Thank you, New Jersey Nets.

If not for the supposedly professional men’s basketball team situated just south of New York, the Toronto Raptors would really be drowning. Now, after a rather unconvincing 100-90 win over the dreadful 7-62 Nets, the Raptors are simply treading water.

That’s something, right? Imagine they had lost to New Jersey on Saturday — can you even keep charging admission after that?

Even the most delirious of the blind faithful — this is Toronto, after all — can admit there is something seriously wrong with this basketball team.

Consider that if not for a six-point win over the New York Knicks and a one-point win over the Atlanta Hawks, the Raptors would have lost 12 of their past 13 going into Monday night’s tilt against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Minnesota is the second worst team in the league, but remember, there’s no such thing as an easy win with this bunch.

The Raptors have hit this skid of ineptitude at just about the worst time fathomable.

They’re in the midst of a month of March that sees them play 16 games, nine of which are away from the cavernous confines of the Air Canada Centre. Not to mention they lost their best player, Chris Bosh, for seven games and saw both Jose Calderon and Hedo Turkoglu battle injuries.

And if it weren’t for an injury-riddled Chicago Bulls team losing 10 games in a row before Saturday night’s 98-84 triumph over the Philadelphia 76ers, we’d be talking about the Raptors as a non-playoff team, not a marginal post-season participant.

Then again, this is not a playoff team. Playoff teams play as a unit with grit and determination. This is, as it has been all season, a team simply going through the motions.

It doesn’t take a descendent of James Naismith to determine that the Raptors aren’t playing with much passion at the moment, nor have they for most of the season for that matter. With the exception of Bosh, the franchise player who carries this team most nights, this bus has far too many passengers.

But this is sports after all, so we have to blame someone. Take your pick.

The homegrown, reserved head coach Jay Triano who has amassed a .467 winning percentage since taking over for the brash, outspoken Sam Mitchell in December ‘08 and has consistently failed to inspire this listless bunch through thick and thin.

The architect and GM Bryan Colangelo who put the pieces in place, completely revamping last year’s 33-49 team with nine new roster members who are still struggling to find the chemistry requisite for success in the NBA.

The 2006 number one draft pick Andrea Bargnani who showed flashes of brilliance when his team was winning  in January, but has since regressed back to the lazy, amateurish defensive tendencies he routinely shows when his team is in a state of free fall.  Bargnani — making $10 million a year no less — has yet to learn you have to play with passion and intensity every night, not just in the games when those around you are excelling.

The prized free agent, Hedo Turkoglu, who rode in to Toronto on a magic carpet of strong play and clutch performances in Sacramento and Orlando, only to have the rug pulled out from under him with a blatantly lacklustre debut season North of the border.

Turkoglu was brought in to be the legitimate NBA star to play alongside Bosh and bolster the Toronto attack; however the only passion he’s shown this year was when he called out his teammates publicly for not giving him the ball enough. Shooting 31 per cent from the field, like he did against the lowly Nets on Saturday night, doesn’t exactly strengthen his case.

On the other hand, if there’s anyone you can’t blame it’s Bosh, who is having a career year, averaging 24.1 points per game, 11.1 rebounds per game and shooting over 50 per cent from the field.

And when the six-foot-ten Texan leaves via a sign and trade during free agency this summer —ask yourself, if you were Bosh would you stay? — the Raptors will really be out of luck.

Bosh’s points, rebounds and propensity to draw fouls can be replaced — individually or by committee if necessary. But his grittiness and competitiveness cannot. Those are traits that cannot be learned.

There are no drills for heart. There are no exercises for drive. Either you have it or you don’t.

These Raptors don’t have it. This team ­— if they can hold onto a playoff spot over the baker’s dozen remaining games — is a first round sweep waiting to happen. There is no grit, no intensity, no passion, no drive to bring a championship to the city.

Bosh played his 500^th game as a Raptor Saturday night. Don’t count on him reaching five and a quarter.