The Toronto Raptors are becoming better than we’d like at allowing playoff opponents to hang around. The series with the Washington Wizards was looking like another case in point, until the fourth quarter of last night’s game. Toronto shut down an increasingly exhausted home team, held the Wiz to 4 buckets, won the final 12 minutes by 15 points, and the game by 10.
We didn’t need any further proof of the importance to the Raptors of their depth, but we got it anyway. While Kyle Lowry led the scoring with 24, the bench mob, led by the return of Fred VanVleet, pounded away at Washington.