The Raptors’ Game 1 curse is finally over

THE CURSE IS OVER. THE CURSE IS OVER. The Toronto Raptors won a Game 1 at home, defeating the Washington Wizards, 114-106. The streak of seven straight Game 1 defeats is over.

It wasn’t easy, but it never is for Toronto. The Wizards led at halftime and took a 91-88 lead early in the fourth quarter. From that point on, the Raptors outscored the Wizards, 26-15, to get the win.

The difference in this one was the difference we all knew would be a factor: the benches. Washington got a nice game from Mike Scott and absolutely nothing else. Toronto got 18 points from Delon Wright, four clutch threes from C.J. Miles, and terrific fourth-quarter defense by Lucas Nogueira, the usual 12th man. Their contributions, plus a big game for Serge Ibaka, gave Toronto cover for another rough playoff performance from Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan.

John Wall looked spry at times in his debut, but he also shot 6-20 from the field, including the grossest shot chart at the rim you’ll ever see.

That’s right: he shot 3-13 in the restricted area. That is very hard to do.

Game 2 is Tuesday at 8 p.m. on NBATV. Toronto got the curse off its back, and will likely welcome their best bench player in Fred VanVleet back into the fold. This is not looking good for the Wizards.

Here’s everything that happened during the game.

Without Fred VanVleet, the Raptors’ bench was supposed to be kneecapped. Instead, Delon Wright went wild. The Wizards kept leaving the third-year man from Utah open and he kept making them pay. Maybe the Wizards should guard him.

Meanwhile, John Wall continues to struggle with this whole layup thing. He blew two chances to get the Wizards within six by clanking two fast-break layups off the rim. This one was particularly bad.

This is a real shot chart.

Here’s the thing to remember about the Wizards. These are their net ratings by quarter this season:

And here is their net rating in the clutch, as defined by games within five points with five minutes or fewer left: -7.6. Negative seven point six. The only teams worse in the NBA this season were six tanking clubs and the Clippers.

So in case you’re wondering how a 91-88 lead turned into a 105-96 deficit, that’s how.

Toronto has done all this with DeMar DeRozan on the bench, by the way. Hell of a performance from Delon Wright.

This has to be excruciating for Raptors fans. Just when they look like they have momentum, Kelly Oubre dropped a three for his first points of the game. Oubre has missed 700 of his last 705 threes, or so it seems.

But fear not, Toronto. Oubre still had one boneheaded play in him, tossing the ball away in the backcourt after a nice stop. That eventually led to another C.J. Miles three and a restoration of the five-point lead.

The Wizards are daring guys like Delon Wright and Pascal Siakam to beat them. Wright did when he hit a three-pointer with about 200 feet of space, then followed it up with a nice floater.

Washington might want to consider putting Otto Porter into the game.

I’m not sure why Mike Scott did this.

Kyle Lowry had only taken six shots to this point. He’s been quiet. Why give him an opportunity to wake up? I suppose you could argue that Scott couldn’t stop his momentum in time, but that was still hella clumsy.

Scott picked up a flagrant 1 foul, and Lowry made both free throws. Then, Delon Wright got an immediate layup, and C.J. Miles hit a three on the ensuing possession. That’s gonna hurt.

Here’s what would annoy me if I was a Raptors fan (which I am not).

When these two teams played four years ago, John Wall picked the Raptors apart when Toronto played an exaggerated drop pick and roll coverage with their centers. The thought was that Wall’s inability to shoot proficiently from mid-range necessitated that.

What ended up happening was that Wall used the space given to him to pick out whatever option he wanted. I wrote about it at the time.

So why are the Raptors doing it again?

A better strategy is to switch and bait Wall into isolations, or to go under on the picks. Maybe we’ll see that in the fourth quarter. That’s what a lot of opponents have done to the Wizards this year, and the Wiz have been one of the worst clutch teams in the league.

Raptors fans can thank the heavens for Serge Ibaka, who continues to crush the Wizards on the offensive glass. This is the Wizards’ only defense against him.

This is gonna be a great finish.

Here’s a funny stat for you:

John Wall and DeMar DeRozan are a combined 9-25 from the field to this point.

John Wall and DeMar DeRozan are a combined 5-9 from three-point range.

John Wall and DeMar DeRozan are a combined 3-12 in the restricted area.

Guess John Wall and DeMar DeRozan need to stop driving and just shoot threes all the time.

I just got called for an offensive foul for typing this update.

... and there’s life from Toronto, especially Kyle Lowry, who buried a pull-up jumper in transition (lovingly referred to as a PUJIT) to trigger this timeout. Those are the shots that are expected from your stars, and the Raptors needed the boost.

This has been a notable adjustment from the Raptors.

This has been a whole lotta fun, and I’m not just saying that because my favorite team is on the right side of the scoreboard.

Turns out that John Wall is actually Pretty Good. Wall looked spry all half, knifing into the lane and setting up Washington’s supporting players. He has 13 points and 10 assists, though he also shot 3-10 and turned the ball over four times. In other words: a typical Wall game.

You can give Wall a lot of credit for Markieff Morris and Mike Scott combining for 21 points on 10-14 shooting. In fact, everyone else on the Wizards is shooting well. That’s the Wall effect. The Raptors need to figure out a way to contain him, because the way he keeps driving at Jonas Valanciunas makes me feel like it’s the first round in 2015.

Toronto started ho,t but looked tight against a more active Wizards defense than we’ve seen in a while. It’s hard to imagine where they’d be without Serge Ibaka, who poured in 14 first-half points. Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan combined for seven points on 2-8 shooting, which ... well is kinda familiar in a scary way for the Raptors.

Reminder: the Raptors have never won a Game 1 home playoff game. If their fans were hoping for a comfortable end to that hoodoo, that’s looking unlikely. The Raptors always have to do this the hard way.

Raptors fans like to think there’s a league-wide conspiracy against them, by virtue of them being a non-American team, I guess. It makes no sense, but if you repeat a baseless accusation enough times, you’ll get enough people to believe it. Us Americans are familiar with that phenomenon.

That said, this should’ve been a shot clock violation, and the referees screwed up. The Wizards recovered the loose ball and got two free throws out of the sequence. Remember this if the game is decided by a single possession.

To help even things out (maybe?), the refs called a borderline third foul on Marcin Gortat, who was starting to get things going.

The flip side of playing the entire bench at once: more time for the starters against the other team’s bench. Scott Brooks put John Wall, Bradley Beal, and Otto Porter back in at the 8:25 mark and that immediately sparked a 11-0 run. Maybe Scotty was right about his rotations after all.

Mike Scott’s been one of the few bright spots on the Wizards this season. This was quite the stuff. Poor Jakob Poeltl.

The Wizards, who have a horrible bench and kept trotting out units with only bench players all season for some reason, again trotted out a lineup with only bench players to begin the second quarter. (Sorry, Marcin Gortat was in, and he’s technically a starter. What I mean is a lineup without John Wall, Bradley Beal, Otto Porter, or Markieff Morris).

Toronto, who has an amazing bench that’s killed teams all year -- and has been especially great against the Wizards this season — also trotted out a unit with all bench players.

You’ll never believe what happened next. The Wizards kinda held their own, for a while at least. Then, C.J. Miles bombed two threes — the second of which was due to the Wizards giving him acres of space — and Delon Wright hit another. So much for that.

Dear Scott Brooks: why are you still sitting Wall, Beal, and Porter at the same time?

John Wall: pretty good after all. He sparked an 8-0 Wizards run with a corner three, lob dish to Markieff Morris, and a layup himself.

Oh yeah, he also drew an offensive foul on Delon Wright.

With Fred VanVleet injured, Toronto’s ballyhooed all-bench lineup morphed into four bench players and DeMar DeRozan. That didn’t work so well for a while, thanks to some tough Kelly Oubre man-to-man defense and flagrant lack of respect for the shooting of Wright and Pascal Siakam.

But the Wizards later let Toronto off the hook with a couple bad turnovers, allowing Toronto to maintain a five-point advantage. All in all, an encouraging stretch for the Wizards, but could’ve been even better.

This ... is not going well for the Wizards’ defense. They keep getting smushed on ball screens, which puts their shaky defense into rotations and leads to openings galore for Toronto. Serge Ibaka snuck in for a layup on one easy side pick-and-roll, and Kyle Lowry has already sliced through for one easy layup and another easy setup for Jonas Valanciunas.

Ian Mahinmi picked up two fouls in two-and-a-half minutes after Marcin Gortat picked up two himself. So, right about on schedule. With both his expensive and declining centers injured, Scott Brooks put in Mike Scott to play with Markieff Morris. The Wizards allowed nearly 120 points per 100 possessions this season when that combo shared the floor, by the way.

O.G. Anunoby was considered the weak link of the Raptors’ starting lineup. He’s made his first two threes in this game, and got an offensive board putback is well.

John Wall has two missed layups and several angry glares at the referees already. He did hit a three-pointer, though, and is at least trying to make things happen.

When these two teams played in the postseason four years ago, Jonas Valanciunas was a complete liability on both ends. A lot has changed since then. Valanciunas ended the year with a flourish and carried that momentum into Game 1 with four early points. The Wizards are trapping pick and roll and Valanciunas is eating from there.

JV’s already forced Marcin Gortat out of the game for Ian Mahinmi. That’s ... not a great sign for the Wizards.

Uhh, there’s a rain delay. In a basketball game.

It’s 27 degrees with freezing rain outside, and clearly the Air Canada Center wasn’t ready for it. This delayed the start of the game by a few minutes.

This brings back memories of the shot clock malfunctioning before Game 1 against the Nets in 2014. There’s always something with Toronto.

Don’t worry, though. Our Raptors blog made the obvious joke for you.

This seems like a bad idea, Raptors.

It sounds like the Raptors were calling out Pierce for picking against them. Pierce, of course, toyed with the Raptors in a four-game sweep as a member of the Wizards. Maybe this is Toronto’s way of trying to exorcise these demons.

This is gonna be a different kind of Game 1. It’s currently 27 degrees with freezing rain in Toronto, so Maple Leaf Square was shut down. All those cutaways outside to rabid Raptors fans that you’re used to seeing won’t be happening.

Inside, Toronto continues its tradition of placing creative T-shirts on every seat. I’ve seen better from Toronto. I’ve seen worse.

Meanwhile, here is John Wall’s pregame outfit.

Let me offer a totally baseless theory for why he chose to wear a Gucci sweater with a bumblebee on the front:

Or he just likes the sweater. I dunno.

By Eric Stephen

The Toronto Raptors had their best regular season ever and enter the NBA playoffs with the top record in the Eastern Conference, the first time in franchise history they have been the No. 1 seed. But even with home court advantage over the No. 8 Washington Wizards, the Raptors on Saturday evening will look to make history of sorts.

Toronto is been abysmal in Game 1s in their history, just 1-12 in a playoff series opener. The lone win came in 2001 against Philadelphia in the second round. In the previous four seasons it has been even worse, with the Raptors 0-7 in Game 1 of any playoff series, including 0-5 in Toronto, where Saturday’s game will be played.

These two clubs have split their four meetings during the regular season, with each team winning once on the opponent’s floor. Bradley Beal averaged 28.8 points this season against the Raptors, while DeMar DeRozan scored 26.3 per game against the Wizards.

Location: Air Canada Centre, Toronto

Game time: 5:30 p.m. ET

TV: ESPN

Announcers: Ryan Ruocco, P.J. Carlesimo, Jorge Sedano

Online streaming: Watch ESPN