TORONTO—DeMar DeRozan’s big game put the Toronto Raptors in a place they’ve never been before: up 2-0 in a playoff series.
DeRozan matched his career playoff high with 37 points, Jonas Valanciunas had 19 points and 14 rebounds and the Raptors beat the Washington Wizards, 130-119, on Tuesday night as Toronto took a 2-0 lead in a playoff series for the first time in franchise history.
“I didn’t go out there planning to score 37 points, I went out there to be aggressive,” DeRozan said.
Kyle Lowry had 13 points and a career playoff-high 12 assists as Toronto set team playoff records for points in a quarter, a half and a game.
CJ Miles scored 18, Delon Wright had 11 and Serge Ibaka 10 for the Raptors, who snapped a National Basketball Association-worst 10-game losing streak in Game One with a 114-106 win last Saturday.
DeRozan, whose 37th point came on a friendly roll on a fourth-quarter free throw, equaled his total from Game Three of the second round against Cleveland last year. It was his 12th career 30-point game in the postseason. The Raptors are 9-3 in those games.
“I thought DeMar was super on the offensive end,” Raptors Coach Dwane Casey said. “We needed every point. He did an excellent job of reading what the defense was doing to him and making them pay.”
Lowry called DeRozan “an MVP-type caliber player.”
DeRozan missed his first two shots but connected on 14 of his final 21 attempts, including three of six from long range. He also converted a four-point play.
“When he’s making threes, he’s very tough to guard,” Washington’s John Wall said of DeRozan.
Toronto, which made a team playoff record 16 three-pointers last Saturday, connected on 13 of 35 from long range in Game Two, making only two in the second half.
Wall scored 29 points, Mike Scott had a career playoff-high 20 and Ty Lawson 14 for the Wizards, who host Game Three on Friday night.
“We’re the team that’s in the hole, we’re the team that’s desperate, but we have a lot of confidence,” Wall said. “We’re not down on ourselves at all.”
Wizards guard Bradley Beal missed eight of 11 shots and finished with nine points. Beal had more fouls in the first half (three) than made baskets (two).
“We need him,” Wizards Coach Scott Brooks said. “We’re going to have trouble beating this team if he doesn’t play better.”
Trailing 100-90 to begin the fourth quarter, the Wizards cut it to 108-103 with 7:52 left on back-to-back three-pointers by Scott and Lawson, and a pair of free throws from Wall.
Miles stopped the run with a long three, Toronto’s first of the second half, and the Raptors put it away with a 17-4 spurt over the next four minutes. The sellout crowd roared when DeRozan forced a turnover and saved the ball from going out of bounds, then passed to Lowry who fed Wright for an alley-oop dunk with 3:38 left, putting Toronto up, 125-107.
Raptors guard Fred VanVleet returned after sitting out Game One because of a bruised right shoulder, but looked rusty in three minutes of action at the start of the second quarter, airballing a shot and mishandling a pass before being replaced by Lowry. VanVleet did not play in the second half.
“He was tentative, he was just too tentative,” Casey said. “I felt like we had to get him out and let him rest a little bit more. He just wasn’t ready.”
Toronto set a team playoff record with 44 points in the first quarter, including 13 from DeRozan, and led 44-27 after one. All five starters made at least one three-pointer as the Raptors shot seven-for-13 from long range.
“Seven threes in a quarter, that got the momentum going,” Brooks said.
Brooks called two timeouts to try and slow Toronto, to little effect, while Wizards guards Wall and Beal each picked up two early fouls, forcing them to the bench.
“That kind of hurt us and they took full advantage of that,” Wall said.
Miles made three three-pointers and scored 11 points in the second and DeRozan added seven as Toronto broke its playoff record for points in a half by taking a 76-58 lead at halftime.
Wall scored 14 points in the third, while Toronto shot 0-for-seven from three-point range, allowing the Wizards to cut it to 100-90 heading to the fourth.
Image credits: AP