Mirotic, Noah combine to dismantle struggling Raptors

The wheels have come off for the Toronto Raptors.

Case in point: The shorthanded Chicago Bulls, playing without both Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler, managed to defeat the Raptors by a score of 108-92 on Friday.

The loss is the Raptors' 11th over their past 15 games.

Leading the charge for Chicago was the combination of Nikola Mirotic and Joakim Noah. Mirotic burned the Raptors' frontline with 29 points and 11 rebounds on 11-of-21 shooting, while Noah came two points shy of a triple-double with eight points, 10 rebounds and 14 assists.

Meanwhile, the Raptors were totally inert on both ends of the floor. Toronto's bottom-10 defense repeatedly yielded open looks, both at the rim and on the perimeter, while their offense amounted to nothing more than a series of 1-on-1 attacks from DeMar DeRozan and Lou Williams.

The Raptors' starting frontcourt of Amir Johnson and Jonas Valanciunas were silent. They combined for 13 points on 3-of-8 shooting and were repeatedly burned by Mirotic, Noah and Pau Gasol.