The first quarter didn’t start well for Toronto. The Raptors constantly struggled to pick up and stick with shooters on the defensive end, and the Washington Wizards made them pay. As such, between the Raptors being ice cold offensively and Jonas Valanciunas getting in early foul trouble, they quickly found themselves down 14 just seven minutes into the game.
After going to the same unit that closed the Orlando game (the two stars with Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam and Jakob Poeltl), the Raptors closed the gap to 8 by the end of the quarter, mostly on the strength of improved defence, as they still couldn’t hit a shot.