That wasn't the former Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket fans were hoping to see.

Led by a career high 32 points from Thaddeus Young and a sharp shooting day from downtown, the visiting Philadelphia 76ers beat up on the Toronto Raptors 114-101, Sunday afternoon at the Air Canada Centre.

The Sixers (23-39) shot nine-of-12 from beyond the arc, and took advantage of poor defence by Toronto (32-29) to break off a five-game losing string that had seen them drop eight of the previous 10.

"We just came out and did everything the coaches said, be aggressive and get up on every screen and roll," Young told CBC Sports. "And make [Chris] Bosh fight for his post position."

Bosh, who was supposed to be the ex-Yellow Jacket du jour after missing seven games — six with a bad ankle and the last on a bad stomach — contributed his 40th double-double of the season with 12 points and a dozen boards.

But he was ineffective for long stretches, playing without his usual bounce as the ankle continues to heal.

"You can tell he's still dragging his leg around a little bit but he's a fine player and he'll get it done," said Young, who came out of Georgia Tech three years after Bosh.

"They were more focused than we were," Bosh said.

Raptors coach Jay Triano was blunter.

"We weren't very good," Triano said.

No help anywhere

Bosh wasn't getting any help from his teammates in this one as they just refused to get back on defence, especially in transition.

"I felt pretty good," he said. "It's going to take some time. I've still got to get my legs under me. Once I get my legs and my strength back, I think I'll be fine."

Bosh went to the dressing room, apparently to have his ankle re-taped, early in the fourth quarter and came back a few minutes later, in time for the Raptors to put a run on that closed the margin to 100-94, with just outside of four minutes left.

But an offensive foul to Jose Calderon, a three-ball by Jrue Holiday and a Bosh miss that led to a two-ball from the rookie point guard, and the game was put away. Holiday, out of UCLA, finished with 21 points, seven rebounds and six assists.

Jarrett Jack, also from Georgia State, led Toronto with 20 points.

Raptors were without Hedo Turkoglu, whose bad ankle had been bothering him all week.

Somnabulant opening half

Slow starts are becoming cliché for the Raps, and this one fit the mould as the Sixers bounced to a 20-7 lead before many in the platinum seat had arrived.

Toronto then went on a 17-4 run and had the game tied by the end of the opening 12 minutes, but after the teams played evenly for much of the second quarter the Raptors pulled the blanket back over themselves to catch a few more winks.

Philadelphia surged and took an eight-point lead into the locker-room.

A four-game trip to the West Coast is ahead for the Raptors, starting Tuesday in L.A. against the Lakers, then on to Sacramento, Golden State and Portland.

"There's not that much margin for error right now," Antoine Wright added. "You lose a game like this, you can go from fifth to seventh or even eighth. You don't want to be fighting to get back in the hunt. We've got to figure some things out."

Sixers' forward Marreese Speights was helped off the court after going down hard in the second quarter. Early diagnosis was a right knee sprain.