Bosh's miss - or Noah's block - was the turning point in the Bulls' 102-98 victory that put the playoffs further away for the Raptors and once again displayed the failings that have plagued them all season.

Twice Bosh had a chance to make an emphatic statement that he's able to carry a team when it's most needed. But he missed a layup with Toronto down four and 64 seconds left and then had his 13-foot jumper blocked with the Raptors down a bucket and only 5.9 seconds to play.

"The play before, Chris had a nice drive to the basket," Triano said of a play that was actually two before Bosh's last-gasp blocked shot. "I thought he got fouled but watching on the tape it didn't look like it.

"He ended up stepping on (Luol) Deng's foot, so he couldn't plant and go up and we end up missing that one as well. You want to get the ball to your best player and on one (we had a) bad break and (on the other) the kid made a great play."

Maybe not great because Bosh made it easy by settling for a baseline jumper when it looked like he could have gotten to the basket and at least initiated some contact. But it was a good play and enough to salt away the win for the Bulls.

"A disappointing loss, of course," said Triano. "Guys feel bad, they want to win just as much as the people that come here and pay money to watch this team want them to win."

A victory would have moved the Raptors past the Bulls in the Eastern Conference standings but it was another case of Toronto frittering away a chance to make a move. In a reflection of a loss two weeks ago in Milwaukee, the divisional defeat at the hands of the Bulls drops Toronto to 16-24 on the season while Chicago moves to 17-22.

Triano had mentioned earlier yesterday the significance of the game.

"It's not like our guys are any different than the fans of this team. They look at the standings and they know this (Chicago) team is right there," he said yesterday morning. "This is a team that we have separate ourselves from if we're going to be successful and if we're going to play in the post-season.

"I don't think our guys would understand that old hockey terminology that it's a four-pointer anyway but really that's what it is."

The Raptors wasted one of the best games of Andrea Bargnani's career as well. The surging third-year centre had a career-best 31 points, he grabbed 10 rebounds, made a career-best nine free throws but it still wasn't enough.

Besides 15 points from Anthony Parker and Bosh's 25, no Raptor really aided the offence. The bench scored just 11 points to 37 for the Chicago backups and the Bulls got a brilliant 25-point, 10-assist game from rookie guard Derrick Rose.

"Our goal was to try to get this team inside because they went small and we did," said Triano. "Chris has 25 and Andrea has 31 and we can't ask much more from those guys.

They played great and we pounded it as much inside as we could and scored, we just couldn't get the bucket when we needed it."

Rose had 17 of his points in the fourth quarter alone, blitzing the Raptors on the pick and roll.

"He (Rose) is a very, very good player," Triano said.