When the Toronto Raptors started their season with a dismal 7-13 record countless fans sprained their ankles jumping off the teams bandwagon.

Since that time most of the players have finally gotten healthy and players have become accustomed to playing together.  It’s one of those trial by fire situations a team is forced to endure after playing their first 30 games of the season in just 53 days.

Due to that familiarity the team has forged, the current starting line-up of Jarrett Jack, DeMar DeRozan, Hedo Turkoglu, Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani have won four straight games while compiling an impressive 6-3 over their past nine games.

After the recent strong play from the team it reinforces the fact fans needed to show a little extra patience with nine new faces on the teams opening night roster.

“I think we’re playing with a little more confidence,” Raptors head coach Jay Triano admitted to the media yesterday afternoon. “We’re getting more guys involved. We’re starting to help each other and understand our defensive roles a lot better and as a result we get more stops, we lead to run-outs and that gives us confidence and everything starts rolling.”

Something else that helped the teams confidence has been a recent stretch of games against teams are that struggling. Two of their recent wins came against Detroit which has been ravaged by the injury bug while New Orleans and New Jersey have struggled to get wins all season.

Regardless of the circumstances, a win is still a win and the team is happy to get them however they can.

“We’ve been playing teams that have been struggling and we’ve been taking advantage of the opportunities that we’ve had,” a stoic Bosh explained to the media after the teams win against Detroit. “We just need to keep doing that. Hopefully it will help build some confidence and get all of the guys involved. Once that happens everybody will figure out their role and we’ll start playing better basketball.”

While the team isn’t overly excited over the current stretch of strong play against inferior competition, it is nice to see the team mature to the point where they are winning games they are expected to win because it’s not something the franchise has been able to do over the past few seasons.

Jarrett Jack, one of the players who has stepped up his game during the absence of starting point guard Jose Calderon, likes the direction the team is headed but admits there is still plenty of room for growth.

“I feel like we’ve got a rhythm right now,” Jack explained. “Everybody is playing as if they’re in sync with one another. Wins in the NBA aren’t easy to come by, regardless if you’ve got one, two, three. We just happen to have four in a row, you just try to keep it going. Now we’re looking forward to playing a Charlotte team that pretty much embarrassed us the last time we played then.”

After the 35 point lashing Charlotte laid on the team the last time the two teams met up it’s clear that loss is still on the minds of players in the Raptors locker room. It won’t matter that Stephen Jackson and Gerald Wallace are currently banged up and nursing injuries, when they host Charlotte on Wednesday it’s clear the team doesn’t intend on being gracious hosts at the Air Canada Centre.

This is a natural progression for any team as they strive to be competitive on a regular basis. When the season began a lot of members of the national media failed to credit this team as being among the elite in the Eastern Conference. However, in the Raptors locker room a lot of players felt the team had the necessary pieces to be among the cream of the crop in the East.

The teams recent four-game winning streaks has resulted in a couple of players stepping up and once again being vocal about the potential of this team.

“We’re starting to realize how good we can be,” Turkoglu told the media after the teams win against Detroit on Sunday. “We’re still progressing and need to learn about playing 48 minutes. When we figure that out too I think we’re going to be really good and you’ll see more [streaks] like this, 4-0 and 5-0 and even more.”

Consistency has to become the focal point for this team moving forward.

If they can find a way to be consistent on both ends of the floor for 48 minutes each game – defense and the third quarter is their current Achilles heel – then they’ll be able to put together a lot more winning streaks like their current four-game stretch.

If they can’t figure out this problem then Turkoglu’s goal of winning streaks being a regular thing will amount to being nothing more than wishful thinking.