During the Thursday night NBA slate, the Washington Wizards (30-32) defeated the Toronto Raptors (31-33) with 119-108 being the final score, in what began the first part of a two-game mini-series between Eastern Conference playoff hopefuls.
Kyle Kuzma scored the game’s first 10 points and finished with 30 on the night. Kristaps Porzingis wasn’t far behind with 25 points, too. These performances were needed with Bradley Beal finishing with just 15 points on 5 of 14 shooting from the floor.
Kuzma hopes that the Wizards can find the consistency that has eluded them thus far, as the team has won two straight games.
“That remains to be seen,” Kuzma said. “We come in here, and we say it every day, when we have a winning streak, that the tides are turning, and they don’t.”
The Raptors, who had won five straight games, were led by a combined 49 points from OG Anunoby (26) and Jakob Poeltl (23).
“We’ve got to be all five players dialed in for the whole possession on defense for more possessions of the game,” Poeltl said. “We just let up a little bit too much. Gave up runs to them that we just can’t allow.”
NBA NEWS & SCORES: Kyle Kuzma, Washington Wizards & Toronto Raptors Updates
After connecting with Corey Kispert for a 3-pointer, Kuzma made one of his own. After drilling a step-back 3, he got to the rim to boost a 12-point run. Despite a late push, the Raptors never within eight points the rest of the night.
“We knew this team was going to be extremely aggressive and physical,” Wizards coach Wes Unseld Jr. said. “I thought we managed to play through a lot of that throughout the game.”
The Wizards held a 59-50 lead but were unable to break the game open. In the game’s opening burst, Kuzma made two threes and dunked emphatically, but the Raptors rattled off an 18-2 run. During the second quarter, the Wizards used a 12-2 run to establish a 50-36 lead. At that point, the Raptors fired back using a 10-0 run.
NBA NEWS & SCORES: Kyle Kuzma, Washington Wizards & Toronto Raptors Updates
It was easier for the Wizards to score fast-break points throughout the game, scoring 16 to the Raptors’ four and shooting 46.7 percent from deep to the Raptors’ 27.3 percent. Gafford threw down a pair of alley-oops within 30 seconds on a lob from Deni Avdija that was well above the rim for the Wizards.
“In the locker room, he was asking, ‘Did I throw it too high?’ I was like, ‘No, it was perfect,’” Gafford said. “Just put that in my goodie bag of crazy dunks that I’ve had over my basketball career.”
Pascal Siakam had a tough shooting night for the Raptors but finished with 13 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists. Barnes and VanVleet scored 14 points, but VanVleet finished just 2 of 11 from the perimeter.
“It feels like to me we just lacked some execution tonight in certain portions of the game,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said. “We didn’t execute very well at all at the offensive end.”
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