*Fresh start: Well, the Wizards do have a penchant for performing in Game 6. This is probably the strongest start Washington has had yet this series, with balanced scoring, everyone with positive defensive ratings and an aggressive tone to boot.
*Injury update pt. II: VAN VLEET IS BAAAAAAACK! Toronto's backup point guard Fred Van Vleet has been struggling with a shoulder injury this series, but Coach Dwane Casey said he's available tonight. Van Vleet was available in Game 2 as well, but played less than three minutes and didn't really have the chance to do anything.
*The Toronto… Ducks?: Toronto Coach Dwane Casey was asked how he was feeling at the beginning of his pregame news conference at Capital One Arena. He was delightfully descriptive.
"It's probably like a duck, you know how a duck is on a pond? You look at a duck and it's all calm on the top and underneath, he's paddling like hell," Casey said. "That's probably how I feel right now, because there's no easy close-out game. In every round to get to the championship level, it's never easy. No matter what you're favored, who you're playing against, whatever. Closing out a series, winning a series, is one of the hardest thing to do in sport… there's nobody, I think, that's calm and relaxed."
*Injury update: In the wake of news that Otto Porter Jr. will miss Game 6 after undergoing minor surgery, Washington Coach Scott Brooks said in his pregame news conference Kelly Oubre Jr. would start in his place. Brooks at least put a positive spin on the news, saying that Oubre v. DeMar DeRozan would be a great opportunity for the young defender.
Game 6 overview
Toronto Raptors (No. 1 seed, 59-23, 1st in Atlantic Division) at Washington Wizards (No. 8 seed, 43-39, 2nd in Southeast Division)
Date and time: Friday, TBD
Channel: NBCSW and NBA TV
Location: Capital One Arena
Regular season series: Wizards 2, Raptors 2
View the full series guide here.
Previous series results (Raptors 3, Wizards 2)
Game 1: at Raptors 114, Wizards 106
Game 2:at Raptors 130, Wizards 119
Game 3:at Wizards 122, Raptors 103
Game 4:at Wizards 106, Raptors 98
Game 5: at Raptors 108, Wizards 98
Remaining schedule
Game 7 (if necessary): Sunday at Toronto, time and television TBD
Pregame reading
>> If the Wizards can win two of the last three games of this series, they'll become just the sixth No. 8 seed in NBA history to beat a No. 1 seedand advance to the second round. Only one other No. 8 seed — the 1994 Denver Nuggets — has pulled off the feat after losing the first two games of the series. No team has done it since the first round expanded to best-of-seven. The Wizards would be the first.
>> The Wizards' quiet hero? Marcin Gortat. Through four games, Gortat leads all players in the postseason by averaging 6.8 screen assists per game, the statistic that measures how often his blocking moves on the offensive end have created points for teammates.
>> Bradley Beal's sixth foul in Game 4 felt like a call that would haunt the end of the Wizards' season. Except, amazingly, it wasn't. The team that failed to inspire for much of this season, that left you constantly wondering why it couldn't be a normal, stable playoff team, did something unexpected without Beal in the final five minutes. And this time, it was delightful, writes Jerry Brewer. Meanwhile, John Wall is dictating the rules of engagement. He is making this series a street fight and a street race. It seems an odd combination, but not to him.
>> Speaking of Beal, he's not speaking about the refs. When the topic of "officiating" came up, Beal's silent expression said everything. "He doesn't want to get fined," joked a team staffer who was standing near the exchange.
>> The Wizards aren't yet a team that can quietly and methodically play to a standard with consistency. They are an emotional volcano. This first-round series is interesting now because the Wizards have erupted, writes Jerry Brewer.
>> Bradley Beal is back. Friday night, the Wizards guard reclaimed the smooth shooting stroke that elevated him to 13th in the NBA in scoring and resulted in the sixth-year player's first all-star selection. Another player rising to the occasion in Game 3? Kelly Oubre Jr.
>> On Saturday night, the league announced a $25,000 fine for Markieff Morris for "attempting to escalate an altercation and pushing a game official."
>> "If they don't get to the conference finals, I do believe that a major change has to happen." That's former Wizards forward Paul Pierce's assessment of the team, suggesting John Wall and Bradley Beal possibly "break up."
>> The Wizards need to turn up the defense if they hope to get back into this series. Problem is, that's a very big ask. According to Neil Greenberg, the biggest liabilities for Washington in the half court are Kelly Oubre Jr., Markieff Morris, Marcin Gortat and Bradley Beal. All four rank in the bottom 20 percent of NBA players in the postseason for points allowed per possessions and each is hurting the Wizards in different ways.
>> The Wizards didn't seem disappointed by their Game 2 loss, so Jerry Brewer wonders: maybe they're too chill for their own good? "It would be understandable if they had reason to brush off the game as an aberration, if they were a team that didn't have recurring problems with focus and transferring preparation onto the court. But that is part of their enigmatic identity. You needed the reassurance of feeling their emotions and sensing their urgency. You will have to trust them, however. Good luck."
>> Any way you judge the Wizards — with or without John Wall, at their best or worst, home or road, bickering or harmonious, big game or run-of-the-mill affair — they do one thing with stunning consistency: Flub the fourth quarter. They close games like they are trying to slam the heaviest door ever made. If they don't summon more late-game strength, their season of what ifs and not quites will end with a few last "We had 'em, but . . . " regrets, writes Jerry Brewer.
>> John Wall thought he was "fat" when the season opened. During this two-month layoff to rehab from knee surgery, Wall and his personal remolded his diet and body. He's dropped almost 15 pounds, enabling him to play lighter on his feet. Here's how that diet looks. Speaking of Wall, Tom Boswell thinks the Wizards star needs to shoot a whole lot less.
>> The Raptors and Wizards are such comparable peers. They've both been building toward their current rosters since 2010. They both broke through to the playoffs in 2014. But after the Wizards swept the Raptors in the 2015 playoffs, Toronto made the conference final the next season while Washington still hasn't advanced beyond the second round. So while the Wizards and Raptors once had similar trajectories, now Toronto has clearly surged ahead, writes Jerry Brewer.
>> No one player can be blamed for the Wizards' defensive mistakes in Game 1. But Kelly Oubre Jr. often draws the ire of his coach because he flashes so much skill on the defensive end but negates the potential with youthful miscues. He played 10 fewer minutes than his season average in Saturday's game as a result.
>> The top of the Wizards' roster might be a little better than the Raptors' best players. On Saturday night, however, the Raptors sent a strong initial message about who they are during a 114-106 victory in Game 1 at Air Canada Centre. In short, they're better — clearly better — than Washington, writes Jerry Brewer. These aren't two teams striding alongside each other on the same journey. The Raptors have pulled ahead, and if you're expecting them to slow down so the Wizards can catch up, that's not how this is going to go. If the Wizards hope to win this series — or even become a threat to win — they will have to accelerate.
>> Anyone expecting Wizards guards John Wall and Bradley Beal to preview their first-round tilt against the Raptors by proclaiming themselves as "the best backcourt in the NBA" will be disappointed. Washington's duo holds their northern rivals' Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan in high esteem.
>> While Toronto is the East's top seed, the Wizards are still attempting to complete the task of finding themselves, which might be a greater challenge than the daunting opponent, writes Jerry Brewer.
>> In his postseason predictions, Tim Bontemps writes of Raptors-Wizards, "I want to pick Washington to win this series. The Wizards match up well with Toronto and have shown no fear for them this season . . . But it's just impossible to put that much faith in this Wizards team after the way they've played this season." He says it's Toronto in seven games.
>> Though they're the underdogs, the Wizards view a matchup with Toronto much more favorably than some of the other teams with lower seeds. And while the Wizards struggled all season with teams with records under .500, just as they did Wednesday in the loss to the Magic, they knocked off nine playoff-bound opponents after the all-star break. They also split the regular season series with Toronto, players reasoned, and five-time all-star John Wall didn't play a second in the four games.
>> Regular season success isn't foreign to the Raptors, who have exceeded 50 wins each of the past two seasons. But in the postseason, the Raptors have clammed up, needing every ounce of their energy to escape from their first-round series and then continuing to struggle against actual contenders. Tim Bontemps explains how Toronto changed its approach this season in hopes of getting a different result.
>> The Raptors have the NBA's best bench and have had a strong reserve unit for a while — their 2015 team actually had a higher bench BPM than their starters, which is unprecedented for a good team. But the reliance on the bench is also one of the causes of Toronto's disappointing playoff results. Here's a deeper look at the Raptors' bench, with some names you
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