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Originally Posted by BYU 14
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The Wizards managed to fend off the Bucks and the Raptors pulled off an upset of the ages in knocking out top seed Indiana in the first round. Now they match up in the second, where Washington will again have HCA due to the higher seed.
Point Guard
John Wall vs Kyle Lowry
Wall continues his awful shooting (37.5%, 23.6% from 3) in the postseason, but his volume stats are so incredible - 19.2 points, 13.3 assists, 7.3 rebounds, 2, steals, 1.3 blocks - that his inefficiency doesn't matter all that much. Lowry is shooting a humdrum 42.1% overall, but boasts a killer 40.5% shooting from 3 point range in the first round. 11.5 points, 7.1 assists, 4.7 rebounds and a steal, he's foul-prone, which projects as a terrible matchup against a point guard who is the alpha and omega shot-taker for his squad, as opposed to the first round, where
Victor Oladipo was Indiana's alpha,
Tyreke Evans the Pacers' #2 option.
Advantage: Wizards
Shooting Guard
Ricky Rubio vs Danny Green
It was jaw-dropping seeing Rubio average 5.5 boards in the first round, to say nothing of his 16 points on 54.1% shooting and 1.2 steals. On the downside, he shot just 29.6% from 3 point range and a had an A/TO ratio below 1. Still, he quietly stepped offensively against Milwaukee. Remember when Green was a star player for the San Antonio Spurs? That's not the case any more - he's aged badly and now would be a reserve on most teams. There's still some defense there from the 31 year old, and he's still got the stroke from 3 (43.8% on 2.3 attempts/game), but he doesn't assert himself and also found himself in foul trouble against Oladipo in Round 1 - averaging under 20 minutes a game.
Advantage: Wizards
Small Forward
Evan Fournier vs Kawhi Leonard
You have to feel bad for Fournier. He got demolished by
Khris Middleton in the first round and now faces another incredible player in Leonard. Lost in the shuffle was Fournier's 15.3 points on 44.7% shooting and 40% from downtown. It's going to be another painful series for him, as Kawhi averaged 35.6 points! (56.3%, 46.6% from 3 point range), 8.3 rebounds, 7.6 assists, and 1.4 steals as the Wall-style runner of the offense, particularly after Lowry got in foul trouble. If Toronto wants to win, they'll need Kawhi to carry them again (49.5 NET, 33.2 PER) and he's got the favorable matchup to do just that.
Advantage: Raptors
Power Forward
JaMychal Green vs Serge Ibaka
Bad shooting series for Washington's Green in the first round - 39% and a hideous 20.5% behind the arc on 6.5 attempts. But he still averaged 12.5 points and 5.8 rebounds while battling the
Greek Freak. His competition gets much easier this go-round. Ibaka is not even close to $21 million+ a year worthy and is vastly overrated in terms of his skillset. A decent player, but one who won't light the world on fire - 50.9% for 10.9 points and 4.6 rebounds. Although they each have different strengths, this matchup looks pretty even on paper.
Advantage: Draw
Center
Mohamed Bamba vs Jonas Valanciunas
Want to know how valuable the rookie was for Washington the first round? He had a +23.2 NET, and the next best Wizards starter was Wall with -4.6. While the 8.7 points, 6.5 rebounds, and a block on 66.7% shooting don't look sexy, if he can stay on the court, he'll have a major impact on this series. Jonas V was the #2 leading scorer at 15.7 points, 9.4 rebounds, and a block per game, but shot a mediocre 43.1%. He's foul-prone, but that won't matter against Bamba. Solid all-around player with no weaknesses outside of the fouling propensity and tendency to shoot from 3 when he shouldn't (4.1 attempts from downtown). This one will be very interesting to watch.
Advantage: Draw
Bench
Robert Covington may well be the best player on this team who doesn't get recognition league-wide. 54.2% shooting, 57.6% from 3 point range for 13.2 points in the first round, and he played shutdown defense - just 0.6 PA/SF.
That translated into a team-high 25.3 PER, ahead of even Wall's 22.1.
D.J. Augustin averaged 6.3 points, and
Ed Davis did the dirty work down low with 5.3 points and 5.5 rebounds.
C.J. Miles was a surprise volume gunner off the bench as he averaged 8.3 points, but he'll need to dramatically improve on his first round 29.4% and 29.8% from 3. Also had a quality 0.7 steals.
Pascal Siakam put up 6 points and 4.6 boards and is a quality reserve.
Delon Wright protects the ball and plays tough defense, but can't pass or look for his own shot.
Advantage: Wizards
Overall Thoughts
The series boils down to this question: Can
Kawhi Leonard single-handedly beat another team yet again? We're going to say yes - the Pacers were a better team and fell victim in 7, and the Wizards look to meet the same fate unless
Mohamed Bamba can stay on the court. If the rookie can do that against Jonas V, then Washington has a shot. But we just don't see it.
Projection: Raptors in 6
...Whatever. I think they're discounting our HCA and the fact that we're a better overall matchup than Indiana, who I think also made a mistake not starting
Dwayne Wade on Kawhi.
Game 1
We had it. We had the bleeping game in hand, and then we completely fell apart in the 4th quarter. We held
Kawhi Leonard to 23 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 blocks, and 2 steals, and limited
Jonas Valancius to 10 points and 12 rebounds, but
Kyle Lowry ripped off 21 points and 12 assists, and
C.J. Miles scored 13 bench points on 50% shooting. What a waste of
JaMychal Green's 29 points and 13 rebounds,
Evan Fournier outscoring Kawhi with 25, and
D.J. Augustin's 12 bench points. Lowry completely shut down
John Wall in this one and that was the difference. Barf.
Toronto 104 Washington 98
Game 2
So there goes HCA. Now we have to fight to avoid the sweep, and I'm not sure we can contain
Kawhi a second time. We can't. 30 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 blocks, 2 steals.
Jonas Valanciunas breaks out with 28 points and 13 rebounds. We get 15 points, 10 rebounds, 5 blocks from
Mohamed Bamba and
John Wall goes off for 43 points, 10 assists, 8 rebounds, and 4 steals, but it's just not enough, as we lose another BLEEP BLEEP game by 3 BLEEPING points. 7 frigging points separate us from 2-0 to the 0-2 hole we find ourselves in, going to Toronto.
Toronto 105 Washington 102
Game 3
Up to the Great White North we go. Toronto comes out flat and lazy, figuring they've gotten it sewn up. We seize a 23-15 1st quarter lead and never give it up.
Evan Fournier scores 21,
JaMychal Green puts up 20 points and 8 rebounds, and
Ricky Rubio reminds us he's still got game with 24 points, 7 assists, and 7 rebounds to take PotG honors. Interesting statline by
Kawhi Leonard: 29 points, 7 assists, 7 steals... and 7 turnovers. 19 and 10 from
Jonas Valanciunas and 13 bench points by
C.J. Miles, but we claw back in easily.
Washington 107 Toronto 92
Game 4
A chance to seize HCA back, but the Raptors are ready this time and blow us out. 34 points, 9 assists, 8 rebounds by
Kawhi. That's their only notable performance. We get a couple cheap man's double-doubles from
Mohamed Bamba and
JaMychal Green, and 25 from
John Wall. Oh wait,
Serge Ibaka got moved to the bench in favor of
Greg Monroe, and promptly chewed us up for 17 points. Call us cooked.
Washington 92 Toronto 110
Philly and Boston are fighting an entertaining 2-2 series that everyone's calling the real East Conference Finals. Golden State is up 3-1 on San Antonio, and Minnesota is continuing to play shockingly brilliant basketball, fencing heavily favored New Orleans to 2-2 draw thus far.
Game 5
The energy in the locker room before this one is deflated. Felt like we lost this back in the first two games. We give it our best shot, with
all five starters scoring 15 or more points, but
Kawhi sinks us with 30 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, and 3 steals,
Serge Ibaka scores 22 from the bench, and
C.J. Miles adds 11.
Ricky Rubio damn near got a triple-double with 15 points, 10 assists, and 8 rebounds, but it just wasn't enough.
Toronto 125 Washington 115
Another second round loss, in our best chance at the ECF in years.
Golden State handles the Spurs, New Orleans wins at home, and Philly pulls off a huge upset in Boston.
The Pelicans kick away the upset-minded Timberwolves, setting up the West Conference Finals
Jackson Ayorinde predicted. Boston wins in Philly to set up a Game 7 that the Celtics win with ease.
If you're predicting a Golden State/Boston Finals, you'd be right. The Celtics took apart the Raptors pretty easily - 4-1 - only dropping an 8 point loss in Toronto, while Ayorinde's predictions of the Pelicans proved sagacious. New Orleans actually took the Warriors to a hard-fought 6 games.
Crown the Warriors' asses?
4-0 sweep says yes.