"In a season where the losses are coming fast and furious, there are moments a Raptors' fan has to latch on to and savour like it's the last piece of Halloween candy left in the bag.

DeMar DeRozan's third quarter was one of those.

DeRozan didn't do it on his own — few ever do in a team game — but the third quarter for DeRozan was exactly what has been missing from his game for too much of the season.

In the end, it didn't alter the result — a 94-84 Portland Trail Blazers win to stretch the Raptors losing streak to seven games — but it did salvage what was looking even too one-sided for the most forgiving of Raptors fans in this season of development.

DeRozan came out of the locker room following a four-point first half attacking the rim like he has seldom done in his young career.

His first touch of the half he went right at LaMarcus Aldridge — a guy who had already done a game's worth of work in the first half with 23 points and 11 rebounds and wound up with an astounding 33 points and 23 rebounds — and was rewarded with his first trip to the free throw line.

By the end of the third, DeRozan was 6-for-6 from the line and his four-point first half effort was at 18 heading into the fourth. He finished the night with 22.

Riding DeRozan's aggressiveness that was matched by the kind of defence that coach Dwane Casey has been preaching since he got here, the Raps got within five points of the Blazers before the visitors turned it on and got it back up to double digits."