For every NBA team that is on a roll, there is a team that isn't. That's why we need the doctor -- Dr. Jack Ramsay. Each week in Dr. Jack's Prescription, the Hall of Fame coach analyzes a team in distress and offers a cure to what ails it. This week, he gives Lenny Wilkens advice on how to keep the Raptors rolling.

This week: Toronto Raptors.

The Symptoms

	Carter

The Raptors never fulfilled preseason expectations, but they were 29-21 around the time of the All-Star break. Then went into in a swoon, lost 13 in a row, won a game, then lost four more. That made it 16 losses in 17 games. On top of all that losing, their star player, Vince Carter, had knee surgery and is gone for the regular season. It looked like gloom and doom for the Raptors. Their hopes of improving on last season's playoff performance were dashed. It didn't appear the team would even make the playoffs!

The critics focused on coach Lenny Wilkens, the winningest coach in NBA history. They said that Wilkens had lost touch with the younger generation and that he was no longer able to communicate effectively with his players. The Raptors appeared to play without purpose or direction. Wilkens and his players answered all the questions politely, and said the right things ... but their answers lacked conviction.

Then the unexpected happened. Toronto set a franchise record by winning eight in a row! They vaulted past Washington and Indiana and now cling to the eighth playoff spot. The adage that it's always darkest before dawn seems to apply.

Now the question is, how can the Raptors sustain their new-found energy? Their resolve will be sternly tested immediately by back-to-back games with Charlotte and Indiana.

	Like many of the Raptors, Antonio Davis has raised his game with Vince Carter sidelined.

The Diagnosis
I wrote an earlier prescription on Toronto, after it had lost 11 straight games, that contained this observation: "The Raptors need an infusion of energy more than anything else." I had just watched the Raptors lose a home game to Philadelphia -- a game in which they played with little enthusiasm.

The offense focused on Carter, and he was unable to produce significantly. The defense permitted consistent penetrations by the Sixers perimeter drivers (Allen Iverson and Eric Snow), and the Raptors were out-hustled on the boards and in pursuit of loose balls. The fans were unhappy as they left the Air Canada Centre ... the players appeared to accept the defeat as inevitable.

When Carter went down, that "infusion of energy" took place. The offense is no longer a one-man show. Every player must contribute offensively for the team to have a chance to win ... and he has. Better ball movement allows almost equal scoring opportunities. There's usually a different high scorer every game. One game it's Antonio Davis, another game it's Alvin Williams and in the next it might be Morris Peterson. Nobody seems to care. Wilkens has gone to a different starting lineup that now includes little-used center Eric Montross, Williams and Peterson as the guards and Davis and Jerome Williams as the forwards. The coach has also shortened his rotation of bench players to Keon Clark, Chris Childs and Hakeem Olajuwon.

The team defense, which wasn't too bad even when the team was losing, has tightened significantly. During the current eight-game streak, the Raptors have allowed an average of only 86 points a game to their opponents. (Miami leads the league in that statistic for the season with an 88.4 points allowed mark.). The team wins close games now (two by one point, two by two points), where they were losing those earlier in the season.

At one of the games we broadcast for ESPN radio, I spoke to Alvin Williams about being more assertive from his point guard position -- something he did very well last year after Mark Jackson was traded to New York. He acknowledged the change but seemed reluctant to step into a more dominant position. Perhaps he felt he'd be intruding on Carter's turf. Now he knows he must step up.

A different atmosphere is apparent around the team. Winning does that. But winning when your star player is out adds to the sense of accomplishment. The Raptors have shown that they can win without one of the league's most publicized superstars. You can almost hear them say, "Ya know, we're pretty good, too."

The Cure
The Raptors aren't out of the woods by any means. There is no magic potion Wilkens can give the players to guarantee that their streak continues. They can only take each game as it comes up, go out with their new-found energy and confidence and be determined to give it their best shot. But they have become a team in the true sense of that word. They play hard, and they play together. You win a lot of games with those characteristics.

Toronto leads Indiana by 1½ games and trails seventh-place Milwaukee by one in the white-hot Eastern Conference playoff race. The Raptors have a remaining away game with each. Those two opponents are now going through losing spirals like the Raptors endured earlier. Their locker rooms are tense; the Raptors' is upbeat.

That counts for something, too.