Serge Ibaka blocks 3 shots in Raptors’ Game 2 victory

The Raptors punched the Wizards in the mouth early and Washington couldn’t recover.

What the Wizards’ point guard doesn’t know is when his All-Star explosiveness will return after missing two months because of knee surgery.

“From their standpoint, knowing what they know, they just made the call to get me out of there …” Lucas Nogueira played in late minutes in the game in order to rest Siakim, Poetl, and JV.

In a competitive Game 2 matchup, the Washington Wizards were met with more than just Demar Dorozan’s 37-point playoff high.

However, with 84 games now played this season it’s time for all to realize this sobering truth-the Wizards are who we thought they were.

Shame on us to think that a team that had issues way before John Wall banged knees in a home tilt against the Dallas Mavericks, would suddenly flip an imaginary switch and become world beaters in the second season. The Wizards need Morris to be healthy if they have a chance to win game 2. While his points per game were down to 23 from a career-high 27 the previous season, DeRozan set a career-high with 5.2 assists even as his number of touches dropped by about 10 per cent. (Pause for effect.) “But as a basketball player he’s really good”. The Raptors are 9-3 in those games. “But the one I had before that in transition (when DeMar DeRozan stopped him), I felt like I got fouled”. I felt like I got fouled on some of them. They were making a run. “I was surprised I got it, but I was happy”, Wright said.

The Wizards swept Toronto in the first round in 2015 but find themselves in a quick hole this time around.

This game, and series, will likely come down to guard play.

“We understood they were going to come back and fight back”. In addition, John Wall and Bradley Beal have both yet to play well in the same game in the first two games, and Otto Porter Jr.is only averaging 10.5 points in this series. Six Raptors scored in double digits, with centre Jonas Valanciunas racking up 19.

Boston had just three turnovers through three quarters and only seven on the night. There is something about the intensity of playoffs that weakens Kyle Lowry. Toronto raced out to a 17-point lead after the first quarter and finished the first half with 76 points, a franchise playoff record. Game 3 will be Friday in Milwaukee.

What followed was a 37-point night in which DeRozan shot 14-for-23 from the field, including 3-for-6 from beyond the arc, as Toronto rolled 130-119.

Drake’s trash-talking seems to be working if you consider the fact the Raptors now hold a 2-0 lead in the series. Although DeRozan has been a strong isolation player throughout his career, with a gift for getting to the line, there’s something about the playoffs that has exposed the limits of his game as a one-on-one player not always inclined to find solutions when defenses made life hard.

“We had a lot of open ones we missed”. “We need to be a little bit better”, Brooks said. “The first game is out of the way, jitters out of the way, whatever it is, we can just go out and focus on us and play ball”.

“That kind of hurt us and they took full advantage of that”, Wall said. “First game is over”. “It gives you that extra confidence to enjoy the game”. Then, when asked specifically about DeRozan, Lowry noted that his backcourt partner “sucks as a friend”. I used to be that fast.

Speaking to reporters after the game, Wall refused to be drawn into suggestions the team is in trouble in the series at two games down. But this comes mere weeks after the head coach himself took to the media as a way to shade Wall in a big way.

“I am fine with that”.