After finishing a five-game swing through the Western Conference tonight against the Jazz at EnergySolutions Arena, Toronto plays nine of its final 15 regular-season games.

That's welcome news, considering the Raptors have lost four straight on this long journey, including a 137-105 blowout at Denver on Friday and a 106-100 near-miss Sunday at Sacramento.

Thanks to the losing streak, Toronto has slipped 3- games behind Cleveland in the battle for homecourt advantage in the Eastern Conference playoffs. It leads Washington by one-half game and surging Philadelphia by 1- games in the race for fifth place.

The No. 5 seed in the East will likely play Cleveland in the opening round of the playoffs. The No. 6 seed will probably draw Orlando while the No. 7 seed will almost likely face Detroit.

Next stop: Utah.

The Raptors have lost nine of their last 12 games in Salt Lake City, including five in a row.

Even worse, Toronto will again be without All-Star center/power forward Chris Bosh, who has been sidelined with a knee injury. He is expected to return to the lineup when Toronto gets home Wednesday and plays 11-win Miami, but that won't help them in Utah, where the Raptors are only 3-8 in franchise history.

Just as the Jazz would miss Carlos Boozer, Toronto has missed Bosh.

"He is not a cure-all, but he makes you a better basketball team," coach Sam Mitchell told the Globe and Mail. "Chris helps everything."

Bosh told the newspaper that the Raptors need more than his presence to emerge from their current doldrums.

"We have to have an intensity, a fire, a passion," he said. "Hopefully, when I come back, [missing] all that will come to an end because I demand certain things from my teammates and myself."

In the loss at Sacramento, Toronto fell behind by 15 and rallied behind the play of Jason Kapono, who finished with 26 points. But the Kings used Kevin Martin's 32 points and a 26-13 edge in free-throw attempts to hold off the Raptors.