Second-half implosion dooms Sixers in loss to Raptors

AFTER YET another disheartening loss, forward Thaddeus Young talked of not getting the hammer to the nail; guard Lou Williams talked of the players' need to put on their hard hats.

If the 76ers are thinking of getting into the building business, they had better hope their products don't collapse with the consistency they seem to during games, particularly during third quarters.

For the second straight game, the Sixers blew a double-digit, third-quarter lead and lost. Last night at the Wachovia Center, a 13-point advantage was squandered as the Toronto Raptors pulled out a 108-106 win, dropping the Sixers to 10-25 on the season. Toronto improved to 19-18. It was the ninth loss in the past 10 home games for the Sixers.

"It looked like on the West Coast trip we were trying to find a rhythm," said Young, who finished with 18 points, but shot only 9-for-24 from the floor. "But now we dropped the last two, so we just have to focus in. It's very difficult right now. We're going to bounce back. We always do.

"We're just sitting back and relaxing. We're not putting the hammer down on the nail right now. We have to put the hammer down on the nail and go out there and keep fighting."

They have to do something, anything.

Wednesday's loss to Washington came after the Sixers had an 18-point lead early in the third quarter. Although the lead was smaller last night, the opponent's was eerily similar. But this time, the Sixers had a chance to win it at the end.

Sam Dalembert (10 points, 10 rebounds) had given the Sixers a 106-105 lead with 19.7 seconds left when he slammed in a missed layup by Young. But on Toronto's next possession, forward Chris Bosh beat Dalembert off the dribble and scored the winning points with 8.4 seconds remaining.

With the ball on the left wing, Bosh deked left, then powered through the lane and made a tough righthanded layup as he was hit across his body by Dalembert. He made the ensuing free throw for the final points of the game.

On the Sixers' last possession, Allen Iverson got the ball at the top of the key and tried to get it to Andre Iguodala (17 points, 11 rebounds, nine assists) slipping down the middle of the lane, but Iverson lost his balance and had to get the ball to Williams on the right wing. Williams desperately dribbled toward the top of the key, but was forced to fire a 28-foot fadeaway as time expired.

"It wasn't really a pick-and-roll. It was supposed to be [Iguodala] just coming and making it look like that and then rolling," said Iverson, who scored a season-high 22 points. "But when I went off it, I hit [Iguodala's] foot and stumbled, and I just tried to get the ball out of my hand before I traveled. And then we were forced to take a tough shot. It wasn't the shot that we wanted."

Nor was it the result they wanted, but it is something that seems to have become expected among this group, which last night played without Elton Brand, who was out with a stomach virus.

"I thought we did a lot of good things well," coach Eddie Jordan said. "We did not win the game, obviously. The third quarter, we had some of our own undoing with [eight] turnovers in the quarter. We just have to make plays. We left a lot of plays out there unfinished. Plays in the break, plays driving down in the paint and plays at the rim. Some of it was good defense, some of it was we turned it over or we did not finish. The bottom line was an All-Star player for them [Bosh] delivered, and we could not answer him."

The Raptors hit 13 of 21 (61.9 percent) from the floor in the third, outscored the Sixers (34-25) and took over the game - mentally first, and on the scoreboard second.

"I think at this point, with all the basketball I've played in my career and being around teams, at this point, it's mental," Iverson said. "That's the only way I can sum the whole thing up. That's the bad part about what's going on now. We jump out and we have leads, and we just can't hold them. It's not like we're not playing well. We play well for a while, and then it seems like we just lose focus. We stop doing the things we were doing to get a lead. You have to put a whole game together."

Said Williams, who led the Sixers with 23 points: "We have to put on our hard hats."

Full body armor might work better.

Allen Iverson did not make the trip last night for tonight's game in Detroit against the Pistons. He was kneed in his arthritic left knee during the third quarter and limped noticeably in the locker room after the game . . . Elton Brand made the trip and is expected to play tonight.