Way back in the day when the calls were out for the head of Lenny Wilkens and everybody was going to get traded and the boos rang down from the Air Canada Centre rafters, the Toronto Raptors found some hidden inner resolve and turned themselves around.

It is that sense of unity, the ability to withstand harsh criticism and tough times and still succeed that gives them an overriding sense of optimism as the second half of the season dawns.

"I'm proud of this team no matter what," said point guard Alvin Williams before the break, which ends with tonight's Raptor-Cavalier game here. "Everything was down, we were criticized. But this is how we've always been, we've always stayed together. This is a team and we knew what we had to do, so we stuck together and kept playing."

That "us-against-them mentality" does seem to fit this team and could be the thing that continues them on the road to home-court advantage in the first-round of the playoffs and perhaps a challenge for first in the Central Division.