Takeaways: Lowry’s heroics fall just short during wild finish

Bradley Beal scored 25 of his 27 points in the second-half as the Washington Wizards fought back to beat the Toronto Raptors 122-119. Kyle Lowry lead the Raptors in scoring, dropping 29.

For more than a few moments there it seemed as though the Toronto Raptors were going to pull off a pseudo-miracle and win a game that could have slipped out of hand a number of times on Thursday night.

A big performance from Kyle Lowry and the Raptors most efficient three-point shooting in ten games wasn’t enough to eke out a road victory against a Washington Wizards. The Wizards rode the hot hand of Bradley Beal down the stretch, pushed the pace in the second half, and took advantage of Toronto’s 18 turnovers, the third-most this season.

Here are some takeaways from a wild final minute and a nail-biting 122-119 Raptors loss.

Lowry’s heroics not enough in the end

The game was slipping away from the Raptors—fast. The team deserves credit for staying in the fight and staying even-keeled, a sign of winning teams and a trait long-time fans of this team haven’t always been used to seeing.

So much of what’s been good about the Raps season has been their depth. C.J. Miles (sore knee) and Fred VanVleet (new dad) didn’t play vs. the Wiz—but a fun game to play when Toronto is at full strength is “Who is this team’s worst player?” and it only illuminates how deep the bench is with legitimate contributors.

But not on Thursday. The bench unit was more or less a non-factor, and the only reserve to finish with a positive plus/minus was Lucas Nogueira, who was +1 in a whopping three minutes of action.

So on a night when the team’s stars needed to step up, they did just that, especially down the stretch. And especially Lowry.

He was great down the stretch and brought the Raps back into the game. On the same night it was announced that he’ll be participating in the three-point contest at All Star Weekend, Lowry aptly nailed a three-pointer that put Toronto up one in the waning minutes, and shortly after an and-one play to put his team up four.

As the Wizards kept responding—specifically Bradley Beal, who scored 25 in the second half and ultimately iced the game at the free-throw line—the Raptors missed a number of chances to steal a win, or at least force the game to overtime.

There was a missed three from Lowry (he was 4-11 from deep) on a good pass out of the post from Serge Ibaka, who finished with 16 points in 35 minutes—the most he’s played in nearly a month. Then there was a missed corner three from Ibaka with 33 seconds left to tie the game.

And yet the Raps still manufactured chances to win in an incredible sequence to end the game.

Down four with 11 seconds remaining, Lowry had another and-one opportunity on a tough drive to the hoop, but missed the freebie that would’ve brought the game to within one point.

After Beal made a pair of free throws, Lowry—who else?—got a quick layup to bring it within two. On an inbounds play, Beal bungled the ball and Lowry pounced on it, drawing the foul. At the line to tie the game and send it to OT, he missed the first free throw. He was 4-11 from deep and 5-7 from the free throw line, his only two misses coming in the final eleven seconds.

A frustrating end to a frustrating night, as Lowry put it after the game:

He finished with 29 points, 17 of which came in the fourth quarter.

Falling into the trap?

Despite Washington’s place in the standings heading into the game—just a half game out of home court advantage—Thursday still felt like something of a trap game for the Toronto.

The Raptors were fresh off an impressive win against the surging Minnesota Timberwolves at the Air Canada Centre two nights earlier and have the Portland Trail-Blazers, winners of four straight and riding a 50-point performance from C.J. McCollum on Wednesday, heading into their building for a shootout on Friday.

The Wizards, meanwhile, just learned that their best player, John Wall, will miss up to eight weeks after undergoing minor knee surgery (which reads like an oxymoron). They entered the game a .500 team in the dozen games Wall had missed so far this season.

That these two teams have recent playoff history and could hypothetically meet up in the post-season again this spring meant that it would never truly be a trap game, but for long stretches of this one it certainly felt like the Raps were caught off guard by the fight their opponents brought to them, particularly after halftime.

“They came out of the locker room running,” Casey said of the Wizards after the game, “and we couldn’t catch up to their speed.”

Slow third-quarters are nothing new for the Raptors. After heading into halftime with the lead, the Raps were outscored 33-25 in the third quarter.

“We lost concentration to start the second half,” Lowry said after the game, “but none of that matters. I still had a chance to make free throws and send us to overtime.”

Careless turnovers lead to Wizards scoring chances

A major turning point came early in the fourth quarter with the Wizards up one, when shooting specialist Jodie Meeks scored eight straight points—the first six courtesy a pair of lightly contested three-point daggers.

One of those came off a careless turnover from Norman Powell, who careened towards the rim and was late to recognizing the defender in front of him was staying put. After already leaving his feet, he tried to pass out to a waiting teammate underneath the hoop but essentially handed the ball to the opponent.

And they were off to the races.

Washington scurried up the court and found Meeks behind the line at the right elbow—exactly where he had just splashed a triple—for another smooth catch-and-shoot. After the game Casey said those baskets “broke our back.”

The Wizards pounced on opportunities like that throughout the game—and the Raptors provided plenty—scoring 16 points off of turnovers in the second half alone.

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