If you caught the scene on the street in Washington after Game 4, you would have remembered the image. John Wall, the all-star who had just led the Wizards to their second straight win over the Raptors, sat smiling in the drivers’ seat of his resplendent convertible, happily indulging fans with post-game selfies.His choice of car seemed apt: The automobile, metallic grey and growling, was a Ferrari. And Wall is nothing less than one of the NBA’s great human street racers — a “mini LeBron,” in the words of Toronto coach Dwane Casey.. “It’s a big luxury,” Scott Brooks, the Washington coach, was saying before Wednesday’s Game 5.He was talking about the player, not the car. “It’s nice to have a guy who can break down whoever’s in front of him.”Yes, yes, it is. Finding a way to put the brakes on Wall is, from the Toronto perspective, one of the great riddles of this first-round playoff series. But Wednesday’s pivotal win — a 108-98 righting of the universe for the East’s No. 1 seed — provided some comfort in the search. Now up 3-2 heading back to the U.S. capital for Friday’s Game 6, the Raptors just need to find a way to win one more and be done with the Wall-induced head-scratching.The Raptors are winning. But the starting point guard matchup, Wall versus Kyle Lowry, definitely hasn’t been going their way, all things considered.It went far better Wednesday, when Lowry had a 17-point, 10-assist, three-steal night. And if that wasn’t enough to outdo Wall, who had 26 points, nine rebounds and nine assists, Lowry had help off the bench. Backup point guard Delon Wright, he of the deer-in-the-headlights hesitation in Game 4, coolly drilled a couple of important three pointers in the closing few minutes, scoring nine of his 18 points in the fourth quarter, this while adding a couple of timely steals of his own.That’s the kind of Wall-breaching poin ...
|
