RAPTORS: FEBRUARY A 'SHOW-ME MONTH' FOR SMITCH

Three days later, Chris Bosh's "absurd" (Scott Carefoot's word, not mine) 56-foot heave against the Wizards the other night still looks amazing.

Maybe it's a little extreme to say that coach Sam Mitchell's job depends on it, but he needs to prove he can take this team up a notch, coach of the month or not. The Raptors come into the month at .500 (23-23, one game ahead of New Jersey in the Titanic Division), and a slate that includes both L.A. teams coming to town and trips to Detroit, Chicago and San Antonio is good show-me month. The Raptors won't convince a lot of the haters until they start beating teams ahead of them in the standings. Bottom line: Anything less than an 8-4 or 9-3 February (barring injuries) won't remove doubts about these guys.

The games fans should circle are the road games in Detroit and Chicago on Feb. 10 and 13 (the latter on the eve of a Vin Weasel visit to T.O., appropriate enough, on Valentine's Day). Winning either of those would convince a lot of the people who still have reservations that these guys as for real.

There's a lot to like; Jose Calderon is playing his best basketball as a NBA player and the Raptors can start going small-ball by putting him and T.J. Ford on the court at the same time. The best thing Bryan Colangelo has done is give the coaching staff options at every position: Two point guards, three wings (Andrea Bargnani, Anthony Parker, MoPete) who can shoot from outside, a true centre (Rasho) and a glue guy for the low post (Jorge Garbajosa). Then there's Bosh, who's expanding his game and seems to be turning into a taller, lefty version of Shawn Marion in Phoenix: The star who lets the team play without a true centre.

That's why it's on Smitch to have these guys above .500 by March 1. There's no excuses now.