“I definitely do, I feel like that”, Wall said when asked if he feels he can take over a playoff game at any point after the Wizards’ shootaround today. Once again, John Wall and Bradley Beal were terrific.
Advertisement
Having trailed by as many as 12 points and down five going into the fourth, the Raptors outscored the Wizards 29-14 in the final quarter to secure the win.
So playoff road win No. 6 of the DeRozan-Lowry era – let’s call it a sunny-day milestone to be remembered. Toronto dominated the paint, winning the battle down low 56-32. He looked exhausted during a fourth quarter in which the rest of Wizards’ offense scored only 14 points.
Washington maintained a steady lead the majority of the game, entering the fourth quarter with a 78-73 lead.
The two teams were close until the final two minutes, and the crowd swelled in volume with every Washington bucket until the Raps put the game out of reach.
Raptors: After averaging 18.5 turnovers in Games 3 and 4 at Washington, Toronto had only seven in Game 6.
“It’s nothing different than we’ve done, we were just adding Freddie to the group”, Casey said after the win. He didn’t shoot the ball well, but he makes big shots. They’ve been good to us all year. He is averaging 38.8 minutes and has played 43 and 44 minutes each in the last two games.
“We gave them the trust, we trusted them even if they had an off night”, DeRozan said. Casey spent a good chunk of his off-season developing his bench to help alleviate that, and the second unit’s strong play is a big reason the Raptors won a franchise-high 59 games in the regular-season, and has Casey the favourite to win coach of the year. On Friday, as Lowry led the team with 24 points and DeRozan struggled through a sub-par shooting night that saw him require 17 shots to get his 16 points, a collective of peripheral Raptors played awfully well in the unfriendly confines of the Wizards’ home court.
The Washington Wizards aren’t going down without a fight. Wall (27 years old), Beal (24), and Porter (24) are still a young core, and it will be interesting to see how the offseason is approached.
DeRozan: “He said both of us”. John [Wall] missed half the season. Despite being the No. 1 seed, the Raptors are trying to squash any notion that the team is unable to make a deep playoff run. It’s what you play for.
Then it was time for the bench to take over.
Advertisement
The Wizards forward slid in a barb after Wednesday’s 108-98 Game 5 loss in Toronto. Satoransky never really had a chance to get involved, playing just 60 minutes in the series.
