They know they've lost six straight and are in danger of heading into this week's all-star break on the worst skid of a season full of them.

All the talk about having time to turn things around and it being a long season is just that: talk.

"There's an urgency," Anthony Parker said matter-of-factly after Toronto's latest defeat, a gruesome 78-70 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday night. "It's definitely an uphill battle at this point."

There have been no outward displays of anger but the disappointment and frustration is palpable in the Raptor locker room after each defeat.

"We have to keep plugging away but it's definitely frustrating," said Parker. "We talk amongst each other, just trying to get some momentum. It seems like there's only been maybe one or two times this year when we've felt like we've had a little momentum.

"And we just haven't been able to get that this year, like the last two years that I've been here."

Raptors general manager Bryan Colangelo, who spent the weekend on a scouting trip and avoided watching the last two losses in person, has some difficult decisions to make in the next little while.

The NBA trade deadline is a week from Thursday and there is no question there's major room for improvement on the 19-33 squad. And while Colangelo said last week he's not going to make a move simply to make a move or do something that would jeopardize the team's financial flexibility this summer or next, the need for an upgrade is more acute now than it ever has been.

The six straight losses have included defeats managed in every possible way.

They've trailed for entire games and blown late leads, they've given up 17 points in a row in a fourth quarter (Friday in New Orleans) and allowed 11 straight points after mounting a comeback to take the lead (Saturday in Memphis).

They've shot well (51 per cent against the Hornets) and lost; they've also shot poorly (29.5 per cent against the Grizzlies) and lost.

The only consistent thing has been losing.

"Sometimes it happens when you have a bad record, everything goes bad," said point guard Jose Calderon.

And for the Raptors, this season at least, nothing has gone right.

They haven't won more than three games in a row at any time this season and have lost at least five straight on three different occasions.

At no time have they looked capable of running off the kind of hot stretch that would put them firmly in the playoff hunt.

"That's the frustrating part," said Parker. "We drop two, three, four, five games in a row and maybe win a couple but never three, four, five.

"We're never able to put that string of wins together that gives you the confidence to come into a building and say, 'We're going to get this win.' I don't think we've felt like that as a group."