straight and playing on the second night of a back-to-back, plastered Toronto from start to finish.

The Raptors were less focused, played with less effort and deserved what they got. To their credit, no one tried to excuse it.

The final score was 120-98 and other than a two-minute stretch in the second quarter where a 12-0 run cut what was then an 18-point lead by the Suns to six, the Raptors were never even in the same neighbourhood as competitive.

It was one of those nights when so many things didn’t go right that the common post-game refrain was to forget about it, the sooner the better.

“Just flush it,” said Scottie Barnes, who was one of the few regulars who looked remotely like himself on his way to 17 points, five rebounds, six assists and two steals in an abbreviated 27 minutes as Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic pulled his starters late in the third quarter, down 30. “They did a great job of coming out with a sense of urgency. I’m sure they really want to get that one (after losing at home to Milwaukee on Saturday night) … and they came out here and played really hard. They had some guys out, but those other guys that came in, they stepped in right up. They helped them out big time.”

The Suns were led by Devin Booker, who had 25 points on 15 shots, and Jalen Green, who had 20 on his 15 shots, but more importantly, Phoenix seemed to get some kind of contribution from everyone who played. The Suns had eight different players hit at least one three and six that hit at least two as they shot 18-of-40 from deep. The Raptors had Ja'Kobe Walter hit three threes on three attempts, and only two other regulars even hit one. They shot 9-of-27 from deep, with three of those makes coming well into garbage time when the game was all but over. Take those away and take away Walter’s threes and the rest of the Raptors lineup was 3-of-21 from distance. That, along........

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