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Underachieving Celtics host Toronto in Beantown

Jan 18, 2012 - 3:49 PM (Sports Network) - Who would have thought the Boston Celtics would be looking up at a few teams in the Atlantic Division 12 games into the season? That's exactly the scenario for a struggling Celtics team mired in a five-game losing streak and set to host the Toronto Raptors tonight at TD Garden.

Boston has dropped five straight since winning four in a row from Dec. 30 - Jan. 4 and is currently behind both Philadelphia and New York in the division standings. It opened a three-game homestand with Monday's 97-88 loss versus the Oklahoma City Thunder, as Paul Pierce scored 24 points and Kevin Garnett added 12 and 12 rebounds.

Jermaine O'Neal had 12 points and 11 boards in the setback, while Rajon Rondo ended with 12 points, nine rebounds and nine assists for the Celtics, who are mired in their longest losing streak since a seven-game drought back in April of the 2006-07 campaign.

"From every win you can take some positives and from losses you can take some positives," Pierce said. "I think I like where we are headed, there are just little things that are really killing us; the (19) turnovers, obviously. If we can just clean that up, if we can keep teams out of transition and control that a little bit better, we'll be great."

The Celtics have also lost four straight at home and are 3-4 as the host this season. They will also host Phoenix on the residency.

Toronto has also lost its last five games and suffered a 93-84 setback the last time out on Monday at Atlanta in the middle test of a three-game road trip. Leandro Barbosa netted 22 points and Amir Johnson had 13 points and 10 boards for the Raptors, who have lost seven of eight games and fell to 2-6 away from Air Canada Centre this season.

Raptors center Andrea Bargnani (calf) missed his third straight game and leads the team with 22.3 points per game. Bargnani is questionable for Wednesday's contest in Beantown and forward James Johnson (ankle) is probable.

"We knew this was going to be a tough year, a very difficult year with the personnel and now definitely with Andrea and [Jerryd] Bayless," said Raptors head coach Dwane Casey.

Barbosa is averaging 17.6 points and shooting .477 over the last six games. Toronto will head home after tonight's game in Boston to host Portland before hitting the road again for five consecutive contests. It enters Wednesday?s game versus Boston ranked eighth in points allowed (91.9) and second in defensive field goal percentage (.407).

The Raptors dropped three of four meetings with Boston last season and has lost 15 of the previous 17 matchups between the Atlantic Division foes. Boston will put its six-game home winning streak in this series on the line tonight.