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YOUR Washington Bullets just beat the team with the best record in basketball... albeit without KD!

They travel north and have to pass through customs to face the Raptors. The Raps will be without All-Star Kyle Lowry until the playoffs most probably. They have been right there with the Bullets in playoff seeding which makes this home and home series huge.

The Wiz are going on a couple seasons of NOT beating the Raptors in the regular season. The last win against Toronto came in the 2015 Playoffs.




-------------------------VS-------------------------



LAST GAME

Warriors vs. Wizards (W) - 108-112
Raptors vs. Knicks (W) - 92-91

Lineups:











Bench:

If we can pull off these two wins against the Raptors....WHEW! Their trade deadline acquisitions got me a tad nervous but I believe we can do it.

Not true FAH. We beated Raps in Toronto after 2OT as I recall correctly. Gortat with the put back to force OT and Wall goes off in 2OT.

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Good luck charm:

Seems to me that to wind up the season ahead of the Raptors we really have to win both of these next two games.

We are tied with them in the standings, but they've played two more games overall. They've played 4 more away games & 2 fewer home games. Fair to say that they are likely to post a better record in 10 home games & 12 away games than we are in 8 home games & 16 road games. Two wins now will close that gap.

IOW, tonight is big. Go Wizards!

These two wins will be huge. I expect the Wizards to jump on the Raptors tonight.

Raptor fan just visiting. Wiz may be the scariest team in the East outside of the Cavs. Gotta give them credit for not overreacting after a really tough year last year and trying to move a ton of pieces out and bring in different guys.

whysoserious wrote:Raptor fan just visiting. Wiz may be the scariest team in the East outside of the Cavs. Gotta give them credit for not overreacting after a really tough year last year and trying to move a ton of pieces out and bring in different guys.

Our GM refused to sign anybody in the summer of 2015 in an attempt to save cap space for this past summer (KD). Last season was the front office sending the message, "this is a transition year, this year doesn't matter". Our entire team was expiring contracts.

Meliorus wrote:

whysoserious wrote:Raptor fan just visiting. Wiz may be the scariest team in the East outside of the Cavs. Gotta give them credit for not overreacting after a really tough year last year and trying to move a ton of pieces out and bring in different guys.

Our GM refused to sign anybody in the summer of 2015 in an attempt to save cap space for this past summer (KD). Last season was the front office sending the message, "this is a transition year, this year doesn't matter". Our entire team was expiring contracts.

Good point, and it's good he had ownership support. The thing is missing the playoffs and missing on KD, many GM's feel the pressure and make moves that actually hurt the team in a rush to get back to the playoffs and Washington didn't make those rash decisions. They changed coaches which was huge and is paying off.

payitforward wrote:Seems to me that to wind up the season ahead of the Raptors we really have to win both of these next two games.

We are tied with them in the standings, but they've played two more games overall. They've played 4 more away games & 2 fewer home games. Fair to say that they are likely to post a better record in 10 home games & 12 away games than we are in 8 home games & 16 road games. Two wins now will close that gap.

IOW, tonight is big. Go Wizards!

Lowry's out for the remainder of the regular season, though. They did add Ibaka and Tucker and have had a little surge just now, but they were struggling before that (even with Lowry) and there's still a decent chance that they get into some trouble here.

Against their season norms, they're almost sure to improve defensively but there's no way that they're the fourth best offense in the league closing out the season like they rank now. They'll probably go from the 4th ranked offense and the 17th ranked defense to be more like 15th and 7th, respectively. Not sure where that would put them, but they're basically a completely different team.

These next two are obviously huge games, though.

I hope Jennings meets the team in Toronto and signs his contract after the 5 pm waiver clearance and then is able to suit up and play. I think we're going to need him tonight.

The Raptors should be feeling good about themselves riding that three game winning streak but smoke and mirrors comes to mind when I look at how they've won those games.

Washington hasn't exactly distinguished itself coming out of the break but on paper Washington should have the edge.

Wizards played last night so that's a factor, but the Raptors are on their third game in four nights, so it's not like they're well rested.

I like Washington in this one, confidence is high, and it's been a minute since we've had all 5 starters click at the same time, seems like Washington is due for breakout performances from Porter and Gortat.

Stopping Derozan is going to be key. I'd like to see Washington mix it up with Porter getting the bulk of the minutes against him, he's got enough length to bother him.

I'd also like to see Mahinmi get an opportunity to guard Ibaka in stretches, Morris against him doesn't strike me like a very favorable matchup.

whysoserious wrote:Raptor fan just visiting. Wiz may be the scariest team in the East outside of the Cavs. Gotta give them credit for not overreacting after a really tough year last year and trying to move a ton of pieces out and bring in different guys.

Well, there weren't a ton of pieces to move out, Grunfeld made sure of that, unintentionally of course, and the guys he brought in with nearly $30 million to spend have barely contributed at all.

He's redeemed himself to a degree with the deadline deals judging by this extremely small sample size, but whether this deal was worth it will come down to whether Bogdanovic continues his play and on whether he will be back next year.

Otherwise we just created a huge hole by shipping out a first rounder to remove yet another one of Ernie's mistakes (Nicholson).

Major props to Brooks for keeping the team together after that poor start and then of course the players stepping up in a huge way.

Beal is lightyears ahead from where he was last year, Otto has taken a significant step forward and Morris has surprisingly established himself as a serviceable starting forward. No reason to talk about Wall and Gortat, they've been doing it consistently for quite some time now.

I'm almost more impressed with what the Raptors have done to be honest though.

Lowry and Derozan have carried Toronto despite not getting a chance to play together for the full season so far and they've mostly taken care of teams they should beat, while having some spirited battles with the top teams in the league.

Should be a good one.

i'm mostly interested in how the front court battle goes, how do Kieff and Gortat hang with Ibaka and Jonas?

Dark Faze wrote:i'm mostly interested in how the front court battle goes, how do Kieff and Gortat hang with Ibaka and Jonas?

Well, Jonas has regularly shriveled up against Gortat and the Wizards, I'm not too worried about that matchup but Kieff against Ibaka could be an issue.

Not a lot of outside shooting for the Raptors so second chance points could be a huge factor. Morris will have to box out and be a man on the boards.

queridiculo wrote:

Dark Faze wrote:i'm mostly interested in how the front court battle goes, how do Kieff and Gortat hang with Ibaka and Jonas?

Well, Jonas has regularly shriveled up against Gortat and the Wizards, I'm not too worried about that matchup but Kieff against Ibaka could be an issue.

Not a lot of outside shooting for the Raptors so second chance points could be a huge factor. Morris will have to box out and be a man on the boards.

Ya, Jonas has rarely played well against the Wiz/Gortat. Raps lack of shooting forces them to slow it down even more and Tucker/Carroll/Ibaka/JV can all get on the offensive glass so that will be important for Raps along with how the refs call the game. Wiz get a lot of strips from their guards wings and guys like Tucker/Carroll/Ibaka play physical too so the way the refs call it will be important.

Mojo Amok wrote:

payitforward wrote:Seems to me that to wind up the season ahead of the Raptors we really have to win both of these next two games.

We are tied with them in the standings, but they've played two more games overall. They've played 4 more away games & 2 fewer home games. Fair to say that they are likely to post a better record in 10 home games & 12 away games than we are in 8 home games & 16 road games. Two wins now will close that gap.

IOW, tonight is big. Go Wizards!

Lowry's out for the remainder of the regular season, though. They did add Ibaka and Tucker and have had a little surge just now, but they were struggling before that (even with Lowry) and there's still a decent chance that they get into some trouble here.

Against their season norms, they're almost sure to improve defensively but there's no way that they're the fourth best offense in the league closing out the season like they rank now. They'll probably go from the 4th ranked offense and the 17th ranked defense to be more like 15th and 7th, respectively. Not sure where that would put them, but they're basically a completely different team.

These next two are obviously huge games, though.

At least in the reg season, Lowry gave Wall fits. No predictions but I'd just say they lost
an important piece when you're talking about playing against the Zards. Joseph is a
capable backup though we'll have to wait and see how he does as a starter.

Hopefully they'll do no worse than split these 2 games.

dobrojim wrote:At least in the reg season, Lowry gave Wall fits. No predictions but I'd just say they lost
an important piece when you're talking about playing against the Zards. Joseph is a
capable backup though we'll have to wait and see how he does as a starter.

Hopefully they'll do no worse than split these 2 games.

Yeah, I could live with a split, but getting both of those games and then going up against Orlando on Sunday would set the Wizards up really nicely going into that final stretch.

Yes it would.

BTW - I hope Kief/spleef made it through customs OK.