The Raptors are built to take the Eastern Conference from LeBron James

The Boston Celtics have held the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 spot on lock all season long after they shot out to a 16-2 start. But the NBA season is long and the way you finish is more important than the way you start.

So right now, the Raptors might legitimately be the best team in the Eastern Conference. They’ve got a +7.8 point differential, which is the best in the conference. They’ve got two legitimate All-Stars, two frontcourt pieces that work well together, and maybe the best bench in the NBA.

OK — I know what you’re saying. We’ve seen this before. They’re always a great regular season team and their backcourt is always good enough to rack up wins. But this team is different. They picked the Celtics’ league-best defense apart in a 111-91 win on Tuesday night and made them look silly in Kyrie Irving’s first game back after missing three straight.

They’re one game back behind the Celtics for the first seed in the conference, but they’re making up ground fast. And with the Cavaliers slowly fading into the background, we need to start talking about the Raptors as a legitimate threat to get to the NBA Finals. Here’s why.

And on any given night, one of them could have themselves a game. On Tuesday it was Lowry who dropped 23 points on the Celtics and hit six three-pointers in the game. Lowry was tremendous at the point of attack all night. All six of his makes were three-pointers and some of them were straight pull ups like this one.

Others were more organized and of the catch-and-shoot variety, like this one off a couple flex screens.

And when he’s not terrorizing you from deep, he’ll nuzzle his way inside and body hunt for free throws — he drew seven of them against the Celtics and made five.

If Lowry’s not on, you’ve got to worry about DeMar DeRozan. He’s always been a dominant scorer and he’s doing the same this year by playing some of the most efficient ball of his career. His scoring per game is down at 24.4 points but he’s hitting a career-high true shooting mark of 56 percent.

He’s also assisting on a career high 24.6 percent of the Raptors’ field goals per game when he’s on the floor, which makes him that much more dangerous. It’s also exactly why this season is different for the Raptors than any other.

DeRozan isn’t the only one who has been willing to pass more. The entire team has shared the ball more than ever, and it’s on purpose. The Raptors are averaging 294.4 passes per game, which ranks 19th in the league. That’s up from last season where they only passed the ball 273.4 times per game.

Ball movement doesn’t necessarily mean great offense, but when you’ve got the dynamic scorers the Raptors have in their backcourt, it presents defenses with another challenge in tracking them at all times when they aren’t on the ball. That makes them that much more unpredictable.

Plus, they’re more athletic and springy than ever before, so when they get the ball on the break they can do things like this.

Seriously — their bench is fantastic. It features a weird mix of playmaking, athleticism, and defending that doesn’t necessarily feel like it should work but it does — and well. Their lineup of Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam, Jakob Poeltl, Delon Wright, and CJ Miles has a 20.4 net rating with 120 minutes played this season. That ranks fourth among lineups with at least 120 minutes played in the league — not just on their team.

This is depth the Raptors just didn’t have last season. It’s also young depth that gives them an athletic element they didn’t have before. Siakam and Poeltl form a dynamic defensive frontcourt that can guard players on the perimeter for a few seconds while protecting the rim.

Siakam, specifically, has the athleticism and range to cover a ton of ground on the perimeter while also making his way back to help at the rim.

And they also just fly in transition once they get stops defensively. If you let them change the court with a live ball, watch out.

It isn’t set in stone, but this might finally be their year. They’re doing all the right things and have developed their team in the right ways. They’ve established and improved their main core players over the years and added an extra piece in Serge Ibaka.

They’ve also developed quite the stable of young wings and forwards for their bench. Their defense is as good as it’s ever been with a 102.9 defensive rating and their offense is still humming like it usually does.

I know we’ve been here with the Raptors before, but they aren’t just relying on their backcourt to make their plays anymore. They’ve got a team with incredible depth and plenty of skill they can throw out onto the court no matter who their opponent is.

The Celtics have stolen the headlines this season, but we’ve got to start talking about the Raptors more. If we don’t, we could see them playing in June and we’ll have no clue how they got there.