Although they’ve gone overlooked for most of the season, the Toronto Raptors have proven to be the best and most consistent team in the Eastern Conference.

At 45-17 heading into Tuesday, they hold the No. 1 spot in the conference and have been especially hot recently, winning nine of their last 10 games.

Incredibly, they’ve gone 26-5 in front of their home fans. That’s the best mark in the entire NBA. For reference, the Golden State Warriors have gone 24-7 and the Houston Rockets have gone 25-6.

With All-Stars DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry at the helm, the Raptors are looking to prove their doubters wrong and finally get over the hump.

Physically, not much has changed from last season. The personnel is similar. But, the entire mentality of the organization is different.

Speaking to David Aldridge of TNT for an NBA.com feature, DeRozan described the mood within the Raptors locker room this season.

“It’s more, we have fun with one another, but we understand it’s bigger than us all. We, all of us -- young guys, all of me. Me and Kyle always tell the young guys, ‘this opportunity doesn’t always come around that often. Take advantage of this and be all for it. Before you know it, you’re going to be 10 years in, and the opportunity may not come again. Take full advantage of it.’ And everybody understands that. We see it now, especially when we have games where we lose a game. We think we’re on a 10-game losing streak. That’s how we approach coming in the next day at practice, or the next game. It’s great to have that kind of feeling and vibe,” he explained.

DeRozan claims that a couple of the team’s young players have the same killer instinct that Lowry has.

“You just know. I always look at my guy Kyle, and you know he’s gonna ride or die with you. But it’s crazy when you’re able to look over at a guy like Pascal (Siakam), or Freddie (Van Vleet), or Delon (Wright), these young guys who only have a couple of years in the league, they’ve got the same look that Kyle’s got. That says a lot about the team. Because you know when those young guys go in, they’re some dogs, too. That’s the beauty of it, and it shows,” he noted.

Overall, DeRozan said that this is the most optimistic that he’s felt heading into the playoffs for one specific reason.

“Because we’ve done felt the fails. We’ve been at the top, and we fell all the way to the bottom," DeRozan said. "We know what that feels like. We know what it feels like getting closer and closer. We understand the moments. That’s the beauty of failing sometimes. Nobody wants to fail, but you have to to understand what it takes to succeed. And I think that’s where we’re at mentally, and we understand what we have to do.”