DeMar DeRozan returns to Toronto as the elder of a Bulls team that beat the Raptors

He landed Scottie Barnes with a fake bomb that turned into a three-point play in an NBA welcome moment for the Raptors rookie, and then had Svi Mykhailiuk bite the same move that ended with a pair of free throws. . spear.

He knocked down a couple of three-point jump shots just to laugh and Euro took a step toward another basket or two.

As the match approached in the final four minutes, he made a mid-range jump shot and a mid-baseline drift, reminiscent of so many shots over so many years.

Oh, and he forced Fred VanVleet to foul a post in the fourth quarter and VanVleet received a technical foul. Which must have been sweet because, early Monday, VanVleet had joked with his friend: “He’s always under control, unless he’s having a meltdown with the umpires.”

DeMar DeRozan’s second game in Toronto after their 2018 trade certainly didn’t have the excitement that the first did, but it did show that the game that grew so wonderfully throughout the Raptors’ nine seasons is not slowing down.

He finished with 26 points and the Bulls won their fourth straight game, 111-108 over a Raptors team that was listless for much of the night.

“He’s always working on his game, adding new things,” VanVleet said of the iconic Raptor. “He didn’t shoot all three, then he shot all three, then he walked away from all three. I saw him improve as a playmaker. He’s a gym rat. “

One that is aging gracefully.

DeRozan is the oldest player on an emerging Bulls team, a key off-season acquisition not only for his playing skills but also for his veteran presence. The 32-year-old often played an older man’s game: footwork and cunning, a deadly mid-range game everyone knows he has, but teams still can’t consistently stop. But actually be the old man? It takes some getting used to.

“I try to keep up with them more than anything,” he joked after morning practice.

But DeRozan is much more than a stable horse for a Bulls team that won its first three games of the season.

Sure, he’s played more games (885) than anyone on the team. His 12 years of service, in Toronto and San Antonio, are also the longest – the closest being center Nikola Vucevic with 10 – and his nearly 18,000 points easily outstrip any teammate.

He still has some game to play, he’s still one of the best mid-range shooters in the league, and he can drop 40 points at any time, and his style suits the Bulls perfectly.

“His game never accelerates,” VanVleet said. “He can get an injection whenever he wants and he has really grown as a facilitator in recent years.

“He’s one of the best in the league for being one of those primary guys and for being able to create shots for himself and everyone else.”

DeRozan saw a big adjustment with the Bulls when he entered free agency last summer, the first time he had a chance to switch franchises, as he would never leave the Raptors of his own free will.

It’s a good young team that has just learned to fit in with DeRozan and Lonzo Ball coupled with a core of Vucevic and Zach LaVine.

“I think he’s become a better creator, not just for himself but for others,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said. “He has really become a good passer. He also plays with good speed. I think it gets really downhill maybe more than I remember when we first had it.

“He settled in and worked the places, and he tricked you and shot the glitch and all that stuff, but now he’s going downhill pretty fast and he creates a lot for his teammates as well.”

That’s the knowledge, the experience that counts most for a Chicago franchise that missed the playoffs in five of the last six seasons.

“It’s just me using my experience more than anything, just me understanding what it takes to win,” DeRozan said. “I’ve been in the league for a long time and I’ve seen a lot of things that a lot of these guys haven’t seen, understanding how to win games and close games. That’s my role, and just to help them understand it. “

The funny thing is that DeRozan has already been a leader without fully acknowledging it or without having years of experience behind him. In his nine seasons with the Raptors, he helped groom a group of young men, some of whom are the backbone of this team.

“He’s a gym rat, he works on his game, he works on his body,” VanVleet said. “It helped shape my career and what my work ethic and routine was going to be. I get a lot out of my exercise routine from what I saw DeMar do. I took a lot of things from Kyle (Lowry) along the way. I’m lucky to have played with guys like that.

“The two dynamics of learning from me and Kyle, he got the ultimate cheat code because you have two different types of human beings when it comes to leadership,” DeRozan said of VanVleet. “You can see it, watching it play. The poise with which he plays, the leadership with which he behaves, is contagious.

“Fred is a great individual, one of those guys who sits, watches, learns and listens. It made it easy for me to be a leader for him. “