Watching the Raptors play basketball down the stretch of close games is kind of like watching a Rocky movie. Last night, Toronto extended their win streak to three games going into the all-star break with a gritty back-and-forth 95-93 victory over the Wizards.
The Raptors used free throws to overcome a dominating display in the paint from Washington to take a 27-25 point lead after the first quarter. The Raps were outscored 22-6 in the paint in the quarter (Wall was 4-4 at the rim) but held on to the lead by hitting 8 of 9 free throws. Lou Williams made an immediate impact, scoring eight points in the period. Both teams were pretty sluggish in the opening stanza, committing 11 turnovers collectively.
Toronto built a 36-27 lead by hitting three consecutive threes to open the second quarter and then basically went ice cold thereafter. Despite the fact that the Raptors only shot 29 percent in quarter, it wasn’t actually one of those stretches of stale iso-ball that makes you want to rip your eyes out. The Raptors moved the ball and created a number of open shots for themselves, they just didn’t hit them. They also stopped the bleeding in the paint on the other end (minus two for the quarter) and only committed one turnover. It was generally a small ball quarter all around, Jonas didn’t play at all and Gortat and Nene logged three minutes between them.
It looked like Washington might run away with things as the Wizards, who shot a blazing 63 percent on the quarter, built a 73-63 lead with 3:18 to play in the third. The Raptors, however, had other plans. Following timeout with 2:53 to play, the Raptors bench led a ballsy defensive stand to bring the Raptors back within one on a 12-3 run to close the quarter. Lou Williams made two huge steals during the run and Patrick Patterson blocked the shit out of Marcin Gortat as he massively fouled DeRozan attempted to put back an offensive rebound.
Vasquez, who otherwise had a pretty quiet game, scored five points during the run.
If the Raptors were nervous about the fact that they blew an 18-point fourth quarter lead last time these teams met, it didn’t show. Toronto carried their stout defensive play into the fourth, holding the Wizards to 31 percent shooting for the quarter, as the two teams slugged it out down to the final possession. Lou Williams hit two big treys down the stretch to put the Raptors up three before John Wall hit a three of his own to tie the game at 93 with 2:10 to play. Both teams missed their next three shots and the Raptors gained possession with 35 seconds to play after Patrick Patterson pulled down a big-time rebound over Drew Gooden.
While the Raptors bench brought them back into the game, their all-stars took them home. On their final offensive possession the Raptors ran an isolation which saw DeRozan matched up against Paul Pierce. After two dribbles and a momentary fumble, DeRozan pulled up and drained a jumper over Pierce from the right elbow to put the Raptors up two with 12.9 seconds to play.
After the big jumper from DeRozan, the Raptors had to make one last defensive stand, which they did in resounding fashion. First, John Wall tried to take it to the basket with eight seconds to play but Kyle “Mutumbo” Lowry stayed with him and came up with a huge block at the rim sending the ball out of bounds.
During a Wizards’ timeout Dwane Casey brought Jonas into the game for the final possession with 8.5 seconds to play. It turned out to be a good decision as the Wizards ran a screen for Wall at the top of the arc which took Lowry out of the play and left Wall to shoot and miss a last-second three over Valanciunas’s outstretched arms.
Final thoughts
- There’s no stat to measure intestinal fortitude but if there was the Raptors would rank near the top of the league. Hell of an effort down the stretch and a great way to go into the All-Star break.
- Best record going into the break in franchise history.
- Lou Williams was not only a savior offensively; he also made a major impact on the defensive end. A really tenacious effort.
- Speaking of defense, Patrick Patterson was downright awesome in the second half. Don’t let his stat line fool you. According to Player Tracking, Wizard players shot 2 of 7 at the rim when defended by 2Pat.
- Kudos to Kyle Lowry who not only made the huge block with the game on the line, he also racked up an impressive number of floor burns in the fourth.
- While it was another bad shooting night for DeMar, according to Player Tracking only 9 of his 18 attempts were “contested.” On a different night a lot of those misses would have fallen.
- The Raptors won the free throw battle big time, going 22 of 26 from the line (Wizards 10-16). Lou and DeMar went a combined 17 of 17 and, interestingly enough, Amir, Lou and DeMar took 24 of the Raptors 26 FTAs.
- The Raptors have now swept the Nuggets, Clippers, Kings, Jazz and Wizards on the season.
