It's that time of the year again when regular season games become more important as teams joust for playoff positioning closing in on the end of a marathon of a season. It's also the time of the year when the San Antonio Spurs historically take their game up a few notches.

After trudging through most of the season, and encouraging the annual habit of taking them out of the short list of true NBA title contenders, the Spurs are finally playing like the Spurs again.

Tuesday night's 117-107 win over the Toronto Raptors marked the defending champions' sixth straight win, putting them just a half-game behind the fifth place Los Angeles Clippers.

During the win streak, the Spurs have beaten their opponents by a minimum of nine points, which also includes a couple of 27-point wins (against the Sacramento Kings and the Phoenix Suns).

The Spurs have struggled with both injuries and consistency the whole season, and even with the win streak, has yet to prove that they can now be considered among the league's elite.

Coming off the All-Star break, San Antonio dropped four straight games"”three of which to Western Conference contenders (the Golden State Warriors, Portland Trail Blazers, and the Clippers), before racking up six straight.

But as noted by Ball Don't Lie, the Spurs current run of six games have come against struggling teams. They beat the lowly Kings twice, the new look Suns, the Denver Nuggets, and the injury plagued Chicago Bulls.

Tony Parker has been a huge part of the Spurs' resurgence, looking more and more like one of the best point guards in a league flush with them.

After a string of horrendous games during their fore mentioned four-game skid which he had games of two, five, and two points, Parker has rediscovered his form notching 19, 24, 32, and 23 in his last four games.

The Spurs will have a good measure of where they are Thursday when they face the surging Cleveland Cavaliers in a nationally televised game.