<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">You don't make your NBA bones enjoying the creature comforts of home. Reputations are earned and seasons salvaged by being able to handle the vagaries of the road, by overcoming hostile environments and the quirks of officiating and the travails of travel. So as the supremely confident Raptors begin a stretch of three away games in four nights, two against Atlantic Division rivals and all three against teams from the Eastern Conference, they know they face a week that may not break their season but one that could certainly make it. "It's an opportunity for us (and) we're looking forward to it," point guard T.J. Ford said yesterday of the journey that begins tonight in New Jersey, continues tomorrow in Milwaukee and winds up Friday in Boston. "We're feeling confident with the way we've been playing. It's a good test. "Everybody's healthy and it definitely could help us create some separation if we go out there and take care of business." Leading the division by half a game over the Nets, the Raptors could make a serious move by winning two or three of these games. They have a home game Sunday and one on the road Monday before returning to the Air Canada Centre for five straight. Ever since they started the season a dismal 2-8, they pointed to January as a time to make a move and now it's here. The Atlantic being what it is, it's not like the next four nights will decide things once and for all. Boston coach Doc Rivers correctly pointed out last week that the best thing a team in the Atlantic could do to move up in the standings was get a few days off and things are likely to be fluid until the true nitty-gritty time in March and April. But as a test of their confidence and their new-found attention to defence, the Raptors can find out a lot about themselves with how they handle these next four days. Coach Sam Mitchell is optimistic because two of the team's strengths travel well.</div> Source
Dont look now, but the Raps are 10-9 since Dec 1st. If we can win the next 3 games, we'll be only 1 game below .500 for the season. I would call that over-acheivment considering where all the experts and analysts had us.
Don't forget that Bill Simmons predicted us to get 22 wins all season and finish with the worst record in the East. The most impressive part is that we've done this with Bosh being injured for almost a third of our games.
