Washington Wizards: 3 takeaways from Game 1 vs. Raptors

3. Defending down low

The first and most challenging problem the Washington Wizards displayed in the Game 1 was their complete inability to guard bigs down low.

Pascal Siakam, Jonas Valanciunas and Serge Ibaka accounted for 41 points and 27 rebounds. The Wizards didn’t seem to have much of a game plan when it came to defending the Raptors’ big men at all. Marcin Gortat started the game down low, but stood no chance against Valanciunas or Ibaka.

The Wizards then shifted to playing more of Markieff Morris down low in a small-ball lite offense. While that payed off for them on the offensive side, they still didn’t have an answer for any of the Raptors’ big men. Something that could help shift this series is if the Wizards can start to play more trap defense when Ibaka and Siakam get the ball. Neither are fantastic passers and this may be a way to minimize their effectiveness while also creating turnovers.

The Raptors out-rebounded the Wizards by three and totaled a whopping seven blocks to the Wizards’ mere three. Everyone in the league knows the Wizards are a backcourt team, but Toronto has too many different players that can do damage to you for the Wizards to lose the frontcourt battle.