At least Vince Carter played last night. But it turned out to be a wasted effort.

The Raptors as a whole didn't put together much of an effort through the first three quarters of the game. They staged a fourth-quarter comeback, but the damage already was done and they wound up losing 104-90 to the Charlotte Hornets.

"We looked awful out there," Carter said. "As close as the game was (on the scoreboard), it wasn't. In my opinion, we just got beat by 30 or 40."

Listed before the game as questionable because of a bruised right calf suffered Wednesday in San Antonio against the Spurs, Carter taped up his achy limb and gave it a go last night. He wound up with a game-high 31 points, but the Raptors had fallen so far behind by the second quarter that nothing else really mattered.