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TSN Raptors Reporter

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TORONTO - There's more to the evolution of DeMar DeRozan, the Raptors' All-Star guard, than meets the eye.

More than any of the noticeable improvements you will see from him on the floor - his court awareness, ball handling, long-range shooting, passing, defence or leadership qualities - his biggest adjustment has been made between the ears.

It's mental.

"I'm not worried at all," he had said after scoring a season-low of 10 points in Thursday's disappointing loss to the Bulls. He had made just seven of his 32 shots over a two-game span.

"If this was two years ago I'd think it was the end of the world."

Calm, cool and collected, there's no panic left in the 25-year-old. Frustration still rears its ugly head on occasion. As a competitor it's only natural, he's explained. But when it comes to his game, DeRozan is as confident as he's ever been and Saturday's performance reminded us why.

"Like I tell guys all the time, when you win or you play well everybody is hugging you and kissing you and on your shoulders," said Dwane Casey after Toronto's bounce-back 111-93 win over the Jazz. "But when you have a bad game everybody wants to panic."

"I don't know how many times Babe Ruth struck out but I guarantee he struck out more than he hit home runs. And when you're a scorer for a team like DeMar is for us you're going to have nights like that. I don't care how many he misses, he's going to come back and hit those same shots and he showed it tonight. I don't care who we played against tonight I had confidence he was going to come out and have a big night."

DeRozan led the Raptors with 27 points, knocking down 10 of his 17 attempts from the field and seven of eight from the line - all in the second half when Toronto pulled away.

It was a vindicating night for the whole team. Fresh off their second loss of the young season, one that stung more than usual given the quality of opponent, the Raptors were merely treading water in a bizarre first half.

DeRozan, third in the NBA in free throws attempted, had not been to the line. Toronto, second in that same category, had only two shots from the stripe, missing both. Amir Johnson and Terrence Ross were held scoreless, Kyle Lowry was without an assist - the team had just seven dimes - and the Jazz led by three at intermission.

It was not exactly what they had in mind.

"[The Chicago game] took a little juice out of us a little bit," Casey admitted. "Which I've been preaching for it not to but I thought it did. An emotional drain a little bit before bouncing back tonight."

"It was a grind it out game," he continued, speaking about Saturday's win. "I think it's a by-product of having so many home games, every other day, a very stressful game against Chicago. Right, wrong or indifferent, even though it was just one of 82, mentally it would wear on you. Physically also. But I thought we found a way in the second half to win."

With the Jazz running on fumes coming off a similarly exhausting outing the night before - a buzzer-beating win in New York - the Raptors finally looked like themselves, creating opportunities to score off their much improved defensive effort.

Holding Utah to 40 per cent shooting - also missing all six of their three-point attempts after hitting 5-of-10 in the first two quarters - Toronto outscored the visitors 65-44 in the second half.

DeRozan's wide-open, two-handed slam dunk with just over four minutes left in the fourth put them up by 13 points and may have been the dagger, forcing the Jazz to call a timeout.

Offensively, the team's leading scorer was red-hot out of the gate. He had been stymied by bigger defenders and double teams on Tuesday against Orlando, while Bulls' guard Jimmy Butler frustrated him Thursday night. Whether he or his head coach wanted to admit it or not, Saturday's match-up had a lot to do with DeRozan's big night.

The Jazz simply don't have a defender capable of staying in front of the crafty swingman. Alec Burks was the poor soul tasked with the DeRozan assignment for most of the night, to very little success.

"That wasn't one where we circled his name or anything," DeRozan said of the match-up with the younger, smaller Burks. "I was just trying to go out there and be aggressive, not be tentative just because I had tough shooting nights in the last two games."

Big night for Valanciunas

DeRozan wasn't the only Raptor in need of a bounce-back performance.

Jonas Valanciunas had played a total of 11 minutes in the second half of the previous two games, including 11 seconds in those fourth quarters, often sitting in favour of smaller, more versatile bigs down the stretch.

He made Casey's late-game decision a little bit easier with his strong play on Saturday.

"It was a very good game for him to bounce back in and get going," Casey said of the young centre, who recorded his second double-double of the season with 17 points and 14 rebounds in a season-most 34 minutes. It was the first time he's cracked the 30-minute mark in the team's first 10 games.

"He's played against [Enes] Kanter, he's familiar with him. Not only that but I thought he set the tone for us rebounding. I thought that was just as important as the points he scored."

"I've known [Kanter] since we were 16-years-old," said the 22-year-old Valanciunas, having played against the Jazz's centre in Europe before beginning their NBA careers. "So I know what he does and I know how he plays. Maybe it's easier for me to play against him."

Johnson injures ankle

With just over eight minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, James Johnson dove for a loose ball on the baseline, directly underneath the basket. With his eyes fixated on the ball, before an out of bounds call was made, Johnson came down on the foot of a camera operator, turning his right ankle.

Hobbling to the bench during an official's timeout, the Raptors' reserve would stay in the game for about two minutes, attempting to play through the injury before leaving for the locker room.

Although X-rays on his sprained ankle were negative, Johnson was limping badly after the game, needing the help of Valanciunas to get to his locker.

Meanwhile, Raptor players and staff were all annoyed with the camera person's proximity to the court, an ongoing and controversial issue around the league in recent years. Replays show that the operator's legs were extended just past the line marking off the allotted five-foot space they're given on the baseline.

"Move the cameramen back," DeRozan yelled as Johnson was helped from the shower to his locker. "They've taken too many good men."

"It is an issue," he added. "You always hate to see somebody get hurt because of that. With me experiencing guys running on the baseline, the Paul George situation, just everything under there is kind of scary."

It's a bigger issue than simply asking the camera folks to move back. The first three rows behind the basket are VIP seats directly on the surface of the court. With the feet of paying fans sitting in that first row on the hardwood, the camera men and women are often forced to cross over the line they're required to stay behind.

The severity of Johnson's injury is not yet known. He left the arena on crutches and in a walking boot.

"He was going to close [the game] for us," Casey said after the game. Johnson has become an important part of Toronto's 10-man rotation, bringing energy, athleticism and his defensive expertise off the bench.

"We'll see how [it is] the next couple days," he continued. "Good thing about it is we have a few days off before we play Memphis [on Wednesday] to get that ankle back to where it [needs to be]."