Dinos & Digits: It's been a happy new year so far for the Raptors

Welcome back to Dinos & Digits, a place where we dive into the box scores and find five interesting or strange Raptors statistics and put them on front street for discussion. There will be a mix of both individual player and team statistics to explore, ranging from raw box score numbers to some interesting and funky advanced metrics.

So, let's get down to it. Here are this week's interesting digits:

Since the beginning of the Raptors' current six-game winning streak on January 6th, the team has ranked eighth in the NBA in Offensive Rating at 108.0 and third in Defensive Rating at 96.8.

The resulting Net Rating (points scored minus points allowed per 100 possessions) of 11.2 ranks the Dinos third in the Association over that span, trailing only noted juggernauts the San Antonio Spurs (16.2) and Golden State Warriors (13.6).

The lineup of Kyle Lowry, Cory Joseph, Terrence Ross, Patrick Patterson, and Bismack Biyombo has a Net Rating of 31.4 in 64 minutes of floor time this month.

That's the result of an Offensive Rating of 108.0 and an incredible Defensive Rating of 76.6 over that span. That's the team's second most-used lineup in January and by far its most efficient. In fact, that's the highest Net Rating of any five-man lineup in the entire NBA that's played at least 50 minutes together this month.

In the month of January, Patrick Patterson has a shooting split of 50.8% from the field, 47.4% from three-point range, and 100.0% from the free throw line, for a True Shooting Percentage (weighted twos, threes, and free throws) of 65.7%.

After struggling for much of October/November (49.2%) and December (43.6%), 2Pat's shot is finally starting to fall.

In the month of January, Terrence Ross leads the Raptors in Net Rating at 14.2.

What this means is that the Raptors have outscored opponents by 14.2 points per 100 possessions in the 200 minutes that Ross has been on the floor this month, which is easily the best mark on the team. By contrast, the Raptors have had a team-worst Net Rating of -1.3 in the 237 minutes that he's been on the bench.

The Raptors' current .643 Win-Loss Percentage is on pace to be the best in franchise history.

When you consider how packed and road-heavy the early-season schedule was, it might even be in the realm of possibility that the Raptors are actually better than their record suggests. They are currently on a 53-win pace, riding high on a season-best six-game win streak and a strong month of January overall.

All stats courtesy of NBA.com/stats and Basketball-Reference.com.