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Raptors hope to avoid fourth straight home loss vs. 76ers

Jan 9, 2008 - 2:11 PM Philadelphia (14-21) at Toronto (17-17) 7:00 pm EST

TORONTO (Ticker) - The Toronto Raptors look to avoid their season-high fourth straight home loss when they host the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday.

The Raptors were hit hard by injuries early in the season and still are missing point guard T.J. Ford, but have been relatively healthy of late. What is missing from last season when Toronto was a surprising winner of the Atlantic Division, is more of an inside presence to go along with Chris Bosh.

Bosh, who is mounting a campaign complete with videos and web site links in order to garner a spot on the Eastern Conference All-Star team, is averaging 20.5 points and 9.3 rebounds. He and rookie Jamario Moon are the only players on the team averaging more than 4.7 rebounds.

The Raptors dropped a 93-90 decision to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday while being outrebounded 52-33.

The Sixers have fallen on hard times of late, dropping four straight while allowing at least 109 points in three of the games. They managed a better effort on defense against the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday, but still fell, 87-83.

Toronto has already beaten Philadelphia twice this season, earning a 106-97 win at home on October 31 and scraping by 105-103 on the road on November 9. Bosh scored 24 points and pulled down 10 rebounds in the second meeting after going for just 16 and four in the first game.