Nobody will confuse the current edition of the Toronto Raptors as a legit NBA title contender, but they are a for real Eastern Conference top four seed contender.

In case you were too busy focusing on the MLSE’s other winter franchise’s ridiculously underwhelming performances on the ice, you missed a fantastic 4-1 western road trip by the Dinos. It was capped off by Sunday night’s exhilarating 103-101 victory over the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder.

To be fair to the Thunder, they were missing a handful of key pieces, but they still had their top two guys in NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren leading the way. Plus, they’re super deep.

Led by a budding NBA defensive player of the year and borderline superstar Scottie Barnes (did you see that game-saving block?), the Raptors (29-19) have won four straight and sit neatly in third place in the Eastern Conference, as well as second in their division below the Boston Celtics (28-17).

Against OKC, Barnes had 10 points, 11 boards, 8 dimes, 1 steal, and 3 blocks . . . those are team-first leadership numbers, no stat-padding here. Every one of those stats was earned. The Raps held SGA to only 24 points, well below his 32 points per game average as well as only having six assists and three boards while finishing a minus-3 for the game.

Not many other teams can say they’ve had that kind of success against the reigning champs and league MVP. Again, not putting the Raptors in that tier (yet), but using this as an illustration of how far the team has come and where they could get to in the coming years.

Also, while doing some stats research for this article, I randomly stumbled upon this website and it’s my new favourite thing – https://whohasthebelt.com/nba – and it’s really cool since the Raptors are the current lineal regular season championship title holders until they lose another game.

With the win against the Thunder, Toronto now also has a .500 record (12-12) against teams with winning records, thanks in large part to the four game winning streak against teams with winning records – thanks in part to beating the Golden State Warriors, Portland Trailblazers, and Thunder during this recent streak.

The team is off until Wednesday, January 28, when they host the New York Knicks at Scotiabank Arena, with a trip to Orlando to take on the Magic looming on Friday. After that it’s a five-game homestand with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Detroit Pistons visiting Toronto – along with very winnable games against the Utah Jazz, Chicago Bulls, and Indiana Pacers.

Coming out of the next seven games with at least a 4-3 record is not only realistic but should be the bare minimum expectation with how the team has been playing of late. Personally, after this huge road trip, I think the Raptors are going to take another step and win at least 6 of these upcoming games.

If they manage that, it will be the entire league and all their fans who take notice that the Toronto Raptors are back in a big way and it’s wonderful to see.

That’s it for me! Ciao for Now!