Raptors Fall to Wall-less Wizards once again

The Raptors' flaws were shown off once again. The lack of defensive rebounding was too much to overcome in this one. Without CJ Miles and VanVleet, I did not expect the Bench Mob to do as poorly as they did today. If you saw this game, you were in a for a doozy as the Raptors did everything to keep this game as close as possible, but came up short.

Bradley Beal leads the Washington Wizards to the win at home, 122-119.

Welcome to the Raptors' typical performance where they take you on a roller-coaster of emotions. This game started off on the right trend with ball movement, rebounding and using Jonas. If you thought JV had a great game, you should know that most of his damage came in the first half. The Raptors were a couple wins away from capturing the 1st seed, but came up short in crunch time against the Wizards. The Raptors are ranked 23rd in clutch FG% and this was evidence of why the Raptors needed a player like Lou Williams a couple years ago.

“The Raptors are the best team in the East." - Sir Charles Barkley

After receiving such praise on a nationally broadcast show, "Inside the NBA", the Raptors came up short against a Washington Wizards team who were without their arugably best player. Though there are people in the league that believe the Washington Wizards are a better team without John Wall dominating the basketball and limiting any ball movement.

OG Anunoby was locked in from long range and played great defense on Bradley Beal. A tough match-up for the rookie as Beal is one of the best at utilizing baseline screens, curls, and pick and rolls. He is a well-rounded offensive player and for good reason, he is going to be an All-Star this year for the first time. Beal really started to get it going in the third quarter where he did most of his damage. 17 points in that game changing quarter. Dwane Casey had made some questionable substitutions in this game. The first one was keeping Jonas out for most of the 3rd quarter where the Wizards made their run and lost the lead. The second one was keeping OG on the bench and giving more minutes to Norman Powell. OG was having a good game and was rebounding well. Both JV and OG would have helped immensely on the boards.

Marcin Gortat contributed with 3 offensive rebounds and was a force on the glass.

The Raptors backcourt had a bounce back game in terms of production but did not have a great first half. Both Lowry and DeRozan scored most of their points in the deciding 4th quarter where the Raptors tried to make a comeback after losing all their momentum in the 3rd quarter. It is important to note that the Bench Mob were without CJ Miles (knee) and VanVleet (personal) who are key contributors to the bench especially offensively. Lorenzo Brown and Norman Powell were given their share of minutes but this unit has rarely ever played together and were evidently not in sync. Toronto's bench was outscored in this game, 44-23. The Wizards have always been known to have a weak bench and the Raptors' bench has been great this year, it was completely opposite on this night.

As the Raptors were mounting their comeback, they could not put together enough defensive stops due to their lack of rebounding. It felt like the Wizards always had two shots for every one shot the Raptors took. If Toronto had secured half of the 50/50 balls in the fourth quarter, we would not be talking about the poor rebounding effort and would have definitely won the game. By looking at the box score, you can tell that no one on the team had more than 6 rebounds including JV who broke his double-double streak. It's easy to blame the bigs for not rebounding, but watching the game, you can tell that the guards did not box out and give enough effort on the glass. Lowry and DeRozan lost a key rebound to Otto Porter Jr. who was sandwiched between the two with less than two minutes to go in the game.

In the end, the game should have been out of hand, but the Wizards threw the ball away in the closing moments and committed fouls to stop the clcok which wasn't smart. But that didn't change the outcome rather it just changed the final score to make it look more respectable. It was not a game the Raptors deserved to win and Lowry missing key free throws down the stretch should not be the story of this loss. Toronto has to make a more concentrated effort to get on the glass and show more toughness. Trading for anyone at the trade deadline doesn't seem likely but also doesn't seem like the right move. This team is young and has the ability to thrive after experiencing tough losses like this one. Best thing for the Raptors is to quickly get things back on track as they face the streaking Portland Trail Blazers who are winners of four straight tomorrow night at the ACC.

Otto Porter Jr. had a double-double in the win as the Wizards hold on to 5th place in Eastern Conference for now.