TORONTO _ The 76ers squad that went into Air Canada Centre on Sunday was a shell of the squad that upset the Toronto Raptors in January. Even that might be a stretch.
And it showed.
The playoff-bound Raptors defeated the banged-up and undermanned Sixers, 113-105, in front of a sellout crowd 19,800 here Sunday. The score could have been worse. The Raptors rested four of their starters in the fourth quarter. The fifth one _ Cory Joseph _ only played 3 minutes, 42 seconds of the quarter.
The Sixers' third consecutive loss dropped them to 28-49 with five games remaining. The Sixers have also lost three of this season's four games against the Raptors (47-30).
Their lone victory was a 94-89 decision on Jan. 18 at the Wells Fargo Center. That was the last time the teams met before Sunday.
Because of injuries and trades, point guard T.J. McConnell is the lone remaining starter from that matchup. Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot has replaced Nik Stauskas at shooting guard. Power forward Ersan Ilyasova was traded to the Atlanta Hawks. Center Joel Embiid and small forward Robert Covington had season-ending meniscus tears.
Center Nerlens Noel, the sixth man on Jan. 18, was traded to the Dallas Mavericks.
"It feels like a long time ago," coach Brett Brown said. "It really does feel like a very, very, very long time ago."
Another Sixer, Dario Saric, has gone from a role-playing reserve to the team's standout starting power forward since the last meeting. However, he played only 23 minutes, 47 seconds against the Raptors because of soreness in his left heel.
"I'm good," Saric said. "I have this left heel soreness a little bit (from) too many games these last two years. ... The medical staff, they want to protect me."
Saric has played a ton of games over that time with his former Turkish basketball team, the Croatian national team, and now with the Sixers.
"It's not something that can be seriously like some injury that can take me out for one month or two months," said Saric, who finished with 16 points and three rebounds. "It's just soreness (from) too many games, too much jumping and running."
Luwawu-Cabarrot, who is playing with right-knee soreness, paced the Sixers with a career-high 23 points. Eleven of them came in the first quarter.
Alex Poythress, who signed with the Sixers on Sunday morning, finished with 11 points, three rebounds, and one in his debut.
"We are kind of just dropping like flies, man," said McConnell, who finished with four points and a game-high 11 assists. "We are just giving new opportunities to new guys. We have to continue to play hard. "You'd be surprised in the month of April what playing hard will do for you."
The Sixers were down by 10 points at the half and cut the lead to four points (65-61) with 8:02 to go in the third quarter. However, the Raptors went on to build a 17-point advantage in the fourth quarter.
Serge Ibaka paced the Raptors with 24 points, six rebounds, and six blocks. He was one of six double-figure scorers for Toronto.
