Yabba Dabba Do: These Toronto Raptors Came To Play

The Raptors are starting to claw their way back, and not a moment to soon.

For last season's Atlantic Division Champions, this season has been arduous to say the least.

Rookie phenom Andrea Bargnani's scoring touch seemed to wither over the summer, TJ Ford went down with another catastrophic injury, and the division-rival Boston Celtics retooled over the summer, entering the season with the goal of ripping the division title from the Raps' claws. 

All of the sudden, last year was a long ways away. 

Last year, the first-overall pick Bargnani provided the Raps with a solid season averaging 11.6 points per game, 3.9 rebounds per game, and 0.8 assists per game.

Suddenly, in a period of mere months, Andrea Bargnani went missing.

He looked uncomfortable on the floor. His shots stopped falling and he started to become visibly frustrated. Aside from the drop in his stats (9.0 ppg/3.4 rpg/1.1 apg), Bargnani appeared to have lost a step, a problem which was exacerbated by a hyper-extended left knee early in December.

Last year, TJ Ford staged a dramatic comeback.

After suffering a career-threatening injury to his spine while playing for the Milwaukee Bucks in 2004-05, Ford took the rest of the season off, returning to the court in 2005-06. 

Soon after, he became Bryan Colangelo's prized acquisition in his first Raptors off-season, and was expected to team with Chris Bosh to help the team recoup it's struggling reputation.

All Ford did was come in and establish new career highs in points per game (14.0) and assists per game (7.9), and then help lead the Raptors back to the playoffs for the first time since 2001-02.

On December 11th, however, Ford was sent crashing back to square one by Al Horford as Horford's hand connected with Ford's face during a lay-up, sending Ford crashing to the floor while hitting his head.

Ford hasn't played since.

Last season the Boston Celtics were 24-58. I think everyone is well aware of what's happened since then. 

All of those struggles, issues, and under-achievements resulted in a record that dipped below the .500 mark three times this season, and a record of .500 eight times this season.

Then all of a sudden, things turned around.

The Raptors were 5-7 since losing TJ Ford. They were stuck at a record of 17-17 after a January 6th loss to Cleveland Cavaliers where Chris Bosh's family got more airtime than Bosh himself.

Maybe something clicked. Maybe something was said, maybe something was heard, or maybe the pieces finally started falling into place for this team. No matter what it was, they haven't looked back since.

Since the loss to King James and the Cavs, the Raptors have gone 7-2, including a five-game winning streak at home. They scored big wins over the streaking Portland Trailblazers and the Atlanta Hawks, and then defeated the Boston Celtics for the first time this season in a 114-112 thriller.

Chris Bosh has come alive, averaging 29 ppg in the current 7-2 stretch, and at some points has just looked dominant, reminding people that he was "the other guy" taken in the 2003 draft.

Jose Calderon has continued his stellar play, netting 11 points and 12 assists in the Raptors thrashing of the Bucks Friday night, as well as averaging 14.3 points/10.1 assists a game during the recent two week stretch.

Hell, even Andrea Bargnani has show signs of life.

Despite some poor games earlier in the streak (including a scoreless effort against the Pistons on January 15th), Bargnani has begun to look comfortable again. His two latest efforts are some of his best of the season as he went off for 20p/7r/7a against the powerhouse Celtics, and had a 13/7/0 showing against the Bucks.

In a year where the NBA is devoid of a clear-cut favorite (at least until the Celtics shore up their back court) all it takes is for a team to get hot at the right time and just run with it, kind of like the Raptors are now. 

Currently the Raptors sit in fifth in the East, eleven games back of the Celtics, with back-to-back games against fourth place Washington coming up.

The Raps have been playing with a little Bam-Bam in their game, but they'll need to keep it up, or else their playoff dreams will turn to rubble (I couldn't resist).