Carlos Boozer's lip was swollen and Andrei Kirilenko's chin was bloodied, and the perpetrators of all this mayhem were rewarded with something the Jazz found even more painful: A victory.

The Raptors played with the same offensive aggressiveness the Jazz have displayed this season, but buttressed it with a physical defense that Utah could only envy. The combination earned Toronto a hard-earned 104-95 win in the Delta Center.

"They busted two lips tonight, and that's sending a message," admired Raja Bell, normally Utah's leading practitioner of the art of elbow-and-uppercut defense. "Their style is smashmouth, and it's to their credit. They're not trying to hurt anybody, but if you can gain a slight psychological advantage by pushing somebody around, sometimes that's the difference in the game."

Defense certainly was the difference in this one, as Utah, with every shot contested by Raptor big men Chris Bosh and Loren Woods, shot a season-low 41.5 percent from the field. But it was the defense at the other end - more precisely, the lack of it - that dropped Utah to 4-1 on the season.

Bosh hit 10 of his 14 shots for 20 points, Woods went 5-for-5, and neither seemed the least bit concerned about Kirilenko and his blocked shots. "We need to realize how important defense is, [and] not just try to outscore the other team," complained Jazz coach Jerry Sloan. "We went through stretches where we were happy to score, but weren't so happy to come back and defend."

Kirilenko was more blunt. Toronto, also now 4-1, is talented, "but we played crap defense."

That was true at the worst time, too; The Jazz actually led 84-78 with 9:30 left to play, but allowed Toronto to score on 11 of its last 14 possessions. Even more remarkable: The Raptors' two best scorers, Vince Carter and Jalen Rose, were on the bench the entire time.

"It wasn't my [intention], but those guys were playing well, they were moving the ball, they were getting good shots," Toronto coach Sam Mitchell said of his lineup of Bosh, Woods, Rafer Alston, Morris Peterson and Lamond Murray, who outscored the Jazz 26-11 at the end. "I just felt like they earned the right to be on the court."

The Jazz had fewer of those guys, at least on this night. Most damaging was the difficulty Utah's trio of frontline scorers - Kirilenko, Carlos Boozer and Matt Harpring - had finding the basket. The three were 0-for-9 from the field 20 minutes into the game, and they finished 9-for-33. Boozer still managed 19 points by getting to the free-throw line 11 times, and Kirilenko added 10 rebounds and three blocks.

But the Jazz offense had to rely on the guards, with Bell scoring 20, Keith McLeod 16 and Gordan Giricek 14.

That wasn't enough against a fast-breaking Toronto team, particularly when they went to Bosh and Woods. The Jazz's front line is talented, but relatively small, a deficiency the Raptors exposed.

"Sam is doing a great job with that team," added Sloan. "They play hard for him, and that's how you win."

And his own team? "I don't know. We need to realize how important defense is," the coach said. "Maybe these people thought we were going to go undefeated."

pmiller@sltrib.com

In Short - The Jazz's lack of size and occasional lack of defense was exposed by an uptempo Toronto team that outscored Utah 28-16 in the fourth quarter.

Key Moment - Andrei Kirilenko tried dribbling down the lane early in the fourth quarter, but the ball skipped off his shin and into Chris Bosh's hands. The Raptor forward turned the turnover into a fast-break dunk, highlighting an 8-0 run that put Toronto in the lead for good.

Key Stat - The Jazz's top three scorers had an off night together, as Carlos Boozer, Andrei Kirilenko and Matt Harpring combined to make only 9 of 33 shots from the field, a .272 success rate.