Do the Raptors even miss Kawhi?

This is a web version of CBC Sports' daily email newsletter. Stay up to speed on what's happening in sports by subscribing here.

Here's what you need to know right now from the world of sports:

The Raptors are somehow just as good without Kawhi

Toronto had a good enough supporting cast that no one expected them to fall apart after the world's best player bolted for the Clippers last summer. But not many people considered the Raptors a real threat to repeat as champs without the Finals MVP either.

And yet here we are, about a quarter of the way into the season, and the Raptors are a stellar 15-4. That's the third-best record in the NBA, the second-best in their conference and the best in their division. They've won seven in a row and are 9-0 at home. 

It's no fluke, either: Toronto's plus-9.1 average point differential trails only Milwaukee's silly 12.4. Last season, with Kawhi, the Raps ranked fifth in the NBA in offensive efficiency and fifth in defence. This season, they're fifth and third in those measurements. It's almost as if nothing has changed. But how? Why? Here are some of the keys to Toronto's success, and a look at what's coming up:

Pascal Siakam made the leap. He's a legit star. Superstar, maybe. The signs were there during his breakthrough regular season and playoff run in 2018-19. But you never know how a guy is going to respond after he gets promoted from secondary option to leading man — and gets handed a four-year, $130-million US extension. But the herky-jerky 25-year-old forward has exceeded everyone's wildest expectations. He's averaging 25.6 points per game (11th in the NBA and up from 16.9 last season) along with 8.4 rebounds and 4.0 assists. He already has eight 30-point games this season. Siakam is also near the top of the NBA with 36.8 minutes played per game.

Fred VanVleet has stepped up too. The 25-year-old guard is still riding the momentum from his late playoff run last spring. He's averaging a league-high 37.5 minutes per game and a career-high 18.6 points — erasing any worries of a potential void after Kyle Lowry broke his non-shooting thumb on Nov. 8. Hard to believe that VanVleet was basically a non-factor in last year's playoffs until Game 4 of the Eastern Conference final. That's when he rediscovered his shooting touch, and he's been one of the most important Raptors ever since.

Load management isn't such a big thing anymore. That's all anyone talked about last season: How many games will Kawhi play? How many minutes can he handle? Will he get hurt again? It was part of the deal for keeping that particular superstar happy and productive, and it obviously paid off. Now it feels like the Raptors have turned back the clock to a time when people actually cared about the regular season. We'll see how Siakam and VanVleet hold up, but from a night-to-night entertainment standpoint it's been great to see the team's two most productive players actually, well, playing so much.

This team might still have room to grow. Serge Ibaka missed 10 games with a sprained ankle suffered in the same game where Lowry broke his thumb. The big man returned on Sunday and scored 13 points. Lowry could be back any time now — maybe as soon as tonight. It's fun to think about how good the Raptors might be with a full deck for Nick Nurse — the NBA's coach of the month for November — to play with.

The next week or so will be a great test. Toronto has a tough and interesting schedule coming up. After tonight's home game against the 14-5 Miami Heat, the 13-6 Rockets and James Harden come to town on Thursday. Harden dropped 60 points his last time out, and he's averaging 38.9 on the season. That's eight points more than anyone else in the league. If he keeps this up, it would be the highest-scoring season of all time by anyone not named Wilt Chamberlain. After that, the Raptors visit a strong Philly team for the first time since their bruising playoff series last spring. Then comes a Monday game in Chicago (whatever) before the one everyone's been waiting for: Kawhi's first game back in Toronto as a member of the Clippers next Wednesday night.

Quickly...

Another NHL coach is being accused of physical abuse. The Chicago Blackhawks have put assistant Marc Crawford on leave while they investigate "allegations that have been made regarding his conduct with another organization." We don't know for sure which allegations Chicago is referring to, but former NHLer Sean Avery told the New York Post that Crawford kicked him after Avery was called for a too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty during the 2006-07 season, when Crawford was the head coach of the L.A. Kings. This accusation came after the resurfacing of a year-old podcast in which former defenceman Brent Sopel said Crawford "kicked me, he choked me, he grabbed the back of my jersey and just pulling it back" during their time with Vancouver. And of course the Crawford investigation comes a few days after Bill Peters resigned as head coach of the Flames following allegations that he used a racial slur and also physically assaulted players while coaching other teams in the past. Read more about the Crawford allegations here.

Chris Chelios and Johan Franzen piled on Mike Babcock. The highest-paid NHL coach of all time has been taking a lot of arrows since the Leafs fired him a couple of weeks ago. The latest story comes from the Hall of Famer Chelios, who said on the Spittin' Chiclets podcast that Babcock "verbally assaulted" Franzen when they were all with the Detroit Red Wings. Franzen told a Swedish newspaper that was "just one out of a hundred things [Babcock] did. The tip of the iceberg." He went on: "He's a terrible person, the worst I have ever met. He's a bully who was attacking people. It could be a cleaner at the arena in Detroit or anybody. He would lay into people without any reason." Read more about what Franzen and Chelios said about Babcock here. 

Senators defenceman Mark Borowiecki stopped a robbery on the streets of Vancouver. He went all Batman when he saw someone take a bag from a car. Borowiecki "wrestled" it away from the guy, who then took off on foot, according to the Vancouver PD. No arrest was made, but the bag was returned to its owner. "We are grateful for Mark's assistance and do recommend that if anybody does witness a crime to immediately notify the Vancouver Police and to stay safe," the cops said in a statement. So, basically, don't try this at home — unless you're a 6-foot-2, 200 pound dude who hits people as part of his job. Read more about Borowiecki's crime fighting here.

Lionel Messi won his record sixth Ballon d'Or trophy. That's the annual award, organized by a French soccer magazine, for the sport's best player of the calendar year. Messi beat out Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk and Cristiano Ronaldo. The latter shared the record with Messi until now. Messi scored 36 goals last season to help Barcelona win the Spanish league title, and was the top scorer in the Champions League. He has nine goals in nine La Liga matches so far this season. Megan Rapinoe won the women's Ballon d'Or after leading the U.S. to the World Cup title in the summer. Read more about both winners here.

The Blue Jays are giving Canadian Phillippe Aumont another shot at the big leagues. The 30-year-old pitcher signed a minor-league contract with the Jays and will have a chance to make the team in spring training. Aumont hasn't pitched in the majors since 2015 with Philadelphia and even retired for a bit. But he's been playing independent ball with the Can-Am League's Ottawa Champions and also pitching for the Canadian national team. Aumont tossed eight shutout innings vs. Cuba in a tournament last month that also served as an Olympic qualifier. Canada didn't make it but will have another chance at a regional qualifier in March. Read more about Aumont here.

Stat(s) of the day

The NHL's active leaders in goals, assists and games played will all be on the ice together tonight. It's the NHL's answer to The Irishman as Alex Ovechkin's Capitals visit Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau's Sharks. Ovechkin (678 goals) needs six more to tie Teemu Selanne for 11th all time. He'll also probably pass Mario Lemieux (690), Steve Yzerman (692) and Mark Messier (694) before the end of this season. Thornton (1,074 assists) needs five more of those to match Adam Oates for seventh all-time. But while Ovechkin looks, incredibly, like he's still in his prime at age 34, Thornton is on his last legs at 40. He has only nine assists and zero goals in 28 games this season. His teammate, Patrick Marleau (fourth all-time with 1,681 games played), is also 40 and near the end of the road. But if he can manage to suit up for 53 of San Jose's remaining 54 games this season, he'll squeak past Jaromir Jagr for third on the all-time list — behind only Gordie Howe and Messier.

That's it. You're up to speed. Want more writing like this sent straight to your inbox? Subscribe to The Buzzer below.