Raptors in Denver for the kickoff of what I’m prepared to call “The December Death March.” Not only did they just play the Lakers, but now it’s Denver (12-6, 11-3 since the trade), then Utah (11-7 and getting healthy), Portland at home (12-6), and the LeBrons (14-3, undefeated at home) in Cleveland.

You’d think it’d let up after that, but then it’s the TJ Ford reunion show, and two games against Vince and Little Larry Frank - with a game against New Orleans Sandwiched in between.

At least it quiets down after that, right? Oh, wait. It’s a Dallas at home, followed by a six-game Western trip. And then Denver at home on New Year’s Eve.

Given the Raptors’ inability to beat good teams, well, let’s see… they can beat Seattle, I know that much, and probably the Clippers… they should beat Indy and split with New Jersey, right? Right. Well, so that’s four wins, which makes it a 4-12 month.

Um… yeah… that, um, well, that’s not very good, is it?

Now, obviously, the Raptors can and likely will beat some of those “better” opponents. But since you can say that about any team, you know they can lose to some of those “lesser” opponents. I’d lay money on a 7-9 month which, after the 8-8 December, leaves the Raptors at 15-17 entering the New Year.

Is that good enough? Well, given how many other teams in the east are also “middling” - The Raptors are one of nine teams within 4 games of .500 - that’s probably good enough to leave them in the top eight of the conference.

Of course, January won’t be much easier for the Raps - they play Houston, Orlando, Boston twice, Chicago twice, Atlanta, Detroit and Phoenix before the 23rd.

And there’s the problem. The Raptors struggle so much to get wins, that there simply isn’t any easy stretch in which they can make up any ground until the end of March - when they play their only homestand longer than three games, hosting Charlotte, the Clips, the Bucks, Seattle, and Chicago - and it may be too late by then. They also struggle so much to score that the team never gets to rest anyone and by that time, the starters might be dead on their feet. And of course, as I’ve mentioned before, the Sam Mitchell Raptors have proven themselves incapable of going on winning streaks, so add it all up and, well, as I’ve said before, I don’t think the playoffs are a certainty with this team. Winning a round certainly isn’t going to happen.

I just don’t have a lot of confidence in this roster, as you can tell, to win many games.

As for tonight, well, look for more of Chris Bosh getting pushed around by Chris Anderson, Nene and Kenyon Martin if Jermaine O’Neal doesn’t come back. Heck, even if he does, he’ll undoubtedly be rusty. Chauncey Billups owned us in Detroit, no doubt he’ll own us here.

If Carmelo Anthony plays - he’s nursing a sore elbow - he’s got a size and strength advantage over Moon, Graham, Kapono, Parker… pretty much anyone we can throw at him. Hopefully he’ll be less than 100% or have one of those games where he seems to float around half trying, that were so frequent in his early career.

Melo had a great season last year - his scoring was down from the year before but all his other numbers were up. He averaged 25 points and 7.5 boards, while shooting 49% and 35% from three. It looked to me like he was taking the next step.

This year, even though they’re a better team, and he’s got a true point guard for the first time since, um, ever… his scoring is down below 20 and he’s shooting under 40%. (Still rebounding, though - up to 8.4). Is it early season woes and post-trade chemistry? Is the elbow injury to blame? Or is he taking a step back?

Maybe it’s the hair! I used to think that womens haircut of his was one of the worst do’s I’d ever seen. It got so long last year I started to believe it was some sort of bizarre WNBA cross-promotion, that David Stern was paying him millions to grow it long enough to join the sisters league and make it relevant. But now he’s coiffed like a man and he can’t shoot the rock (and the WNBA is still irrelevant) so maybe he needs to grow it back.

I guess what has to be frightening to the other Western conference teams is that, if they’re 11-3 since the trade and Melo is struggling, how good will they be when he and Chauncey get on track together? Let’s just hope it doesn’t start tonight.

Thankfully for the Raps, Denver is a little thin on the bench, just like we are. Of course, they start four NBA-quality starters, while we start two, but hey. And while their bench isn’t much, they’ve do have those hustle guys - Anderson and Renaldo Balkman, who killed the Raptors in New York last year - that we can’t seem to find.

So even though they’re not “deeper” than us necessarily, what they do have is NBA veterans who know their roles. We have guys who shouldn’t even be on an NBA roster.

Anyway. Depth or no depth, this team is too fast and too physical for the Raptors to play with. Jermaine O’Neal would help, but not enough. This won’t be as bad as the last time the Raps flew to Denver - a 30-point loss - but it won’t be pretty either. Nuggets by 16.