The Toronto Raptors (14-32) trounced the Washington Wizards (6-39) 106-82 in a match-up of the NBA’s bottom-of-the-barrel teams. Capital One Arena, a little over half full on Wednesday Jan. 30, stayed remarkably quiet throughout the game. Aside from a few dunks, there weren’t many impressive shots (by the Wizards, at least), hardly any noteworthy passes, and a general haze of moroseness blanketing the arena.
The Raptors won four of their past five games, rising past the Charlotte Hornets (12-32) to third-to-last in the Eastern Conference rankings. Over the same period, the last place Wizards went 0-5, and on Wednesday they handed the Raptors their fifth consecutive win. The Wizards, whose coaches place an emphasis on developing their rookies with extensive minutes, are the youngest team in the NBA by average player age (24 years old). Only one of Washington’s youngins scored in the double digits in this game: forward Kyshawn George had 10 points. Interestingly, the Raptors are the third-youngest team with an average team age of 24.6 years. However, every one of their starters scored at least ten points—a contrast to only two of the five of Wizards starters who did so.
With rookie power forward Alex Sarr and point guard Malcolm Brogdon on the injured list, the Wizards nursed the loss of two of their top six scorers. This was an unfortunate time for injuries, seeing as their level of play is similar to the Raptors when looking at the league as a whole.
The teams met for the first time this season on Wednesday, with the Wizards in their “The District” jerseys. The District felt embarrassed by their team right off the bat. It took five minutes and nine seconds for the Wizards to get on the board after six attempts by shooting guard Jordan Poole, center Jonas Valanciunas, shooting forward Kyle Kuzma, forward George, and shooting guard Bilal Coulibaly (who airballed a three-point attempt). In an attempt to prevent a shot from Raptors guard Ochai Agbaji, shooting guard Jordan Poole ran back on defense and ended up on the ground (remember this: it becomes a recurring theme). Valanciunas made a two-point jumper to break the drought. Surprisingly, the crowd cheered: they had good reason for already giving up.
In the following minutes in the first, Valanciunas, the Wizards’ big man, dribbled around the perimeter and accidentally bounced the ball off his defender’s foot. Why, one might ask, is he acting as a guard? Poole was out there! This sequence preceded another complete airball from Coulibaly, this time from in the paint.
With 4:20 seconds left in the first, the score was 21-4, Raptors. The Wizards’ points came from Valanciunas’s shot and his two good foul shots. At this point, forward Richaun Holmes subbed in for Valanciunas—outstanding strategy, taking the only scorer from the court. However, Holmes picked up two foul shots, and a security guard cheered for him. She might’ve been the only one to do so.
The first highlight from the Wizards came with 2:43 left in the first, when small forward Corey Kispert slammed in a one-handed dunk off a Coulibaly assist to make it 10-25. The first quarter ended with the Wizards boasting an impressively low field goal percentage: 25 percent.
The second quarter opened. The aroma of chicken tenders and honey mustard held more appeal than watching the Wizards flounder. Kuzma notched a rebound and shot a jumper from the glass for his first points of the game two minutes into the second quarter (he started). At no point had the team heated up—not even a hint of detectable momentum. Kispert tried his hand at a couple more baskets, but made up for his lackluster shooting with some hearty defense. Head coach Brian Keefe soon subbed him out for small forward Justin Champagnie. Even in team camaraderie the Wizards kept missing—Champagnie and Kispert tried three times before landing a clean high five with each other. Not too auspicious of a sign.
Champagnie promptly proved my feeling wrong with a three. I wish that’d be enough for a champagne celebration, but for this team, it might be. Champagnie went on to score twelve points and snag six rebounds in just fifteen minutes of playing time. He even blocked a shot by Toronto center Jakob Poeltl before being subbed out for George, demonstrating Washington’s commitment to developing their most inexperienced players.
Toronto small forward Scottie Barnes consistently punished Washington, marking 24 points and four assists. He contributed to the nearly 20-point lead the Raptors held over the Wizards at the half, 57-38. Washington seems to be swimming in basketball teams down by double digits. The Wizards field goal percentage rose to around 33% percent from the first quarter, but Toronto kept a 52% pace, and had 8 steals to our 3.
The halftime entertainment provided by Rhythmaya, a bunch of adorable kids dancing to Bollywood remixes of pop songs, reminded me of the talent of skilled professionals. Maybe they could teach the Wizards a thing or two. 19 year old guard Bub Carrington, another rookie player, took shooting practice after their performance. He hadn’t scored in the first half: perhaps the dance troupe inspired a growth mindset.
The second half kicked off with deliberation of possession on an out-of-bounds ball. Only a handful of boos followed the declaration of Toronto ball. The Wizards spun the ball around the horn more this half, mostly unsuccessfully. Poole slid to the ground (on-ground Poole count: 2) on defense on point guard Davion Mitchell’s two pointer.
Valanciunas’s failure to prevent a Barnes alley-oop was rewarded on the other side with a Kuzma dunk off of a George floater. The Wizards trailed 43-66. Kuzma also ended up on the ground after a scoring play. It makes sense that they’d be rolling around a lot—they’re getting as low as our expectations for them. A Raptors timeout allowed the Wizards’ Dancers to show that they’re more in sync than the Wizards players.
Kuzma ended up on the ground again after a driving layup to make it 52-75 (his second time). After a Wizards shot clock violation, Champagnie stole the ball and passed to Kuzma, who missed his jump shot and fell, once more, to the ground. He and Poole had been there five times already tonight. It’s amazing they’re not injured.
The third quarter solidified the Raptors’ lead, 80-58. Kuzma brought a spark of joy in the fourth quarter with another one-handed slam dunk over 6’10” Raptors center Orlando Robinson. Back down on defense, he fouled Barnes, whom the crowd booed in solidarity. Barnes made both foul shots anyway. Later, Kispert fed the ball to Kuzma, who fell on his shoulder during his shooting attempt (his fourth time on the ground!). George unexpectedly made a three point jumper, but negated it a possession later with a travel.
Play slowed a bit with some late-minutes players appearing from the bench, like power forward Tristan Vukcevic, forward Patrick Baldwin Jr., and guard Johnny Davis. With 4:22 left in the game, Toronto stole from the second-string men and Washington missed more. One brave Wizards fan chanted “defense” at the players, despite the 99-73 point differential. Unfortunately, they’d need more offensive capabilities for that defense to be worth anything.
In the last minutes of the game, besides a graceful fast-break layup from Champagnie, the pace was lethargic. Families filed out, and the loudest fans remaining were those who had gotten into kegs. The final score, Raptors 106 to Wizards 82, was unsurprising. No miraculous comebacks nor spectacular performances—just more of the same for Washington.
Kuzma was Washington’s leading scorer with 19 points and 10 rebounds, bringing home a double-double. Poole finished with a pitiful three points despite playing 29 minutes. On Toronto’s side, Agbaji and Poeltl supplemented Scottie Barnes’ 24 points with twelve apiece.
On Thursday Jan. 31, the Wizards will take on the Lakers at home, who will hopefully show them mercy. The Wizards have now lost six games in a row—coincidentally, that’s the same number of games they’ve won this season. Maybe the Wizards’ performance against the Raptors predicts some Bronny James playing time. If the Wizards can be called an NBA team right now, Bronny can be called an NBA caliber player. (That’s more of an insult to Bronny than the Wizards.) The Wizards may have fallen (quite a lot), but all there is for them to do now is rise.
