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TSN Raptors Reporter

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TORONTO - "I don't believe in luck," DeMar DeRozan told reporters after practice on Thursday, speaking in the context of his team's quick start to the campaign.

He was dealt an unfortunate hand just over 24 hours later.

Nearly four minutes into the second half of Friday night's tilt with Dallas, the Raptors' All-Star guard drove to his right, something he does routinely every game. As he went to plant his foot, he slipped and crumpled to the floor, where he remained for over a minute.

The entire team stood around DeRozan, who winced in pain, until he was eventually helped up and to the locker room.

Despite a late-game rally, the Raptors could not get over the hump, falling 106-102, their first loss in seven games, but the more pressing concern was the status of their leading scorer.

"Just hopefully he's okay," Patrick Patterson said of DeRozan, who did not return after sustaining a strained left groin. "Hopefully it's nothing serious, hopefully he's able to turn around and bounce back." 

DeRozan was having a rough night before the injury bug bit. After a hard fall early in the game, he came up holding his right wrist. In 21 minutes of action, he was held scoreless, missing all eight of his shots without getting to the free throw line.

He was not the only Raptor stymied by the Mavericks' tenacious defence, especially early in the game. Jonas Valanciunas was also held without a point in the first half before bouncing back in the second half, as the Raptors shot just 42 per cent as a team and committed an uncharacteristic 17 turnovers on the evening.

Kyle Lowry was forced to sit out with three fouls for a significant chunk of the first half, while the team played with DeRozan for most of the second. Still, they continued to fight and would cut their deficit - once as high as 15 - down to three a number of times late in the fourth quarter.

With 25 points - 13 in the fourth - Lowry led the charge and Amir Johnson, scoring a season-high 20, assisted with his best outing of the season.

“I really loved our fight in the fourth quarter, the way we ended the game and kept scrapping,” Dwane Casey said. “I told the guys this a few minutes ago: If we continue to compete like that at a high level, we’re going to win a lot of games. That’s a good team. They’re not chopped liver at all. They’re going to be in the deep money in the West when it’s all over with."

"We ended up losing," said Greivis Vasquez, who scored nine of his 14 in the final frame. "I think you have got to give them credit. They played a great game. They shot the lights out. Our best player went down, but we still kept the game close. It was one of those games where you just have to move on and understand what we’re getting into, a west coast trip." 

"We have just got to continue to grind. It’s not the end of the world. We lost a game. So what? On to the next one. We get better. We have to defend better. We have to rebound better. We have to play transition defence better. We have to do a lot of different things better. But we’re still, what, 13-3? That’s a pretty good record to me."

Now, the focus shifts to DeRozan's health. The team did not have an update on the guard, who's missed just 11 games over his six-year career, but hope to know more about his status on Saturday.

"I mean it is what it is," said Lowry. "We know he's going to be fine. We know he's going to take care of his body and we'll see what's going on. We've got to play. Next man up. It's a team, not about one guy. If anybody goes down the next man has to step up."

"It's early and hopefully he takes all the time that's needed for him to 100 per cent heal and get back," Patterson added. "We want him back as soon as possible but it's all about him recovering and being 100 per cent before he does that."

Rose returns, rips old regime

An elite quote throughout his playing career, Jalen Rose's brief Raptors tenure will be remembered just as much for his honest quips, however brutal, as anything he did on the court.

Fittingly, the 13-year NBA vet turned ABC and ESPN analyst was in fine form when he held court ahead of Friday's game, on a night in which he was honored by the Raptors as part of their continued 20th anniversary celebrations.

Rose, who received a warm welcome from fans after a video tribute in the first quarter, threw a couple of jabs at former general manager Rob Babcock and the front office regime that engineered the trade of Vince Carter, a deal Rose was critical of at the time.

Carter, Rose's teammate in Toronto before he was dealt to the Nets nearly 10 years ago, was honoured in similar fashion earlier this month, getting noticeably emotional when he was greeted with cheers for the first time since his exit.

"Well, the way [Carter] was overcome by emotion and the way he shed a couple of tears, that's how I felt when we traded him for Aaron and Eric [Williams] and Alonzo Mourning who never was deciding to make the trip," Rose joked. "He's the greatest Raptor in team history." 

"As a player who has been traded before I know that when things get out to the public, like where your mom is parking, that means somebody in the front office is clearly leaking information to try to make you look bad and make the transition easier when you move a great player like him."

The 41-year-old Rose wasn't surprised to see fans in Toronto finally embrace Carter, even speculating that the former face of the franchise would choose to go into the Hall of Fame - when and if he gets in - as a Raptor. Throughout his time in Toronto and in the years to follow, Rose said he would always boast about the team's fan base, hoping to change the perception that players don't want to move to Canada.

"It existed but we took pride to try to change it," said Rose, who averaged 16.2 points in 117 games over three seasons with the Raptors. "Drafting Rafael Araujo didn't help. We needed a couple a players that could contribute, so it starts with the moves the teams make. We weren't really adding to that team like I felt like we could. What did we trade Vince for? When that ends up happening, it's hard to truly have success."