The Raptors Kyle Lowry had his way with the Wizards on Tuesday with a game-high 29 points and five three-pointers. (Dan Hamilton/Usa Today Sports)

The Washington Wizards found themselves in Canada on Tuesday night, still searching for consistency after 42 games. They were shorthanded once again and the Toronto Raptors, the NBA’s hottest club, did not serve as an optimal opponent to find stability.

“It’s not desperation, but we know damn well we got to start winning games,” Wizards point guard John Wall said as he laced his sneakers 90 minutes before tip-off at Air Canada Centre.

The Wizards succumbed to the Raptors, 106-89, as their defense continued to fail them. One night after Washington was trounced by the Boston Celtics to seal a 4-0 season series sweep, the Raptors completed their own 4-0 dusting of the Wizards, who surrendered 100-plus points for the 26th game after 33 such efforts all of last season.

“Our defense is terrible right now,” said Wall, who led Washington with 18 points on 6-of-17 shooting. “Probably the worst defense in the league right now. Until we start playing defense, we’re not going to win games.”

After tying the game at 55 early in the third quarter, the Wizards, losers of four of their past five, were outscored 51-34 over the final 22 minutes of the contest as they continue to be unable to figure out the Raptors in the regular season. The result was the Raptors’ sixth straight regular season victory over the Wizards and 10th over the past 11 meetings, a stretch that bookends the Wizards’ four-game sweep over Toronto in the first round of the playoffs last spring.

Look ma, no hands: Toronto’s Jonas Valanciunas (13 points, 12 rebounds) is allowed an unimpeaded path to the basket by Washington’s Marcin Gortat (nine points, eight rebounds). (Frank Gunn/Associated Press)

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Toronto (30-15) has now won nine straight games overall, which ties a franchise mark set in 2002. The Wizards fell to 20-23, two games out of the eighth and final playoff position in the East.

Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry, an all-star starter for the upcoming exhibition here, paced Toronto with a game-high 29 points. He exited the game late in the fourth quarter with a left wrist injury, but X-rays later came back negative. DeMar DeRozan added 17 as the Raptors committed 18 turnovers but went 25 of 32 from the free throw line and outrebounded Washington, 48-35.

Wall tallied 14 assists for his 24th double-double of the season, but he also committed five turnovers. Otto Porter Jr. contributed 15 points and eight rebounds for Washington, which shot just 41 percent from the field, went 4 of 15 from three-point range and frequently passed up on open shots early in the game.

“We’re struggling with consistency right now,” Wizards forward Jared Dudley said. “Someone told me when I first got into the NBA: ‘Never get too high on wins, never get too low on losses.’ Even though we’re struggling, we can’t let this get to you.”

Washington traveled north without Bradley Beal after the guard sustained a broken nose and concussion in Monday’s loss. He will have to go through the NBA’s concussion protocol and be declared symptom-free before he is cleared to play, the team announced Tuesday afternoon. His playing status beyond Tuesday is “day-to-day.” The Wizards next play the Denver Nuggets on Thursday before going on the road to face the Houston Rockets on Saturday and the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday.

[Wizards Insider: Bradley Beal diagnosed with broken nose, concussion]

The episode is just the latest setback for Beal, who had already missed 20 games this season — three with a left shoulder injury, 16 with a stress reaction in his lower right fibula and one to rest to avoid overexerting the fibula in the second game of a back-to-back set.

Also without Kris Humphries (knee) and Alan Anderson (ankle) Tuesday, the Wizards started Nene and Marcin Gortat together in the front court for the third straight game after not having the duo play together for their first 39 games. Coach Randy Wittman has insisted he will utilize the pairing in certain matchups. He determined countering Jonas Valancunias and Luis Scola, a more traditional front line, was worth sacrificing the spacing on offense that is created when Dudley, a three-point shooter, starts at power forward over Nene.

The pair, however, didn’t share the court for long. Gortat and Nene played together for just the starts of the two halves for just under 12 minutes, and the Wizards were outrebounded with them on the floor anyway.

Washington trailed by 14 points in the second quarter before mounting a comeback and knotting the contest at 55 early in the third period when Porter intercepted a pass and dove out of bounds to redirect the ball ahead to Wall, who completed the play with an uncontested dunk. The Raptors regrouped to outscore Washington by seven over the final 10:07 of the third quarter, which included Wittman inserting Drew Gooden III over Dudley for rebounding purposes, and by 10 points in the final frame to extend their reign over the Wizards for another regular season.

“We have to keep at them,” Wittman said. “We have to figure it out. We have to get back in the gym and we have to work at it. Keeping the ball in front of us, take a little bit more pride in not letting the guy blow by you for a layup because I know we’re not getting them. We’re not getting easy layups. We have to get back to work.”