At this point in the season, every NBA team needs to keep perspective about their current standing and how they fair with other teams in the league. For some reason, if you have a losing streak in November, it's nothing much of a big deal. Yet if you have a losing streak in January and onwards, it's going to be really tough.

Raptors Struggling to keep up

According to CBSSports, the Toronto Raptors are struggling to keep up in the east standings, as they found themselves losing 6 of their last 10 games and have been overtaken by the Boston Celtics for second in the East standings. Though, if you look at their losses, most of them are pretty explainable and acceptable since they were playing against top-tier teams who just happened to bunch up together in their schedule.

But that's not to say that the Raptors are, or will be, totally fine in the long run; the team desperately needs to pull the trigger on an immediate trade for an upgrade at power forward. But the Raptors haven't totally forgotten how to be a good team in a matter of days, as they have now won two consecutive games.

Teams on the rise

Meanwhile, the Indiana Pacers, Miami Heat, Washington Wizards, and Dallas Mavericks have been rolling as they are currently winning significant stretches of games. While their play is indicative of their overall potential whenever they're at their best, the ability to play at that level consistently is what most teams struggle to develop.

New No. 1

According to Yahoo! Sports, there's a new number one in town, and that's the San Antonio Spurs. Golden State may still have the better record at 43-8, but that doesn't deny the fact that the Spurs, who are right behind them at 39-13, are playing very consistently good over the last weeks. If they continue to roll, especially on the road, it won't be long until they can potentially overtake the Warriors for the number one spot in the West.

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