The Washington Wizards are winning big at both talking and playing.
John Wall had 26 points and 17 assists, Bradley Beal scored 28 points and the Wizards beat the Toronto Raptors 117-106 on Tuesday night to take a 2-0 lead in their first-round play-off series.
Marcin Gortat scored 16 points, Otto Porter had 15 and Paul Pierce added 10 for the Wizards, who host Game 3 on Friday night.
In a series that started with talk about Pierce’s criticism of Toronto’s talent, Beal fired another verbal salvo in a television interview at the end of the second quarter.
“They think that we’re some punks, they think they can push us around,” Beal said of the Raptors. “But we’re not rolling.”
RELATED
– Kevin Jeffers and Jonathan Raymond discuss all things NBA play-offs in the Extra Time podcast
They aren’t rolling over, but the Wizards may just be rolling into the second round.
Still, while they are comfortable talking trash, none of the Wizards want to get too comfortable with their series lead.
“We’ve got to play like we’re down 0-2,” Beal said of Game 3. “Nothing changes. We can’t stop being aggressive.”
Wizards coach Randy Wittman echoed Beal’s comments.
“It’s hard winning four games in a series,” Wittman said. “And as you continue to move on, the harder it gets. Game 3 on Friday is going to be harder to play in than these first two games. It just gets that way as the series moves on.”
Jonas Valanciunas had 15 points and 10 rebounds while Sixth Man Award winner Lou Williams and DeMar DeRozan each scored 20 points for the Raptors, who have lost four straight play-off games over the past two seasons.
“It’s far from over,” DeRozan said. “Our confidence is still high. All we’ve got to do is take it game by game.”
Patrick Patterson had 15 points and Amir Johnson added 10 for Toronto, who have won just one play-off series in six previous post-season appearances.
“Now it’s all about pride,” Johnson said. “We have to take it to Washington and get one and get some momentum.”
All-star guard Kyle Lowry, who fouled out of Game 1 with seven points after missing eight of ten shots, struggled again. Lowry limped to the locker room midway through the fourth quarter with a bruised left shin and did not return. He finished with six points on 3-of-10 shooting. The Raptors said Lowry will be re-evaluated Wednesday.
Just as they did in Saturday’s Game 1 win, the Wizards used a second-quarter surge to take the lead. Beal scored 16 points in the second, including a three that started a 13-0 run to put the Wizards up 60-49 at half-time.
Beal, said Raptors coach Dwane Casey, “got going because we lost him on transition defense”.
The Raptors struggled after Lowry picked up his second and third fouls in an 11-second span and spent the final 9:18 of the half on the bench.
“That’s when we got in trouble,” Casey added.
The Raptors opened the third quarter with a 12-3 spurt, cutting the deficit to 63-61, but Washington responded with 10 straight points to restore their double-digit lead. Wall scored 10 points in the third as the Wizards took a 97-75 lead into the fourth, leading to boos from the Air Canada Centre crowd.
In Houston, Dwight Howard scored 28 points and James Harden added 24 to help the Houston Rockets coast to a 111-99 victory over the Dallas Mavericks to take a 2-0 in their play-off series.
Howard and childhood friend Josh Smith dominated early in the fourth quarter to help the Rockets pull away.
The Mavericks scored the first four points of the fourth quarter to take a three-point lead. But with Harden on the bench, Houston scored the next 11 points, powered by three alley-oop passes from Smith to Howard, to take a 92-84 lead with about 8 minutes left.
Smith, who connected with Howard on six alley-oop passes, finished with 15 points, nine assists and eight rebounds.
Monta Ellis had 24 points for Dallas, but big men Dirk Nowitzki and Tyson Chandler combined for just 21 points.
Game 3 is in Dallas on Friday night.
And in Cleveland, LeBron James scored 30 points, Kyrie Irving added 26 and the Cleveland Cavaliers finally shook off Boston in the fourth quarter, beating the Celtics 99-91 go up 2-0 lead in their opening-round series.
James scored 15 points in the fourth quarter, moved past Hall of Famer Jerry West on the career play-off scoring list and made sure the Cavs didn’t slip up at home. He and Irving combined for all of Cleveland’s 24 points in the final period.
Timofey Mozgov added 16 points and Tristan Thompson had 11 rebounds for Cleveland, who have had a tougher time than expected with a young Boston team.
Isaiah Thomas scored 22 points for the Celtics, who scrapped and clawed until the final minutes. Boston’s bench outscored Cleveland’s 51-7.
Game 3 of the best-of-7 series is Thursday night in Boston.
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE