Round One: Jonas Valanciunas vs. Marcin Gortat
Valanciunas is by far the more explosive player, with the ability to get the ball in the hoop in a myriad of ways. He can blow by defenders for dunks, use nifty post moves with his back to the hoop, or face-up for jumpers from close-range. JV is getting better defensively, earning just over a block each game and showing strength in the post. Plus, with his speed, Gortat won’t be able to get past him easily. In the conflict of youth vs. experience, Valanciunas may have the edge over Gortat. He should be able to contain Gortat on defence and score around him with creative moves around the hoop. This being JV’s second appearance in the playoffs, he should be far more composed and prepared to compete under the brightest lights. Expect big things.
DeRozan and Westbrook named Kia Players of the Month | NBA.com
DeRozan averaged an East-best 24.1 points per game for the month and added 4.9 assists and 3.7 rebounds. He shot 49.2 percent from the field, including a 14-of-25 performance during a 38-point effort in a 117-116 overtime loss to the Boston Celtics on April 4. DeRozan led the East with 49 free throw attempts — he made 85.7 percent (42-of-49) — despite missing one of the Raptors’ eight games. Toronto went 5-2 with DeRozan, who capped the regular season on April 15 against the Charlotte Hornets by contributing 16 points, six assists and four rebounds in a 92-87 win that gave the Raptors a franchise-best 49 victories.
Five things to watch for as Raptors take on Wizards in NBA playoffs | Globalnews.ca
YOUNG GUNS – It was a tale of two playoffs for youngsters Terrence Ross and Jonas Valanciunas last year. Valanciunas was solid in his first post-season experience, while Ross, one of the Raptors’ most lethal scoring threats in the regular-season, wilted under the spotlight. Ross started every game, but averaged just 5.0 points. The Raptors have to hope a year under their belts will have both at their best against Washington.
Morning tip: This is how Wizards can beat Raptors | Comcast SportsNet Washington
Ball pressure from Wall. When the Wizards are at their best, he is able to extend the defense and disrupt the flow of the opposing offense. In other words, Kyle Lowry will be getting Toronto into its sets late which decreases the amount of time in the 24-second shot clock to move the ball. Provided the other four players on the court follow suit, and they usually do when Wall takes this posture, that crowds the passing lanes. This will reduce the touches for DeMar DeRozan, help Bradley Beal who’ll be defending the prolific scorer and bring the Raptors down from their 106 points per game average.
YouTube celebrity’s ode to Toronto goes viral
Scarborough-born YouTube celebrity IISuperwomanII (I’m 100% sure you’re a celebrity once you have 5,542,692 subscribers) a.k.a. Lilly Singh released a new video on April 16th – 4.16 – that pays tribute to Toronto in a huge way, from the standard skyline shots, Yonge-Dundas Square appearances, and TTC-subway-car-party scenes to an on-court Toronto Raptors homage. Singh and Toronto YouTube personality Humble the Poet’s “#IVIVI” (416) is an ode to Toronto’s diversity and includes shout-outs to Scarborough, North York and more. It amassed about 300k views in its first twelve hours online, making it one effective postcard.
Bradley Beal ‘anxious’ about silencing Raptors | Comcast SportsNet Washington
“I feel more confident. I feel ready to go, probably a little bit more anxious than I was last year,” said Beal, who has displayed a more aggressive streak offensively for the Wizards to end the season. “I’m excited. “It’s a big year for us. I can feel it. I think we’re going to be pretty good.”
PBT First-Round Playoff Previews: Toronto Raptors vs. Washington Wizards | ProBasketballTalk
THREE KEYS TO THE SERIES Does offense win, or does defense: The Wizards struggle to score at times, and the Raptors can’t stop anybody. John Wall was second in the league in assists behind only Chris Paul, so he knows how to distribute when the defense takes the ball out of his hands. It’s unclear if Toronto will be able to slow Wall or Bradley Beal, but if the Wizards backcourt runs wild on the suspect defense of the Raptors, home court advantage could disappear in one of the first two games of the series. Paul Pierce: After averaging just 5.6 points on 32 percent shooting over his last 10 games of the regular season (via NBA.com’s John Schuhmann), it’s worth wondering why Pierce is running his mouth. “We haven’t done particularly well against Toronto, but I don’t feel they have the ‘It’ that makes you worried,” he said, which caused DeMar DeRozan to fire back before the playoff matchups were finalized.
Toronto paper pokes fun at Raptors nemesis Pierce – Sportsnet.ca
Few players draw the ire of Toronto Raptors fans like Washington Wizards forward Paul Pierce does. As the regular season was winding down, Pierce revealed in an interview with ESPN that he does not fear the Raptors because they simply don’t have “It.” DeMar DeRozan, Masai Ujiri and Dwane Casey have already addressed Pierce’s comments, but the Toronto Sun decided to get in on the action, making the 37-year-old the target of Saturday’s sports section cover.
Raptors playoff history scarred by silly endings: Arthur
Twenty years in, and the Raptors and the playoffs still haven’t mixed. As Toronto prepares to play the Washington Wizards in the first round of the playoffs, it would be easy to default towards worry, to dread. The Raptors have never won a best-of-seven playoff series. The losses have been strange, weird, sometimes humiliations. Often the franchise has changed as a result. This town hasn’t seen much, but it’s seen some things. They got swept by the Knicks in a best-of-five in 2000, before Tracy McGrady left. They beat a sad Knicks team in a best-of-five in 2001, the year Patrick Ewing got traded and Jeff Van Gundy got fired, then Vince Carter missed the shot against Philadelphia in Game 7 — the Vince Carter Graduation Game, of course. That’s the sainted game, the great and one of two great single what-ifs. It’s on YouTube, even though YouTube hadn’t been invented yet.
Bucks center Zaza Pachulia learned to value the playoffs
Pachulia said the veterans have been trying to prepare the Bucks’ young players — including playoff first-timers Khris Middleton, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Michael Carter-Williams — for the intense atmosphere of the postseason. “We’ve been talking to them the last couple days,” Pachulia said. “You definitely don’t want it to be a surprise. We all went through this situation. Hopefully it’s going to take a couple minutes and it will be back to normal, back to playing playoff basketball. “They are really coachable. You can tell the stories as much as you want but once you witness it yourself, it’s totally different. It’s something you’ll never forget.” Pachulia was not expected to be the Bucks’ starting center this season, but Larry Sanders left the team to seek treatment for anxiety and depression and eventually had his contract bought out by the team after serving a league drug suspension.
Five must-do’s for Raptors, Wizards | Raptors | Sports | Toronto Sun
At least on paper, the Raptors and Wizards are evenly matched, two teams that rely on their backcourt to initiate most of their offence, but if there’s one obvious advantage it involves Washington’s ability to defend. So much can change in-game and in-between games, whether it’s injuries or foul trouble, but here’s a look what each team must do to win this best-of-seven series, which tips off Saturday afternoon at the ACC.
Wizards vs. Raptors Game 1 preview: Wizards try to set the pace in Toronto – Bullets Forever
1. Will Bradley Beal show off a new wrinkle in his game? After a year where some felt his game had plateaued, Bradley Beal showed he could reach a higher gear in last year’s playoffs. In Game 1 against the Bulls last season, Beal had a disastrous shooting night (3-11 from the field) but overcame it with some of the best facilitating of his career, getting 7 assists and earning 7 free throws against the Bulls’ stingy defense. In the games that followed, the shooting came along and we saw Bradley Beal take a big step in his development in the playoffs against the Bulls and Pacers.
DeMar DeRozan’s journey to become face of Raptors franchise | Toronto Star
“Honestly, I think just how I grew up. I didn’t have what all other kids had,” DeRozan said. “I remember having two pair of shoes for a whole year, a basketball shoe and a school shoe. “Something like that, growing up as a kid, you remember things like that so whenever you’re in a position to have to work for something, you want to strive to make it better.”
Double Dribble: What if Raptors lose? – Article – TSN
Will Another First-Round Exit Serve As A Referendum On The Futures Of Coach Dwane Casey, Jonas Valanciunas and Terrence Ross In Toronto? Watson: The Raptors will not lose their first-round matchup. Strickland: Yes and no. While a new franchise record for wins has been eclipsed in consecutive years, yielding All-Star appearances for current team cornerstones Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, expectations, realistic or otherwise, have been raised for this squad, despite an uneven showing thus far in the 2014-15 campaign. This team, as currently composed, has hit its ceiling, so it will be of great interest to many what GM Masai Ujiri does with his cap space this summer. This season’s playoff performances of the former Sprite Slam Dunk champ TRoss and Jonas Christ Superstar will be under the microscope as well. But expect all three back next season for one final shot at growing this team and its league profile under Casey.
Which Raptors team will we see in the playoffs? – Article – TSN
How will that dynamic play-out over a seven game series? How finely tuned is Kyle Lowry? Will we finally get to see Lowry and DeMar DeRozan both performing at the top of their respective games as they did back in the early stages of the season? Is it possible this season can be considered anything but a failure unless Toronto secures its first-ever 7-game series win? Can a team that has struggled so badly to play good defence flick the switch when the style of game gets much tougher and more physical?
Raptor fans ready to bring Jurassic Park to life once again: Mudhar | Toronto Star
The plaudits came league-wide, with tweets from legends like Magic Johnson. Turner NBA analyst Charles Barkley has been effusive in his cheerleading for Toronto, both as a team and city. The other amazing thing is the feedback loop created between the fans and that team, as prior to Game 4 in Brooklyn, Devlin says coach Dwane Casey had images from the square sent into the Raptor locker room. “It really galvanized the team. It’s pouring rain and here are all the fans,” he says. “For the players, it really says you’re not just playing for yourselves, you’re not playing for a city, you are playing for a country. And I think it resonates not only with them, but everybody watching.”
NBA scout gives Raptors advantage in NBA playoff series against Wizards | Toronto Star
“I really feel like this is a series that Toronto should win. If they don’t win, this will be a very big disappointment . . . I think they’re just a better team but I’m not saying for sure they will. “The key for Washington, to me, is Bradley Beal. If he can stay healthy and he has games that he’s capable of — I think he’s a really good basketball player — he’s going to make the series interesting. Part of their struggles in the second half of the year is because Beal was nicked up with injuries, that’s kind of limited him.
