Collins can't find right rotation as 76ers fall to Raptors

TORONTO - Every few minutes, 76ers coach Doug Collins popped from his seat and turned to look at his bench as if some other, different players had appeared when he wasn't looking.

Similar to repeatedly pulling open the refrigerator door and hoping a stroke of magic had filled the empty shelves, Collins seemed wishful that the missing player would suddenly present himself.

He didn't.

On Wednesday night at the Air Canada Centre, Collins' team was bad from start to finish as the Toronto Raptors defeated the Sixers, 106-90.

"Low, low energy," Collins said. "We started out very sluggish, which was my concern. I thought we played tired early."

The Raptors led by 15 at the end of the first quarter, 19 at halftime, and 16 at the end of the third quarter.

In the second half, the Raptors led by as many as 22 points.

The Sixers, without power forward Elton Brand, dropped to 3-12. The Raptors, led by Andrea Bargnani's 24 points, improved to 6-9.

Collins played every eligible player, including rookie Craig Brackins, who played his first NBA minutes. Brand was not in the arena, serving a one-game suspension for his flagrant foul during Tuesday night's loss to the Wizards in Washington.

"We have not been able to come up with just a comfortable rotation," Collins said. "About the time we do, somebody else misses a game and you're scrambling a little bit. But that's what I get paid to do."

None of Collins' lineups worked: not going small and trying for speed, not going bigger and hoping to battle, and not going young and looking for inspiration. At every turn, the Raptors snagged rebounds, made pull-up jumpers, and knocked down three-pointers.

Toronto forward Reggie Evans, traded from the Sixers before last season, finished with 12 points, 22 rebounds, and the undying admiration of nearly all of the 15,012 in attendance.

In all 48 minutes, there was only one moment when it seemed the Sixers could have made a run. With 8 minutes, 8 seconds left in the game, and with the Sixers trailing by 94-83, swingman Andre Iguodala missed a 23-foot jumper with the shot clock still showing robust numbers.

The Raptors quickly pushed their lead back to 15.

By the time the Sixers had another similar chance, with the ball and down by 100-90, there was only 2:55 left on the clock - not enough time for a comeback.

Iguodala scored a team-high 17 points on 6-for-13 shooting.

"I don't know, I thought we got a lot of good shots, a lot of missed layups, and a lot of wide-open shots that we just missed," said guard Jrue Holiday, who finished with 16 points. "I kind of think it was them catching fire really quickly. . . . We started to back off a little bit. They struck first and we tried to fight back."

Holiday was correct: In the first half, the Sixers missed at least a dozen at-the-rim finishes. And on almost all of them, Evans was right there to collect the rebound.

By game's end, the fans were more concerned with Evans' padding his rebound total than worrying about the actual outcome of each possession.

You couldn't blame them.

By that point, it was the only outcome still in doubt.