Wizards vs. Raptors preview: Washington looks to steal another one on the road in Game 2

Game Info

Where and when: The Washington Wizards take on the Toronto Raptors Tuesday night at 8:00 p.m at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.

TV: The game will be broadcast nationally on NBA TV. CSN Washington will provide local coverage for the Wizards and TSN will provide local coverage for the Raptors.

Radio: 99.1 WNEW.

Injury report: Garrett Temple is out with an injured hamstring for the Wizards. The Raptors are healthy.

Three storylines for Game 2

1. Who will hit their open shots?

As tends to happen sometimes in the opening game of the playoffs, both the Wizards and Raptors missed plenty of open looks. In fact, the Wizards and Raptors both shot better on contested shots than uncontested shots in Game 1. Paul Pierce was the only Wizard who made more than two uncontested shots Game 1, but almost everyone on the receiving end of John Wall's passes yesterday struggled:

John Wall had 24 assist chances on which his teammates made only 8 shots yesterday (usual % ~55ish), decent shotmaking and Wiz win handily

— Seth Partnow (@SethPartnow) April 19, 2015

On the flip side, Terrence Ross (1-6) and Lou Williams (2-8) also both had uncharacteristically bad games shooting uncontested shots. If either or both of them get hot in Game 2, Washington will need several hot shooting nights to compensate.

2. Will the Wizards speed up their late game offense?

There was plenty of things not to like about how the Wizards fell apart in the closing minutes of regulation in Game 1. The Wizards won't be able to fix all the issues that popped up in the closing minutes, but there is one simple fix they can make that will give them a better shot at generating some points late in the game: Stop burning up so much of the shot clock before initiating the action.

In a final possession situation, burning up the clock is fine, but you shouldn't employ that strategy for the final three minutes. Every shot the Wizards attempted in the final three minutes of regulation came with less than 8 seconds left on the shot clock. Worse yet, on the last three possessions of the fourth quarter (where they went scoreless), they didn't even get the ball inside the three point line until there was less than six seconds left on the shot clock. When you take that long to initiate your offense, you're hoping and praying Plan A or Plan B works, because there's no time to implement a Plan C.

And sure, when you're in the lead and you shoot too early in the shot clock, you run the risk of giving the other team more time and more possessions to make up the deficit, but if you wait that late, you're trading that risk for the near guarantee you won't be able to fend the other team off by scoring more points. If the Wizards find themselves in the same position Tuesday night, they can't fall into the same trap of trying to hold off the Raptors by minimizing possessions.

3. Will Toronto break out the "PAUL PIERCE SUCKS" chant again?

You would think Toronto has learned their lesson by now, but if Raptors fans want to poke the troll again, we know he'll be ready to poke back.