The Toronto Raptors haven't.
Kyle Lowry had 29 points and eight assists, DeRozan scored 24 points and the Raptors ended the Memphis Grizzlies' six-game road winning streak with a 120-105 victory.
DeRozan was held under 30 points for the sixth consecutive game after averaging 33 points in his first 12 contests. He was ably backed up by Lowry, though, helping the Raptors beat the Grizzlies for the third straight matchup and sixth time in their last seven meetings.
"It was just a period of time where we were reliant on him big time and now we're trying to take a little bit of the load off of him," Lowry said.
The Raptors seized control midway through the fourth quarter on back-to-back 3-pointers from Patrick Patterson and Cory Joseph over a 1:01 span for a seven-point lead. A trio of free throws by Lowry quickly pushed that advantage up to eight, and a DeMarre Carroll's 3-pointer with 4:10 remaining made it a 12-point edge. The Raptors led by double digits the rest of the way, with Joseph finishing with a season-high 16 points off the bench and Patterson recording his 14th career double-double on 14 points and 13 rebounds.
Up until that point it had been anyone's game. The short-handed Grizzlies, without six of their regular players because of injury and other reasons, had to get by with what coach David Fizdale called their "Nasty Nine" healthy players.
"When you play a team like that, with a lot of young guys playing out of position, they're going to play extremely hard and there's going to be a lot of things that you're not used to seeing or that you're not expecting," said DeRozan, who had five turnovers in the first quarter.
The Raptors committed a season-high 20 turnovers in the game, but also made a season-high 16 3-pointers.
Fizdale praised his team's gutsy effort, with Andrew Harrison leading the way with a career-high 21 points. Memphis could have tied the franchise record of seven consecutive road wins, set in the 2009-10 season, with a victory.
"The effort was fantastic. I just thought we had a bad stretch where we got careless with the ball, starting turning the ball over," Fizdale said of the Raptors' 16-5 run which took the game away from Memphis.
Harrison echoed his coach's thoughts and bemoaned the loss of Mike Conley, the team's star guard who was ruled out for at least six weeks Tuesday with fractured vertebrae in his lower back. Conley was injured during Monday's loss to Charlotte.
"I know we were short-handed, but we have a bunch of guys on the team and we all believe that we could win this game," he said. "Losing Mike was big, he's an MVP candidate in my eyes, but we know what we have to do, we have to bring it every night."
TIP INS
Grizzlies: G Chandler Parsons (left knee), F Brandan Wright (left ankle), F Vince Carter (right hip), F James Ennis III (right calf) and F Zach Randolph (personal) missed the game. ... Carter, the former Raptor, received one of the loudest cheers of the night when he was shown on the video board in the second quarter.
Raptors: Toronto finished the first month of the season with a winning record (11-7) and 10-plus wins for the third consecutive season. ... The biggest cheer of the night came late in the fourth quarter when the big screen revealed that Major League Soccer team Toronto FC had beaten Canadian rival Montreal Impact 5-2 on the night and 7-5 on aggregate to advance to their first MLS Cup final.
CENTURY MARK
Wednesday's game was Toronto's 100th straight sellout in the regular season and playoffs at the Air Canada Centre, the longest streak in franchise history.
DOWN BUT NOT OUT
Despite his team's lengthy injury list, Fizdale refused to dwell on the situation.
"I don't look at it like that. I see nothing but opportunity and I preach that to our guys. We don't feel sorry for ourselves. Next man up and trust that next guy to do his job well enough to win on the road."
ACES HIGH
The world's No. 3 men's tennis player, Canadian Milos Raonic, sat courtside. He signed a number of balls and sat back as the team mascot, the Raptor, shot them high into the stands with a tennis racquet.
UP NEXT
Grizzlies: Aim for a ninth straight home victory against Orlando on Thursday night.
Raptors: Continue six-game homestand on Friday night seeking fourth straight victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.
Check out the team sites for the Memphis Grizzlies and the Toronto Raptors for more game coverage.
Grizzlies
Raptors
+/- denotes team's net points while the player is on the court
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