Wizards push Raptors toward extinction with Game 4 win: 3 takeaways

The Wizards used an explosive second-half scoring performance to even their first-round series with the Raptors.

That playoff monkey has gotten himself right back onto the backs of the Raptors. After cruising through the regular season to the No. 1 seed, and running through the Wizards in the first two games of their first-round series, it looked like Toronto was finally ready to scrape their ceiling. A loss in Game 3 and giving away a big lead in Game 4 is only going to bring back the pressure.

Toronto carried an 11-point into halftime of Game 4, just 24 minutes from a commanding 3-1 series lead. Then Washington flipped the script and hung 66 on them in the second to pull out the win. John Wall and Bradley Beal were, once again, terrific. Combining for 58 points on 43 shots, along with 14 big assists from Wall. Otto Porter also chipped in 11 second-half points on a perfect 4-of-4 from the field.

This series has just gotten a lot more interesting.

Takeaways

Defensive matchups are an issue. Both Wall and Beal went off for the second game in a row, and both players torched Kyle Lowry to do it. Collectively, the Wizards scored 59 points on the 46 possessions where Lowry was defending either Wall or Beal. Washington scored 53 points on the 37 Lowry defended either Wall or Beal in Game 3. DeRozan isn’t likely to fair much better and the nature of the matchups means putting OG Anunoby on either of these guards probably leaves Lowry defending someone like Kelly Oubre Jr. or Otto Porter, also not ideal. Toronto’s defense needs to be better as a whole but they also need Lowry, or someone else, to step up and make more of an impact at the point of attack.

The old DeRozan showed up. Much has been made of the evolution of DeMar DeRozan this season — more 3-point attempts and fewer long 2-pointers, along with more selectivity overall, have helped drive up his offensive efficiency. Some old habits reared their ugly heads in this game. DeRozan did score 35 points and make 18 trips to the free throw line. He also shot 34.5 percent from the field, went 3-of-12 on 2-pointers outside the paint and had four turnovers. The issue is not just the inefficiency, it’s also about how it impacts the offensive flow and rhythm for the rest of his teammates — none of whom offered up particularly noteworthy performances on offense. Toronto needs Fred VanVleet back and they need DeRozan to be the guy he’s been most of the season.

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The Raptors still miss Fred VanVleet. The bench was one of Toronto’s biggest strengths during the regular season but that group has struggled in the absence of VanVleet, whose ball-handling and shooting was one of the factors that held the group together. In the 40 minutes they’ve played together in this series, C.J. Miles, Delon Wright, Pascal Siakam and Jakob Poeltl (the rest of the bench mob) have been outscored by an average 18.3 points per 100 possessions. Not great, Bob.