It’s weird to think about the Raptors having a rivalry, and even weirder to think about not being the underdog in a rivalry scenario, but that is what the Washington Wizards have felt like for the last few seasons.
Both teams are built around their talented backcourts, have much maligned coaches leading the way, entered the season competing for respect in the second tier of the Eastern Conference, and played an embarrassing (or brilliant…depending on which team’s perspective you use) playoff series last year. Sure, it’s not a glamorous rivalry, but a mid-January game that includes one sub .500 team certainly feels important for both franchises.
While Toronto attempts to tie a franchise record with a ninth consecutive win, Washington is still trying to claw their way into the playoff picture. Currently sitting at 11th in the conference and 2 games behind Indiana for the eight seed, every game matters a little bit more for the Wizards at the moment. After all, few would have believed before the season started that the Wizards would trail the Raptors by 8 games at any point in the year.
As well as Toronto has played though (and when was the last time that Raptors basketball was this much fun?), Washington has been equally inconsistent, seemingly alternating wins and losses in equal parts. Going on a three game winning streak in November, just to follow it up with a four game losing streak to end the month. Seemingly righting the ship with a four game winning around Christmas, follow it by losing five of their next six games.
Now with a record of 20-22, and playing in a conference that shockingly looks to require a better than .500 record (who saw that one coming??), the Wizards are closer to a bottom five record in the league than they are to the top of the Eastern Conference. This from a group that was once considered to likely be the second best team in the East.
Meanwhile, Toronto has won eight in a row and are trying to establish themselves as a legitimate threat to the Cavs for the best record in the conference.
Despite the memories of their four game collapse against the Wizards last spring, the Raptors are looking to sweep the season series tonight after winning the first three head-to-head games this season. The Raptors escaped with an 84-82 on November 28, were led to a 94-91 victory on December 30 by DeRozan’s 34 points, and handily beat Washington 97-88 on December 30 (with DeRozan scoring another 35 points).
Everything seems to indicate a Toronto win tonight…which is the exact type of game that I always get nervous about. It feels foreign to be the favored team and to expect good things to happen, but here we are and I am hoping the good times continue tonight. So how do the Raptors keep the good times rolling tonight?
Keys to the Game:
1) Win the Three Point Battle
I honestly feel stupid writing that as a key. It feels like I’m saying “score more points”, which should be common sense, but both teams have struggled defending the perimeter. On the season the Wizards are allowing a league worst 38.2 percent on three point shots, with Toronto slightly behind them at 37.4 percent (fourth worst).
And both teams are also strong shooting teams, with Toronto shooting 36.4 percent from three as a team (fifth best in the league), with Washington shooting a slightly better 36.8 percent (fourth best in league). Both teams have been even hotter from three point range since the start of January, with Toronto shooting 41.2 percent (Hello Pat and TJ!!) and Washington 36.9 percent from deep.
So there’s my first stupid sounding key to the game…
2) Rebounds
Man…another overly simplistic one. So I’ll keep this one short. Washington is grabbing a league worst 40.1 rebounds per game this season, and have only hauled in 38.6 rebounds per game in the month of January. Simply put, although Toronto doesn’t excel at rebounding,
Let’s do one more stupid key to the game…
3) Stop John Wall!
I did it! Three obvious keys to the game. Did you know that John Wall is really good at basketball? Much like Lowry is the engine that drives the Raptors, Wall is the same for the Wizards…except maybe even more important as the majority of the roster has struggled this season. He is currently averaging 19.6 points, 9.7 assists, 4.2 rebounds, and 2.1 steals, all while having a 51.4 true shooting percentage.
His personal numbers are even better when playing on no days rest, as he will be tonight as the Wizards played the Celtics last night. When playing in the second game of a back-to-back (9 times this season so far) Wall is averaging 24.7 points, 9.2 assists, 4.2 rebounds, and 3.0 steals, with a 56.8 true shooting percentage.
So…those are my three common sense keys to the game. With all that said, I’m expecting a relatively easy Raptors win tonight. Let’s go with a 105-93 victory for our Raptors…and now that I’ve said that we can go back to expecting the worst.
