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Holly MacKenzie – Raptors.com
It Was Over When: Toronto fell behind by 14 points after the opening quarter and couldn’t find its way back. The Raptors gave up more than 30 points in each of the first three quarters and the Wizards topped 100 points before the start of the fourth. In an elimination game the Wizards came out and played like the more desperate team.
Kyle Lowry had a brutal first quarter, picking up two quick fouls, the second extremely suspect, then being assessed a technical after firing a bullet pass to the official. Playing with two fouls, Lowry quickly picked up his third with the Raptors down eight. With Lowry on the bench, the Washington lead ballooned to 14 points by the end of the first quarter.
Wall’s All-Star Series: John Wall and Kyle Lowry shared the spotlight as the Eastern Conference starting backcourt in the All-Star game, but in this series it was all Wall. The 24-year-old point guard was sensational against the Raptors, averaging 17 points and 12.5 assists in the four-game sweep. When he wasn’t blowing by the Raptors, he was picking them apart and setting up his teammates with perfect passes.
Raptors Player Of The Game: Despite the early foul trouble, Kyle Lowry led Toronto with a team-high 21 points on 8-for-15 shooting. This was the first time Lowry topped 20 points in the series and his first time shooting better than 30 percent from the floor. He added eight rebounds (three offensive) and four assists.
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Game 4 Game Changer: Marcin Gortat had another huge game for the Wizards and dropped 21 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, two steals and a block on the Raptors.
On To The Offseason: With the loss, the Raptors’ 2014-2015 campaign comes to a close with 49 regular-season victories, a second consecutive Atlantic Division title and an 0-4 record in the playoffs. This was not the way they envisioned things unfolding when the series started nine days ago, but it will be what they think about over the summer while training for next year.
Changes On The Horizon: Part of what makes each playoff run so bittersweet is that nothing is promised with respect to the personnel in the locker room. It is understood that after a season ends the same group might not be together come training camp. With summer arriving quicker than expected, changes could be coming.
By The Numbers
30 - Assists for the Wizards who were led by John Wall. Wall finished the game with 10 assists in 25 minutes. In comparison, the Raptors recorded 17 team assists.
28 - Made free throws for Washington to 20 free throw attempts for Toronto. The Raptors made 15 of their 20 attempts, as compared to Washington’s 28 makes on 34 tries.
15 - Three-pointers for the Wizards who doubled the Raptors from beyond the arc while hitting 58 percent of their threes. Washington shot 15-for-27 from deep compared to just 7-for-25 makes from the Raptors.
They Said It:
“They outplayed us. Every single game. We fought, but they executed. They did what they were supposed to do on both ends of the floor.” - DeMar DeRozan, summing up the series
“It’s not many words you can say on T.V. without it being four letter words. Those guys played very well and you’ve got to tip your hats to the way they played tonight. They came in on a mission.” - Lowry, on Game 4
“For us, we did have high expectations, but at the end of the day it was unsuccessful. The way they came out and their level, they played extremely hard and disciplined and they executed every play they wanted to do extremely well. We’ve got to learn from it. The regular season is completely different from the playoffs. We’ve got to take that and we’ve got to understand to take it to another level.” - Lowry, on the Wizards rising to the occasion in the postseason
“We’ve just got to look at all the positives. We had a lot of great positives throughout the regular season, individual wise and team wise. As much as it hurts we really can’t forget all about the positives that we did. Understand that going into the summer, whatever might happen, we’ve got to remember this feeling and understand what it feels like to be here and not be in this position again.” - DeMar DeRozan, on the season as a whole
“I’ll say it it was embarrassing. A horrific effort on our part. I’m not going to say that we didn't try. Each and every one of us tried. We had the mindset that we wanted to bring it back to Toronto and play another game there. Nobody wanted to go out, but it was embarrassing. It was horrific. It was a let down. It was just ugly.” - Patrick Patterson, pulling no punches on the outcome of Game 4
“[It hurt] a lot more. It’s going to be a long summer for me. Patience is really going to be tested. I've just got to use this as fuel.” - DeRozan, on this year’s season-ending loss compared last year’s Game 7 loss to the Brooklyn Nets
Up Next: The Raptors will head back to Toronto to clean out their lockers, conduct exit interviews and speak with the media before dispersing for the summer.