He's tried -- putting more of an emphasis on initiating the offense in the low post and forcing attacking wings to the baseline and sidelines rather than the middle as they did under Mitchell -- but it's been a slow, painful process. That's why two full practice sessions in the next three days are most welcome.

"Practice tomorrow, even though it's New Year's Day, will be our fifth practice since the change," he said. "We need to come and get some work done. It'll be nice to get lots of repetitions as far as shooting the basketball and go through some of the changes that we've made physically rather than just on video tape."

The glacial pace of the change, or the change to fully implement it, has frustrated the players as much as the coach.

"Things have changed, but it's changed slowly," said Chris Bosh. "Changes always happen a little slower than you want to sometimes. We're on the outside looking in right now, that's our reality and we just have to play better."

NUGGETS 114, RAPTORS 107: Andrea Bargnani, inserted into the starting lineup in place of the injured Jermaine O'Neal, responded with 24 points and Chris Bosh had 22 and nine rebounds, but it wasn't nearly enough. Even another aggressive offensive night from Jose Calderon, who scored 18 points and dished out 10 assists, wasn't enough as Toronto lost its third straight.

Nene and Carmelo Anthony were able to operate inside with no difficulty as the big center had 21 points and Anthony 19 as Denver scored an amazing 50 points in the paint for Denver. The frustration boiled for Raptors coach Jay Triano during one particularly trying stretch of the third quarter. After his team twice gave up easy middle penetration that led to a Chauncey Billups three-pointer and a Kenyon Martin layup, Triano called a timeout with no intention of talking to his team.

He yelled a bit and then went back to the bench, leaving the assistant coaches and the players to figure things out.