SALT LAKE CITY – After playing 13 minutes in what everyone involved hopes will be his last G-League game, Markelle Fultz made his rounds. 

First, the former No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft met with Toronto Raptors director of sports science and performance Alex McKechnie for a post-game debrief. 

The rangy point guard, whose career has been derailed by injuries, then did a brief post-game workout in the hallways of the Delta Center, where Raptors 905 had just defeated the Salt Lake City Stars in an 11 a.m. local start in front of an arena full of very loud school children on Monday.

And then when it all became official, and Fultz was indeed slated to start his latest NBA comeback bid Monday night with the Toronto Raptors, who were also in Salt Lake City for a game against the Utah Jazz, the veteran of eight NBA seasons and 255 games with three different teams took a congratulatory hug from 905 head coach Andrew Jones. He then went with a member of the Raptors' front office for a ride over to the team hotel.

"It's never been an issue of like, I can't play this game,” said Fultz before he made his Raptors debut in what ended up being a comfortable 143-127 win over the very-much-tanking Jazz. “It's just, do what you need to do to get healthy so you can go play the game to the best of your ability … I'm just thankful that I have another opportunity to go do that. 

As expected, the Raptors – even short three starters – were too much for the Jazz, who are pulling out all the stops to make sure they keep their top-eight protected pick in this year's draft. The Raptors scored a team-record-tying 49 points in the third quarter to take a 29-point lead into the fourth quarter. The Raptors recorded a franchise-record 49 assists for the game, 15 of which were from Jamal Shead, a career high for the second-year guard.

The win improved the Raptors' record to 40-31 and kept them a half-game ahead of Atlanta in the race for fifth place in the Eastern Conference. They are 2-2 on their five-game road trip, which concludes against the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday. 

RJ Barrett led the Raptors with 27 points – 18 in the third quarter – and knocked down four of five threes as the team shot 20-of-37 for the game.  

Fultz finished with five assists and two steals in 16 minutes and was one-of-five from the floor.

There were flashes of high-level play. On his first two possessions, he found Collin Murray-Boyles (nine points and five blocked shots in his first game back after missing 12 games with his thumb injury) rolling to the basket for lay-ups.

Murray-Boyles was fouled on the first and converted both free throws, and converted a three-point play on the next chance. He used his six-foot-10 wingspan to good effect on a wraparound pass leading to a triple for Sandro Mamukelashvili, who finished with 23 points and five steals. Fultz had a light touch on the game and looked comfortable playing in the........

© Sportsnet