Dikembe Mutombo dismissed the whole thing as "strange."
It was much more than that.

"Those guys woke up and decided they wanted to play. We laid down," Aaron McKie said in the glum aftermath of the 76ers' 72-70 loss to Toronto yesterday at the First Union Center.

The Sixers' fifth loss in their last six home games dropped them to No. 7 in the Eastern Conference playoff seedings. It also left them searching for answers. They led by as many as 12 points in the third quarter.

"It's frustrating that we lost," said Mutombo, the 7-2 center who played 19 minutes of the second half without taking a shot. "One thing that's going wrong is, every time we try and get some momentum, somebody else gets hurt."

Already playing without star guard Allen Iverson, the Sixers lost guard Speedy Claxton in Saturday's loss to the New Jersey with a mild concussion, then lost McKie for part of yesterday's third quarter with a sprained right shoulder. Derrick Coleman, who has been struggling for several months with a hyperextended left knee, insisted on playing yesterday once he learned that Claxton was out.

But the Sixers shot 10-for-33 in the second half, continually missing jump shots and rarely trying to send the ball inside to Mutombo, who scored 10 of his 13 points in the first half.

No shots for Mutombo?

"My own teammate asked the same question," Mutombo said. "How can we go the entire [second half] without seeing what we have inside? I don't know. I can't get an answer for you."