TORONTO — Eastern Conference top seed Toronto Raptors recovered from a shaky start to beat the Washington Wizards 114-106 and win Game 1 of their playoff first-round series on Saturday.
Serge Ibaka finished with 23 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks and Delon Wright scored 11 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter for the Raptors, who are off to a winning start in a playoff series for the first time in almost 17 years.
DeMar DeRozan scored 17 points, C.J. Miles and OG Anunoby had 12 points each and Kyle Lowry ended with 11 points and nine assists for Toronto, which halted an NBA-worst 10-game losing streak in playoff openers.
John Wall paced the Wizards with 23 points and 15 assists, while Markieff Morris added 22 points and 11 rebounds in the defeat.
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Bradley Beal contributed 19 points, Mike Scott had 14 off the bench and Marcin Gortat finished with 12 for Washington, which shot almost 48-percent and had a 59-55 lead at halftime.
“We’ve been here before,” Beal said after the game. “We didn’t come here with the mindset that we were going to sweep them.
“We had opportunities, several opportunities, to win tonight and close it out but we didn’t. Brush it off and move forward.”
The Wizards led 91-88 early in the fourth quarter, but things turned in the favor of the Raptors after Scott was called for a flagrant foul, following an elbow that took down Lowry.
Lowry connected on both free throws and then found Wright for a layup to give Toronto the lead.
Toronto Raptors will again host Game 2 on Tuesday night.
Game Information
