TOP, BOTTOM or in the middle, it doesn't matter to the Toronto Raptors. When they go from coast to coast, it has nothing to do with the length of the basketball court. These guys are making a living out of shrugging their shoulders, starting right at the top with Lenny Wilkens and Vince Carter.

Against the league-leading Lakers on Sunday, the Raptors faded faster than waterfront renewal. They follow that up with a ready-made chance to prop up their sagging fortunes in Memphis, and you know what happens.

It has been a telling week for the Raps, who are now officially backsliding ? as a team, anyway, if not as a franchise, those sellouts at the ACC showing that the customers are holding up their end of the bargain. It is entirely new territory for them, too, their ascent to this plateau pretty much uninterrupted going back to the morning in November, 1997, when Isiah Thomas resigned and Glen Grunwald inherited his leftovers.

Grunwald did his job last summer, dealing out contracts to all of the key pieces, putting everything and everyone in place. And here is the payoff. When you're as bad against the best as you are against the worst, something quite miserable is going on.