Beal and Wall silence Toronto crowd
Hot-shooting Wizards take 2-0 lead in series
TORONTO — The Bradley Beal whothe Washington Wizards need to arise to stand a chance to accomplish their playoff objectives — the aggressive, tenacious scorer that can bludgeon opponents in the blink of an eye — materialized for 12 minutes in the Wizards’ 117-106 Game 2 win over the Toronto Raptors Tuesday night. He was confident and he was callous. He slashed through the Raptors defense in fifth gear, untroubled by the sea of white jerseys, and he would not stop, leaving a capacity Air Canada Centre crowd, rowdy a short time earlier, silent except for boos for the home team.
By the time Beal completed his onslaught, before the wobbling Raptors could respond, he had recorded16 points in the second quarter, completely shifting the game’s trajectory 72 hours after one of the worst shooting performances of his career.
“They think that we’re some punks,” a simmering Beal told a television sideline reporter before strolling to the locker room. “They think that we can push us around. But we’re not rolling.”
The Raptors answered, cutting Washington’s 11-point halftime advantage to three points at the beginning of the second half, but the Wizards, undeterred, slugged back, ballooning the gulf to as many as 23 points led by John Wall’s mastery. They claimed a commanding 2-0 series lead before going to Washington for Game 3 Friday and improved to 7-1 on the road dating to last postseason.
Three days after combining to shoot 11-of-41 from the field in the series opener, Beal and Wall went 20-for-37. Beal finished with a gamehigh and playoff career-high 28 points to pace five players in double figures. Wall posted 26 points and a postseason franchise-record 17 assists for his third career playoff double double. Marcin Gortat added 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting and Otto Porter Jr. contributed 15 points off the bench.
The Wizards dominated on the glass in Game 1 and repeated the feat Tuesday, outrebounding the Raptors,
Game 3
TV: 45-28. They shot 53.2 percent from the field and made 10 3-pointers — nearly four more than their regular-season average. After digging themselves into a 12-2 hole to start the game, Washington outscored Toronto 115-94 the rest of the way.
DeMar DeRozan and Lou Williams, who received his Sixth Man of the Year award before the game, each scored 20 points to lead Toronto, but all-star Kyle Lowry battled foul trouble a second straight game and finished with just six points on 3-of-10 shooting in 27 minutes.
The Raptors’ juggernaut offense — the one that ranked third in the NBA during the regular season, not the one that shot a dismal 38 percent from the field in Game 1 — surfaced to strike instantly. DeRozan was the engine. The former all-star attacked Paul Pierce relentlessly, totaling nine points in just over four minutes to head Toronto’s 12-2 ambush to start the contest.
The interruption finally snapped Washington out of its scoring woes. Led by Gortat’s 10 points on 5-of-5 shooting and eight points plus five assists from Wall, the Wizards weathered DeRozan’s storm and outscored the Raptors 24-19 for the rest of the quarter to trim their deficit to five points entering the second period.
Foul trouble then haunted the Raptors again. After fouling out in the fourth quarter Saturday, Lowry picked up his second and third fouls in a 10-second span. He angrily rambled off to the bench as the rambunctious crowd voiced their disagreement with the calls and watched as the Wizards pounced.
A half-minute later, Pierce returned to man power forward, an event that altered the course of Game 1. Toronto made an adjustment to counter the lineup. Coach Duane Casey immediately assigned DeRozan to guard Pierce, not Porter as in Game 1, and Patterson to Porter. A minute later, he replaced Patterson with James Johnson, who stepped onto the floor to a roar from the audience after not playing in Game 1. The adjustments weren’t enough to overcome the Wizards’ small-ball configuration and Lowry’s absence.