AT THEIR WORST ? and they have shown that side on this trip more than once ? these Raptors appear to have all the ingredients of a very good .500 team.

Perhaps this is just a by-product of playing on the road, where everything seems a little less familiar and comfortable. Recall that, away from home, this same team was a nearly level 20 wins and 21 losses last season ? as close as one can get to mediocrity without actually easing over it.

But jet lag doesn't go far enough to explain a hurry-up offence found in no basketball playbook. Strange hotel beds ? oh, the turn-down service in these five-star Ritz-Carltons, it's brutal! ? can't be the reason for their fleeting approach to certain basics of defence, like not turning your head or not boxing out or giving up on a screen.

Mostly, the team's overall too-cool-for-school floating and that jack-it-up mentality have some observers wondering. "There's just something about them lacking. They seem to lack a killer instinct," said one scout.

It will catch up to them, if they persist in playing out on the edges rather than working the more conventional way, starting in the prime territory around the basket and working out. It will catch up to them if mental wandering is part of their routine.

But they're winning more than they're losing. If that is the only yardstick ? and really, it is ? the warts remain hidden.