NBA Playoffs 2018: 5 most interesting player matchups
By Nir Regev
5. John Wall, Bradley Beal vs. Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan
“Evenly matched” is the first term that comes to mind when thinking about the backcourts of the Raptors-Wizards series. Lowry will have to continue his strong regular season play and avoid losing confidence in the playoffs. In the last few years, Kyle Lowry has gone through shooting slumps in the postseason, giving the edge to John Wall if the trend continues. Meanwhile, Bradley Beal and DeMar DeRozan have both raised their game significantly.
DeRozan recently commented on ESPN that anything less than a championship is a waste of a year. “It’d be a waste of a year,” he said. “You put in all this work, you want to compete for that championship. Anything less, you go into the summer upset thinking, ‘I got to do this all over again?'”
Despite the backcourt matchup, the Raptors are most likely to take the series if we’re going by regular season records. The Raptors are the No. 1 team in the East this year while the Wizards are No. 8. There’s been surprise upsets before but this matchup doesn’t appear like one of them. However, the Wizards did take two wins from the Raptors earlier this season, so they’ll likely make this a six-game series.
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