It all looked so promising for the Toronto Raptors less than a week ago.
Taking on an atypical eighth-seed in the Washington Wizards, the Raptors had played like the top seed in the Eastern Conference they earned to take a commanding 2-0 series lead. Coming into the 2018 NBA playoffs, the team that won the opening two games of a best-of-seven had gone on to win the series 273 out of 292 times.
Now, the series is tied 2-2 with everything to play for and Washington riding the momentum of two straight wins. Toronto’s playoff demons reared their ugly heads in Game 4, especially, as the team inexplicably choked away an eight-point fourth quarter lead, getting outscored 24-8 over the final 7:44 of play. This, despite Wizards’ all-star Bradley Beal fouling out with five minutes left to play after scoring 31 points.
“Even in Games 1 and 2, we had a turnover issue and it finally caught up to us,” head coach Dwane Casey told Prime Time Sports on Monday. “When you’re playing a team like Washington who’s not your typical eighth seed — if everybody was healthy with their team, they’re a two or three-seed probably — turnovers hurt us. We let our foot up off the pedal.”
Casey is right about the Wizards being better than their record indicates. This is a team that finished 49-33 just a season ago and would likely have won more than the 43 they managed in 2017-18 but for John Wall being absent for 41 of those games.
The two-time all-star has been a thorn by the Raptors’ side through four games, averaging 26.8 points, 13 assists, 2.8 steals and a block per game.
“He and Russell Westbrook are one of the fastest plus one of the most powerful guys when they’re coming at you like a freight train,” Casey said. “I put him up there in the same level as a LeBron James as far as how strong he is, how forceful he is when he’s coming down the floor with the ball.”
Casey went on to say that the Raptors will look to change the personnel in terms of who guards the Wizards’ two all-stars. The Raptors have thrown Kyle Lowry, Delon Wright and OG Anunoby at Wall over the course of the four games thus far, and experimented with Pascal Siakam on Wall for a few possessions in Game 4.
Lowry and Anunoby have been the primary defenders for Beal, so it will be interesting to see how the matchups change on Wednesday.
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Casey also attributed some of the bench struggles to having to play more against the Wizards’ best players but was quick to note that he also wasn’t going to let them off the hook and that they would continue to be relied upon since they were a big reason they won 59 games in the first place.
As far as reserve point guard Fred VanVleet is concerned, Casey said that he is still considered day-to-day because his shoulder feels different each day, but stressed that if VanVleet does get hit a certain way, the medical team has informed him that it will hurt a lot.
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