Raptors-Wizards: Friday game preview

VERIZON CENTER

Tipoff: 7 p.m. TV: Sportsnet One Radio: Sportsnet 590 The Fan

Probable starters: Toronto — Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, James Johnson, Luis Scola, Jonas Valanciunas. Washington — John Wall, Garrett Temple, Otto Porter Jr., Jared Dudley, Marcin Gortat.

Key matchup: Kyle Lowry vs. John Wall. Their numbers almost line up across the board. Lowry averages 20.6 points to Wall’s 19.5; Lowry pulls in 4.9 rebounds to Wall’s 4.1; Lowry averages 2.2 steals to Wall’s 2.1. It’s on ball distribution that Wall holds the edge in this point guard battle, dishing 9.8 assists per game (second in the NBA) to Lowry’s 6.5. Still, it should be a treat to watch Wall try to cut off Lowry’s path to the basket and to watch Lowry try to deal with Wall’s speed. Wall got a day off of practice ahead of this game and the Raptors had Thursday off after arriving in Washington, meaning this is a meeting between two of the league’s best and rested point guards.

Need to know: The Raptors lead the season series 2-0 and both of their meetings have given entertaining games: a Cory Joseph buzzer beater in Washington on Nov. 28 and the Wizards missing multiple threes in the dying seconds of a 94-91 game on Dec. 30 . . . Washington centre Nene made his return from a strained left calf on Wednesday and had 13 points in 21 minutes. The injury cost him 19 games . . . The Raptors used some downtime in Washington to take a tour of the White House on Thursday . . . The NBA released its second round of returns on all-star voting on Thursday. Lowry is third among East guards with 242,276 votes, behind Kyrie Irving (271,094) and Dwyane Wade (562,558). DeMar DeRozan is sixth, with 170,539.

Up next: Saturday at Philadelphia, 7:30 p.m. Chris O’Leary