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Raptors revisit early-season turning point vs. Nuggets

Dec 31, 2008 - 11:14 AM Denver (20-12) at Toronto (12-19) 7:00 p.m. EST

TORONTO (Ticker) -- Jay Triano may want to watch his back - the last time the Toronto Raptors took on the Denver Nuggets, it cost a Toronto head coach his job.

That was way back at the beginning of December, as the Nuggets unleashed on the Raptors en route to a 132-93 victory - the largest margin of defeat in Toronto's history. The next day, head coach Sam Mitchell was history - canned in favor of Triano despite leading the team to consecutive playoff appearances.

Nearly a month later, the teams will face off again as the Raptors host the Nuggets in a rematch of that December 3 blowout.

Since that time, the Raptors' coaching move has failed to show any dividends.

In fact, from a short-term perspective, things have only gotten worse. Toronto is 4-11 under Triano to sink to the bottom of the Atlantic Division. Whether that is a result of the interim head coach's revised schemes and system or other factors, the Raptors' playoff streak appears very much in jeopardy.

They won two in a row last week over the lowly Sacramento Kings and Los Angeles Clippers but have fallen back to earth with back-to-back losses to the Portland Trail Blazers and Golden State Warriors. All-Star forward Chris Bosh has recovered from a mid-December slump, averaging 25.8 points and 9.3 boards over his last four contests.

The rest of Toronto's offense, however, is still consistently out of sync.

The Nuggets, meanwhile, are no stranger to major changes this season. They brought in Chauncey Billups in November - sending Allen Iverson to Detroit - and it immediately changed the face of their offense as they vaulted to the top of the Northwest Division.

However, lately, things haven't gone quite as smoothly. Losers of five of their last eight games, they are still looking to regain the impressive form that they showed in late November and earlier this month.

More bad news is that All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony is still bothered by a sore right elbow that sidelined him for a pair of games last week. He has played in the team's last two ballgames but was just 4-of-17 from the floor in Monday's 109-91 loss to the Atlanta Hawks.