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One sweep surprise: How the Wizards dispatched the Raptors

Noah Frank | nfrank@wtop.com

April 27, 2015, 2:33 AM

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John Wall’s teammates Make no mistake – John Wall was very, very good in this series. He averaged better than 17 points per game and logged a +47 in his time on the floor. Even more impressive, he notched 50 assists, up more than two per game from his already excellent season average. But a good measure of both of the second and third numbers came from the help he hasn’t gotten through much of the regular season that came through in Round 1. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Better shot selection Compare the shot chart from Washington’s third and final loss in the regular season to the Raptors — a 95-93 setback on Feb. 11 — with their Game 3 throttling Saturday night. In the loss, the Wizards hoisted 26 mid-range, low percentage jumpshots from outside the key, but inside the three-point line. That they made 13 of them was the only reason the game was close. In the victory, Washington went just 3-11 on similar shots, but took 15 fewer of those bad shots and eight more threes. They were nearly identical in the paint in both games (21-38 in the loss, 21-36 in the win), but their superior shot selection in the victory proved key. Also hidden from that chart was the fact that they drove the ball to the rim more, shooting 15 more free throws in Game 3. (basketball-reference.com)
basketball-reference.com
Three-point percentage, volume About those three-pointers – the Wizards finally found people to take them who can make them at a high rate. As a team, they shot 42.7 percent (41-96) from beyond the arc. But just as significantly, they shot with a far higher frequency than they did in the regular season, averaging 24 attempts per game during this series compared to just 16.8. (Getty Images/Greg Fiume)
Getty Images/Greg Fiume
Drew Gooden Everyone knew Bradley Beal and Paul Pierce could hit from the outside, but Gooden’s emergence from aging center to legitimate stretch-forward deep threat might have been the single most surprising development of the series. Gooden, who had never made a triple in the playoffs in his career, was 7-14 from deep this series. If he can continue to give Washington a big man who can space the floor, the Wizards’ entire outlook changes. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
AP Photo/Michael Conroy
Paul Pierce Pierce did what Pierce does. As the primary antagonist of the Raptors, he backed up his talk, shooting a ridiculous 58 percent (14-24) from deep, including a number of late daggers to put games away. He hit Washington’s lone triple in overtime in Game 1, and buried three in the fourth quarter in Game 3 as the Wizards outscored the Raptors 25-19 to finish the game. (Getty Images/Rob Carr)
Getty Images/Rob Carr
Otto Porter If Pierce is “The Truth,” Porter is “The Light,” Pierce’s youth incarnate while the old man still lives, pouring out the last of his efforts one 23-footer at a time. After a nondescript Game 1, Porter was arguably Washington’s most indispensable player not named Wall, posting a series-high +49, including game-high marks of +17 and +18 in Games 2 and 3, respectively. He hit half his three pointers and had the most or second-most rebounds on the squad in three of the four contests. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Marcin Gortat Gortat led the way on the glass, averaging 10 boards a game while the Wizards out-rebounded Toronto in every game of the series, and by an average of 10 per game. Washington sported an excellent 28.1 offensive rebounding percentage through the first three contests, and 12 of Gortat’s boards came at the offensive end. He put on an absolute show in Game 4, scoring 21 points on just nine shots en route to an otherworldly +32 in only 29 minutes on the floor. (Getty Images/Greg Fiume)
Getty Images/Greg Fiume
Randy “The Wizard” Wittman It’s no secret that Wittman is basically coaching for his job right now. Despite Washington’s overall win total, a failure to go deep into the playoffs would likely signal a changing of the guard. And, suddenly, Wittman’s team is spacing the floor, shooting better shots and looking like the unseen potential we never thought we’d witness under his tenure. We’ve seen some other dreadful charts from the Wizards this year — 27 midrange shots in both their 99-91 home loss to the Rockets March 29 and their 120-89 blowout defeat in Atlanta on Jan. 11 — but they reduced those bad shots through each of the first three games this series (29 in an OT Game 1, 21 in Game 2, 11 in Game 3). Could this be more than a mirage, an actual breakthrough in leadership that will allow the Wizards to take an honest shot at the Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference Semifinals? If so, the real Wizard is Randy Wittman, who lulled the East to sleep while clenching his fist for a massive, blindsiding counterpunch. (Getty Images/Claus Anderson)
Getty Images/Claus Anderson
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WASHINGTON — What just happened?

The Raptors and their fans are probably asking the same question, albeit from the opposite perspective of the Wizards and their delirious supporters following Washington’s stunning, clean sweep of Toronto in the first round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs. What’s perhaps more shocking was that after surviving a late run to win in overtime in Game 1, the Wizards played better in each successive game, capped by a wire-to-wire, 31-point blowout in Game 4 Sunday night.

This Wizards team looked nothing like the one that stumbled down the stretch of the regular season. They looked nothing like the one that lost all three matchups with Toronto earlier in the year. So what happened between the end of the regular season and the beginning of the playoffs that led to this completely different Washington basketball team?

WTOP takes a look at each aspect of the series that led to the historic sweep, the first in a seven-game playoff series in franchise history.

 

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