TORONTO - DeMar DeRozan rediscovered his offensive form Saturday night, scoring 27 points to lift the Toronto Raptors to a 111-93 victory over the Utah Jazz.
Jonas Valanciunas finished with 17 points and 14 rebounds, while Kyle Lowry had 19 points, as the Raptors (8-2) dismantled the Jazz with a sizzling fourth quarter.
Patrick Patterson chipped in with 16 points for Toronto, while Lou Williams scored 10 of his 13 points in the fourth.
Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter had 18 points apiece to top Utah (4-7).
DeRozan was coming off two uncharacteristically low-scoring games -- the Raptors all-star shot 4-for-15 for 16 points against Washington, then a woeful 3-for-17 for a season-low 10 points against Chicago on Thursday.
But he was back in form against the Jazz, shooting 10 for 17 from the floor on an array of jumpers and dunks.
Neither team led by more than seven points through three quarters that saw the lead change hands 16 times in front of a capacity crowd of 19,800 at the Air Canada Centre.
Toronto has made a habit of strong fourth quarters, and Saturday was more of the same. Williams scored on a pretty 19-foot turnaround jumper that put the Raptors up by nine with just over five minutes to play.
And when Lowry found a sprinting DeRozan, who finished with a massive running slam dunk, it gave Toronto a 13-point cushion with 4:24 to play and brought the fans out of their seats.
The Raptors showed no mercy, as Lowry drained a three to put the home team up by 16 as they cruised to victory.
James Johnson left the game in the fourth quarter with a sprained right ankle -- it appeared, on T.V. replays, like he'd rolled it when he stepped on a cameraman's foot.
The Raptors went into the game even with Chicago atop the Eastern Conference, but it was the Bulls that snapped Toronto's five-game winning streak on Thursday, in an ugly 100-93 decision that Valanciunas had called "a cold shower."
Raptors coach Dwane Casey said Saturday was important -- a chance to bounce back from that loss.
"We have no reason at all to think that we can overlook anybody or downplay any game because we haven't arrived at that level yet and I'll debate that with anyone," Casey said. "We're still clawing and scratching trying to get to the level where Chicago and San Antonio is right now.
"We're not where everyone is hyping us up to be, we still have a ways to go. We still have a lot to learn, a lot to get through, to fight through to play at that elite level night in, night out."
The Jazz was playing the second of back-to-back games, having edged New York 102-100 the night before.
DeRozan scored 10 points in the first quarter, and his jumper a couple minutes into the game gave the Raptors a six-point lead. The Jazz went on an 18-8 run to go up by four, and a three-pointer by Burks at the buzzer sent Utah into second with a 25-23 lead.
Kanter led the way with eight points in the second, including a 20-foot jumper that gave the Jazz a seven-point lead -- their biggest at that point. A late spurt by Toronto pulled the Raptors to within 49-46 at halftime.
DeRozan had 11 points in the third but it was Terrence Ross's spectacular alley-oop dunk from Lowry -- Ross had to reach behind his head to catch the ball -- that was the highlight of the quarter, and put Toronto up by seven.
The Raptors host Memphis on Wednesday then cap their homestand against Milwaukee on Friday.
