Did you hear the one about Vince's new shoes?

By Chris Sheridan ~ The Associated Press

The joke making the rounds in the NBA last week kept changing as Toronto kept losing.

Vince Carter is out with a new basketball shoe, and the folks at Nike have spent a considerable amount of money promoting the footwear in commercials and promotional materials. Their timing couldn't have been worse.

The joke goes like this: Did you hear about the new Vince Carter shoe? It only comes in one size: 13 straight.

On Wednesday, the punchline contained the number 12. On Monday, it was 11.

For those requiring an explanation, check the NBA standings. Heading into the weekend, Carter's Toronto Raptors have put together a 13-game losing streak that has knocked the team from second place in the Midwest Division to 10th place in the Eastern Conference.

When the Raptors played the Heat on Friday night, Miami actually had a chance to pass Toronto in the standings -- quite an accomplishment considering the Heat were 5-23 on Dec. 30 and the Raptors were 16-14.

Toronto's 122-103 loss to Dallas on Thursday night came on the one-month anniversary of the team's last victory, an overtime win over San Antonio on Feb. 7.

The Raptors are within two games of the longest losing streak by any team this season. Two after that, and they'll tie the worst skid in franchise history -- 17 straight.

"It's a new experience -- I've never been in that position before," said Lenny Wilkens, the winningest coach in NBA history. "I'm sure they want to win so bad. They know that there's two or three games that got away from us and had they not, the streak doesn't exist."

Carter, the target of some biting criticism from Charles Barkley in the current Sports Illustrated, missed seven of the losses while recovering from a strained left quadriceps. Entering the Miami game, Carter's team was 0-6 following his return.

"Things just aren't going our way right now," said Carter, who scored most of his 19 points against Dallas in garbage time and was often helpless while defending Michael Finley. "We just have to keep playing and know that (a win) is going to happen soon."

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THE 50 PERCENT CLUB: Steve Smith of the San Antonio Spurs leads the NBA in 3-point accuracy, entering the weekend with a percentage of .493 (100-for-203).

He says part of the credit should go to Tim Duncan and David Robinson for drawing double-team coverage that leads to open shots from the perimeter.

"I've never had this many open looks," the 10-year veteran said. "In Atlanta, I was always the go-to guy and I was never left alone. In Portland, the big guy was shooting out of the double-team, and the guy who swung the ball wasn't making the extra pass anyway."

Smith has a chance to become just the fourth player in NBA history to shoot better than 50 percent from behind the arc while leading the league.

The others are Steve Kerr, who shot .524 for Chicago in 1994-95 and .507 for Cleveland in 1989-90, Tim Legler, who shot .522 for Washington in 1995-96, and John Sundvold, who shot .522 for Miami in 1988-89.

"My percentage was up around 53, but it went down after a couple games when I had to launch 3s to try to get us back in it," Smith said. "Hopefully I can have another game late in the season like the one I had in Portland, 8-for-8."

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BARELY BEST: Sacramento was 36-10 on Feb. 3 and appeared ready to pull away from the rest of the league, but the Kings have lost seven of 13 and are about to begin a tough stretch.

Never great on the road, the Kings start a five-game road trip Sunday in Milwaukee and move on to Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and Toronto.

"Every team is going to have their down moments," said guard Bobby Jackson. "Hopefully we will wake up."

The Kings won 20 in a row at Arco Arena earlier this season, but had lost two of three at home heading into Friday night's game against Charlotte. The Lakers actually caught Sacramento atop the Pacific Division standings at midweek -- only to fall a half-game back by losing at Utah on Wednesday night.

Following Dallas' victory Thursday night, the Kings still had the league's best record -- but only by .007 percentage points.

Opposing teams aren't coming into Arco looking to get pushed around. Take Indiana's Ron Artest, for instance.

Artest showed up at Arco last Sunday with the assignment of stopping Peja Stojakovic. Perhaps that put him in a combative mood, because he didn't to take any grief from Slamson, the Kings' mascot, prior to the opening tip.

"He came up and tried to wrestle me, so I decided to punch him," Artest said. "I gave him some nice body blows."

Protected by considerable padding, Slamson was not hurt. Yet he definitely got the message.

"I didn't hurt him, he's a strong little King," Artest said. "But he went away. It was not time to be fooling around with me."

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THIS 'N' THAT: In an article in Esquire magazine, Bucks coach George Karl reveals that he never wears underwear while coaching. ... Spurs coach Greg Popovich says he is thrilled with his team's record, wondering whether any of the other Western Conference contenders could have won 65 percent of their games after changing 60 percent of their starting lineup. ... Sonics guard Gary Payton says he is not interested in playing for the U.S. team at the world championships this summer, but would do so if coach Karl asked him personally. Seven spots on the 12-man roster have been filled. So far, the U.S. team includes, Jason Kidd, Ray Allen, Antonio Davis, Jermaine O'Neal, Michael Finley, Shawn Marion and Reggie Miller. ... Yugoslav forward Predrag Drobnjak of Seattle predicts a silver medal at the world championships for his home country, whose team will include NBA players Vladimir Radmanovic of Seattle, Zeljko Rebraca of Detroit and Peja Stojakovic of Sacramento.