Dinos & Digits: The Raptors are at 50 wins for the first time ever

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.

Since the Raptors just reached a pretty important milestone, let's try to put what has arguably been the best season the team has ever had into context statistically.

Here are this week's interesting digits:

With last night's 105-97 victory over the Atlanta Hawks, the Toronto Raptors reached 50 wins for the first time in franchise history.

That's the third consecutive year that the team has set a new franchise record for wins in a single season. They are on pace to go 55-27.

The Raptors were the last of the 30 active NBA franchises to reach the 50-win plateau.

The Raptors are posting the best Simple Rating System (SRS) mark in franchise history at 4.00.

Simple Rating System is a team rating that takes into account average point differential and strength of schedule. The rating is denominated in points above/below average, where zero is average (via basketball-reference.com).

Toronto's previous high in SRS was the 2.55 they posted in 2013-14. For comparison's sake, the Raptors' storied 2000-01 season represents the fifth-best mark in team history at 1.69.

Toronto's 4.2 Net Rating (points scored minus points allowed per 100 possessions) is on pace to be the best efficiency differential that the team has ever recorded.

The previous high, 3.5, was posted in both the 2007-08 and 2013-14 seasons.

Prior to this season, there had only been eight individual seasons in Raptors history in which a player recorded a Player Efficiency Rating (PER) north of 21.0. This year, Kyle Lowry (22.7), Jonas Valanciunas (22.4), and DeMar DeRozan (21.5) are all on pace to do so.

If that holds, it will mark the first time that more than one Raptor has reached that plateau in a single season.

The only guys to ever get there at all before this year's trio were Chris Bosh (five times from 2005 to 2010) and Vince Carter (in the 1999-00, 2000-01, and 2002-03 seasons).

In five seasons as Toronto's head coach, Dwane Casey has become the franchise leader in games coached (386), wins (204), and overall win-loss percentage (.528).

The team's win-loss percentage has improved in each of the five seasons that Casey has been at the helm.

All stats courtesy of NBA.com/stats and basketball-reference.com.

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