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The Wizards had three players finish with double-doubles, shot 58 percent from the field, out-rebounded the Raptors, and scored 40 more points in the paint than Toronto, but still dropped their home opener by 10 points.
Washington had some eye-popping individual performances in the 113-103 loss. John Wall had 33 points and 11 assists, Otto Porter racked up 23 points and 13 rebounds, and Marcin Gortat put 15 points and 10 boards in 43 minutes of action. They combined to shoot 30-42 (71.4 percent) from the field.
Unfortunately, they also had some eye-popping numbers in the other direction. They committed 21 turnovers, including 9 from John Wall. The rest of the team outside of the Wall-Porter-Gortat trio shot 12-30 (40 percent) from the field. They also couldn’t stop DeMar DeRozan from putting together another dominant scoring performance. He finished with 40 points, shooting 14-23 from the field and 11-16 from the free throw line.
The Wizards showed the best and worst of what they can do in this game, and the good wasn’t enough to outweigh the bad against the Raptors. With the loss, the Wizards are now 0-3 on the season. There next opportunity for a win comes on Friday at home against the Hawks.
Here’s what we noticed in Wednesday’s loss:
Otto Porter makes his case for a big deal this summer
Tonight was Porter’s first game since he and the team failed to reach an agreement on a contract extension. It made sense for both sides to wait until the summer to work out a deal, but that doesn’t change the fact that Porter now has the opportunity to prove his worth on the floor. His first statement was a great one.
He racked up 23 points on 13 shots and snagged 13 rebounds. He did an outstanding job of working the floor to put him in excellent position for putbacks, backdoor cuts, and transition opportunities throughout the game. And while the box score doesn’t show it, he did a really solid job on DeMar DeRozan. DeRozan racked up most of his points when Porter was either off the floor or switched onto someone else.
Speaking of what happened when Porter was off the floor...
The bench was ... yikes
Washington jumped out to a 27-15 lead on the backs of their starters, but as soon as the reserves came in, things went downhill. DeMar DeRozan, who had been held in check by Otto Porter, went to work against Kelly Oubre, scoring 8 points in the final 3:32 of the first quarter as the Raptors cut the deficit down to 2 points by the end of the quarter.
The defense was a mess, but the offense wasn’t any better. Trey Burke committed three turnovers and two fouls in his first seven minutes action, during which the Wizards only scored six points.
In the second half, Scott Brooks went with Tomas Satoransky instead of Burke, and the results were better. DeRozan still went off, but the Wizards were more formidable on the offensive end with Wall and Porter out. His plus/minus is skewed a bit because he got to play with Wall during his time on the floor, but even when Wall was off things ran much more smoothly than they did in the first half.
Three point shooting continues to be a problem
As we mentioned earlier, the Wizards did an outstanding job getting points in the paint. 68 of their 103 points came in the paint, but they weren’t able to turn their success inside into clean looks outside. The Wizards only took 10 shots from deep, making just three of them. On the other end, the Raptors went 10-25 from deep.
Through the first three games, opponents have attempted 27 more threes than the Wizards and made 23 more threes than them. It’s hard to keep pace when you’re losing by so much from behind the arc, even if you’re dominating inside.