The NBA schedule-makers sent the Raptors on a three-game trip to New Orleans, Dallas and San Antonio, then sent them home for about a 36-hour period to play the Bulls. After that, it's back on the road for eight more days and games in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver and Salt Lake City.

For a team with so many new players, the feeling is that it's just as well to get arduous travel over with early. It gives the players a better chance to bond on the road and, because it's so early in the season, the hope is they catch some opponents also trying to figure things out before they get into the flow and rhythm of the season.

But the Bulls outing is important even though the generally held NBA opinion is that the first game back east after being on the road and out of the time zone is a difficult game.

Toronto thinks it's right in the mid-level Eastern Conference mix with teams like Atlanta, Chicago and Washington, and sending a statement early in the season -- to say nothing of eventual tie-breaker implications -- is important.

SPURS 131, RAPTORS 124: Hammered on the defensive glass by a San Antonio team missing Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, the Raptors dropped to 3-4. Manu Ginobili had 36 points, including six 3-pointers, for the Spurs as he patiently waited on the perimeter for a teammate to either break down the Raptors and kick the ball to him or grab an offensive board and pass it back out. Toronto had more than enough offense -- Chris Bosh had 32 points, Andrea Bargnani 17 and four others were in double figures -- but not enough grit.