76ers drop bad one to Raptors

ELTON BRAND might be alone in his thinking.

Following Wednesday night's 99-78 loss to the lowly Toronto Raptors, the 76ers forward claimed, "I'm not worried."

Either Brand is a politician in waiting or he has much more faith in the Sixers than anyone else can muster right now. They have seemed to hit a low point in this season with the effort put forth Wednesday night. It was so bad that the biggest outburst from the fans in the second half, a 24-minute frame in which the team scored only 22 points, came when Evan Turner hit a 16-foot pull-up jump shot to snap an 0-for-13 shooting drought for the team.

A night after the Sixers gave a solid effort in Miami, which ended in a six-point loss, coach Doug Collins didn't even pretend to have an answer as to why his team showed virtually no resemblance of the group it has been most of the season, one filled with energy and a passion for defense. Neither one of those characteristics was on display Wednesday.

"I'll just look for ways to try to keep them motivated, try to keep them upbeat, try to keep them positive," Collins said of what he will try to do to rectify what has become a somewhat dire situation. "At some point in time, you have to dig in. You have to dig in and get it done. That's what you do. This is a tough league. There's nobody out there who is going to give you anything, you've got to take it. I've seen us when we've done that."

A non-rhythmic first half by both teams produced a lot of scoring, one point more by the Sixers when it ended 56-55. But you got the feeling things might not go the way the home team needed it to, as the Raptors (20-35) shot 53 percent, made five of 10 three-pointers, and outrebounded and outhustled the Sixers.

Sure enough, the Sixers' alarming play became outright bad in the second half. In the first half, Jrue Holiday scored 17 points and didn't miss any of his eight shots, but had only one field goal in the second half, finishing with 20. The Raptors outrebounded the Sixers by 28-15 in the second half and coasted to their third straight win, the first time they have accomplished that feat since November 2010.

As he did in Tuesday's loss in Miami, Collins used a short bench, with Thaddeus Young, Lou Williams and Jodie Meeks taking the bulk of the minutes. When asked whether fatigue caused by the short bench might have had something to do with the poor effort, Collins bristled.

"No, absolutely not. I'm playing five perimeter guys. Who do you want me to play? That had nothing to do with this [loss]," Collins said. "I know at times like this, you always look for something. What used to be good for us, our defense, we have not been able to stop people. For whatever reason, I don't know - whether it's mental fatigue, physical fatigue, I don't know. I'm sitting there trying to find the answers, too. The fact that we played eight guys had nothing to do with it.

"So much of [the good play in the past] was our defense. We scored off our defense, we pushed, we got into the open court. We played so well [Tuesday] doing that, it's so hard for me to figure out what happened."

Collins said none of the players seemed to have an answer as to what happened. When the media was finally allowed to enter the locker room after a long wait, only Brand and Andre Iguodala were there to speak.

"When we play the top-tier teams, I think that's when we know we have to rely on each other more," said Iguodala, who played with glasses on in the first half to protect a bloodshot left eye that got poked in the Miami game. "That's when you see us playing, and our tempo is a little bit better and sense that we're feeding off each other. When we play teams that are supposedly lesser, we get away from it."

Now the chances of winning the Atlantic Division appear to be slipping away, though the Boston Celtics did lose Wednesday, so their lead over the Sixers remains at 1 1/2 games.

Still, no matter what the Celtics do, if the Sixers keep putting forth anything that resembles Wednesday's performance, they will find themselves watching who might catch them, not whom they can possibly catch. The Sixers now lead the Knicks by two games as the seventh seed.

"I don't think there's any question that there's some fatigue involved," Collins said. "I think one of the reasons is because we play so hard every single night. That's a tribute to these guys, how hard we've played, and I think that's a factor. I think mentally it's a factor. I think physically it's a factor.

"At this point in time we're looking at 22 days [left in the season]. We're not going to be able to go to a spa or anything for restoration. We've got nine of the last 11 on the road, so you've got to do it, that's all."

And what gives Brand the confidence to say he's not worried?

"I know my teammates and I know the coaching staff works tirelessly," he said after posting 20 points. "I know we're going to keep fighting and find ways to win. We've been through worse over the last 2 years, so I'm not worried about it."

Andre Iguodala shed the protective glasses in the second half and finished the game with six points and six assists . . . The Sixers have scored below 80 in five of their past 11 games . . . Andrea Bargnani led Toronto with 24 points, Jose Calderon dealt 13 assists, and Ed Davis had 14 rebounds . . . The Sixers' bench scored a season-low 18 points . . . The Orlando Magic visits Saturday, then the Sixers head to Boston on Sunday.