Kyle Lowry knows it. DeMar DeRozan knows it. The rest of the league knows it. The Raptors’ artfully named mascot, The Raptor, knows it.

Toronto’s got a hole in the roster at power forward, and it needs to be filled. And as the trade deadline approaches, it needs to be filled quickly.

That was evident in Sunday night’s brutal loss to the Pistons, which saw the Raptors drop a 16-point fourth-quarter lead and fall to 32-23, just a half-game ahead of Atlanta for fourth place in the East. It was the Raptors’ 10th loss in their past 14 games, and afterward both Lowry and DeRozan hinted that the team needed to make changes.

“I’ve got to look at it,” coach Dwane Casey said. “It’s not one player. It’s coaching staff, it’s all of us in this together. Some of our bench guys are now starting, our second group are in the first group, their chemistry is off a little bit. There’s no excuse. We’ve got to dig ourselves out. We’ve put ourselves in this situation, we’ve got to dig ourselves out.”

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The Raptors have been actively pursuing power forwards all season, well before the knee injury that has kept Patrick Patterson out for the past four games. They were considered among the favorites to land Paul Millsap before the Hawks pulled back and decided not to keep Millsap on the market.

According to league sources, the Raptors have been actively involved discussions for at least three power forwards: Serge Ibaka of Orlando, the Nuggets’ Danilo Gallinari and the Bulls’ Taj Gibson. Toronto has collected a stockpile of young assets — Norman Powell, Bruno Caboclo, Jakob Poeltl, Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet are all 23 or younger — and the Raptors hold their own first-round draft pick, plus the Clippers’ pick, this season.

But Toronto has played hardball when it comes to acquiring power forward help. Caboclo does not figure to be part of any trade discussions, as he has been a project the team wants to complete itself. A source also said that Toronto has also long resisted the idea of trading sixth man Terrence Ross. The Raptors have been loath to mortgage the future entirely for players such as Gallinari, Gibson or Ibaka, all of whom can be free agents next summer (Gallinari has a player option worth $16 million, and could opt in for that final season).

That’s not a problem, except that their star point guard, Lowry, turns 31 next month and has already informed the team he will opt out of the final year of his contract. Lowry has made it clear he wants to stay in Toronto, but the NBA’s past is littered with star players whose desire to remain with their teams melts away between the end of the season and July 1.

The Raptors reached the Eastern Conference Finals against Cleveland last season, and entered this year confident that they could challenge the Cavs again. But their defense has been subpar all season (they’re 19th in defensive efficiency, down from 11th last year), and their offense has collapsed in the past 14 games (101.9 points on 44.6 percent shooting, down from 111.5 points on 47.2 percent to start the year).

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Now they’re faced with the possibility of losing homecourt advantage in the East playoffs, which was key in last year’s playoffs, when Toronto played two Game 7s at home to reach the conference finals. They’re also faced with an early postseason exit — and introducing at least a hint of doubt into Lowry’s free-agent decision.

The good news is that there are options for the Raptors. They could boost the struggling offense with a guy such as Gallinari, or focus on defense with Gibson. They could continue to pursue Ibaka, but the Magic have been asking a lot for what could be a short-term rental player.

The Raptors have known all season that they’d need an upgrade at power forward. They had hoped to be dealing from a position of strength. But as the trade deadline approaches — just 10 days away — there’s some desperation kicking in, and Toronto is running out of time.