Raptors VS Wizards (game 1)

Final Score: Washington Wins 93-86 in OT



 Washington leads series 1-0

Paul Pierce is a Villain in Toronto. He lead another team to another win against Toronto in the first game of the playoffs. Air Canada Centre is a hard place to play. It is so loud and for the Wizards to win there, that makes the win so much more important. The Wizards got off to a slow start but caught up and had the lead for the whole second half. Of course Vasquez has to come out and tie up the game. The Wizards had control in overtime though and they came out with the win.

I noticed at the beginning of the game, the Wizards had trouble getting the ball inside. They shot a lot of mid-range jumpers and threes. Toronto didn't really get to the paint til the second half. Toronto would have had an easy game if they forced the Wizards to force up jumpers.

Once you force up a jumper, you have to get the rebound. Toronto rebounded horribly. The Wizards out-scored them 61 to 48. Not to mention, the Wizards had 19 offensive rebounds.

What made me mad was Toronto was drawing tons of fouls and that was a result of the Wizards doing a lot of lazy defense. They switched on defense way to much. They need to hedge more. Toronto seems like a more perimeter oriented team and I would hedge more on them. The Wizards were really lazy and just didn't want to hedge. Instead of them playing good defense they ended up sending them to the line. They did pick it up in the second half though.

DeRozan was playing pretty well, but John Wall and Sessions kept Kyle Lowry contained. He ended up fouling out of the game and only had 7 points. That was a crucial point to Washington's win. If they can keep Lowry contained for the rest of the series, the Wizards will have a great chance to win the series.

Pierce was going absolutely crazy in the game. He lead his team with 20 points and he was 4-7 from 3 point range. If Toronto is going to have any chance in this series, they have to keep Pierce contained.

Anyways, congrats to the Wizards on the win but they have one more at Air Canada Centre before they go off the Verizon for 2 straight games. Can they get 4 wins, or will they fall to the Raptors?