If I had asked you at the start of the season, which teams the Toronto Raptors would be fighting for a spot in the NBA's basement with, one of the teams undoubtedly would have been the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Cavs lost LeBron not so long ago of course, and fell off a cliff record-wise, winning only 19 games last season, and really had little to work with going into this season, with the exception of top pick Kyrie Irving. However after playing only a handful of games at Duke last season due to injury, no one expected Irving to have a Derrick Rose-ish impact on his club, and the same could certainly have been said for the team's other lottery pick, Canadian Tristan Thompson.
However Irving has been a stud, blowing away doubters and while Tristan has been up and down, others like Anderson Varejao and even the fossil of Antawn Jamison have been playing some pretty good basketball.
As a result, the Cavs in this shortened season already have only three less wins than they did all last year and the Raptors find themselves looking up at Cleveland in the NBA standings. The Raps have a chance to close some of that "standings gap" tonight, and more importantly, get a five-game road trip off on the right foot.
GO RAPS!