Wizards Gains Third Win in a Row;Beats Raptors

Bradley Beal scored 20 points lifting the Washington Wizards to a 90-84 victory over the Toronto Raptors  on Monday night, gaining the Wizards third win in a row.

DeMar DeRozan topped Toronto (23-34) with 25 points, while Kyle Lowry added 18 on an ugly night for both teams. Amir Johnson grabbed a team-high 13 rebounds.

A.J Price and Martell Webster each added 12 points for the Wizards . Nene had 11 points and nine rebounds, while Emeka Okafor grabbed 13 rebounds to go with eight points.

“I feel a lot more comfortable and I have a lot more confidence as well” Beal said. “ Its a learning process for me and its been like that the whole year. Now the game is slowing down for me, so I'm making easier reads. I'm starting to learn how teams are playing and I'm just playing off to that.”

The Raptors had been one of the hottest teams in the Eastern Conference in February, and began the game four spots out of the eighth and final playoff spot.

But the positive vibes fizzled with Monday's horrible performance that saw the team trailing 63-54 heading into the fourth quarter against the NBA's worst road team (5-22).

The Raptors managed to pull within six points a couple of times down the stretch and then a DeRozan free throw cut the Wizards' lead to five with just over a minute to play.

 But John Wall put the visitors back up by seven with 46 seconds left which had many of the fans headed for the exits.

  Rudy Gay, who's been solid since he was acquired in last month's trade with Memphis (the Raptors are 7-4 with Gay in the lineup), had an off night. He shot just 1-for-11 from the field.

The Air Canada Centre crowd of 16,705 was more polite in its reception of Andrea Bargnani, who finished with eight points in 21 minutes. Raptors fans have been booing the much-maligned Italian since he returned from injury, but both Lowry and coach Dwane Casey have been vocal in their criticism of the jeering.

Both teams lumbered out to a horrible start, with the Raptors shooting 33 per cent in the first quarter, just slightly better than the Wizards' 27. Washington ended the first quarter up 17-16.

The second wasn't much better. Both teams continued to play bad basketball, but the Wizards were a little less horrible and a three-pointer by Beal a minute before halftime gave the visitors a 10-point lead. The Wizards took a 40-32 lead into the locker-room at the break.

 A three-pointer by Lowry tied the game at 49-49 with 4:16 to play in the third, but that was as close as the Raptors would get as the Wizards led 63-54 with a quarter left.

Source: sports.yahoo, washingtontimes.com

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