Bradley Beal, John Wall lead Wizards to commanding series lead against Raptors
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Version 0 of 1. TORONTO — The Bradley Beal who the Washington Wizards need in the playoffs, the aggressive, tenacious scorer who can bludgeon opponents in the blink of an eye, materialized for 12 minutes in the Wizards’ heated 117-106 win over the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night in Game 2 of an Eastern Conference first-round series. 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 did not cease, leaving a capacity Air Canada Centre crowd, rowdy a short time earlier, silent beyond a few boos for the home team. By the time Beal completed his onslaught, before the wobbly Raptors could respond, he had poured in 16 second-quarter points, completely shifting the game’s trajectory with an unrecognizable demeanor 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 they can push us around. But we’re not rolling.” For the second time in three days, after toppling them in seven of eight meetings, the Raptors could not intimidate the Wizards. They promised to find solutions for Washington’s successful small-ball lineup and rebounding dominance displayed in Game 1 but did neither. But the difference was their inability to contain the Wizards’ dynamic back-court pairing. While a dogged Beal tormented the Raptors in the second quarter, John Wall crushed their spirits in the second half to apply the finishing touches. With the victory, the Wizards claimed a commanding 2-0 series lead for the second consecutive year and improved to 7-1 on the road in playoff games under Coach Randy Wittman. “We’ve only got two,” Wittman said. “So that means there’s still a lot of basketball to be played.” Three days after combining to shoot 11 for 41 from the field in the series opener, Beal and Wall went 20 for 37 and overcame the traps that Toronto used to stifle them in Game 1. Beal finished with a game-high and playoff career-high 28 points to pace five players in double figures. Wall posted 26 points and a franchise postseason record 17 assists for his third career playoff double-double. Marcin Gortat added 16 points on 7-for-9 shooting, and Otto Porter Jr. contributed 15 points and nine rebounds off the bench. “Some nights you can’t determine if the ball is going to go in the basket,” Wall said. “All we can do is be aggressive, play the game we know how to play the right way and trust our teammates. Those guys believe in our confidence and believe in our ability to score the ball and find our teammates.” 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 a shin contusion and finished with just six points on 3-for-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 floor in Game 1 — surfaced to strike instantly, and DeRozan was the engine. The former all-star attacked Paul Pierce relentlessly, totaling nine points in just more than four minutes to head Toronto’s 12-2 run to start the game. Wittman then called a timeout, and the Raptors would not recover the early dominance again. Washington outscored the Raptors 24-19 for the remainder of the quarter to trim the deficit to five points entering the second period. Foul trouble then haunted Lowry again. After fouling out in the fourth quarter Saturday, Lowry picked up his second and third fouls in a 10-second span in the second frame. He angrily rambled off to the bench as the rambunctious crowd voiced its 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 adjustments to counter the configuration. Coach Dwane Casey immediately assigned DeRozan to guard Pierce, not Porter as in Game 1, and put Patrick Patterson on Porter. A minute later, Casey replaced Patterson with James Johnson, who stepped on the floor to a roar from the crowd after not playing in Game 1. The modifications did not suffice. The Wizards blasted Toronto with a 31-14 run to open a 60-49 halftime lead as Lowry watched the final 9 minutes 19 seconds of the half. While Wall deftly orchestrated the onslaught with a slew of pick-and-rolls, Beal demolished the Raptors with the aggression he has preached he needs to consistently summon. The third-year shooting guard, instructed to quit settling for jumpers, repeatedly invaded the paint with tenacity and finished at the basket. “That’s what we talked about the last three, four weeks,” Wittman said of Beal. “That’s who he has been, and that’s what he needs to do.” The Raptors threatened coming out of the break, jumping on the Wizards as they did to start the affair. Their 12-3 spurt awoke the boisterous crowd and sliced Washington’s lead to three points, forcing the visitors to call a timeout and regroup to avoid squandering another double-digit lead as they did Saturday. But the Wizards did not succumb, concluding the third period with a crowd-draining 34-14 run to increase the lead to 23 points. The gulf shrank to 10 in a chippy fourth quarter, which featured double-technical fouls on Beal and Lowry, but not any smaller. “We got to run through the finish line,” said Pierce, who tallied 10 points. “Sometimes we get a big lead, and it’s like the tortoise and the hare, just gets to messing around and chilling on the sideline. We got to run through the finish line. Simple and plain.” More on the Wizards and the NBA playoffs: Box score: Wizards 117, Raptors 106 Wizards show some swagger in Game 2 win Postgame analysis of Game 2 in Toronto Photos: Scenes from Air Canada Centre Cox subscribers in Virginia got stuck with Orioles instead of Wizards Bog: 11 truths from ‘The Truth,’ Wizards veteran Paul Pierce |