Paul Pierce did everything he could in the second half on Wednesday night to put his Washington Wizards in a position to win their finale before the All-Star Break in Toronto.

But the rest of the Wiz went cold in the fourth quarter, and despite 11 second half points from The Truth, Washington couldn’t hold on to a double-digit third quarter lead as the Raptors clawed back for a 95-93 victory on their home court.

Washington Wizards v Toronto Raptors

The deciding factor ended up being the inability of the shorthanded Wizards, who were playing without star scorer Bradley Beal, to knock down shots. Washington connected on just 7-of-22 attempts in the fourth quarter compared to 7-of-16 for Toronto.

As a whole, the Wiz were let down by their outside shooting. They made only 5-of-21 attempts from three-point range while the Raptors went 11-of-26 from deep. Although the Wizards let one slip away head coach Randy Wittman wasn’t discouraged by his team’s performance, and told reporters afterward that the Raptors simply made one more play than his team did.

“It was a hard-fought game,” Wittman said. “I thought we rebounded the ball well. The sloppy turnovers we have to eliminate. We moved the ball pretty much the way we wanted to. We didn’t shoot it particularly well from three, which they did, which kind of hurt us.”

The Truth gave his all—17 points on 7-of-12 shooting to go with three rebounds, two assists and a block—and helped Washington stay ahead of Toronto for much of the second half after trailing by two at halftime.

After a quiet first half with just six points and a single assist, Paul broke out in the third. Early in the frame with Washington down by one, 58-57, No. 34 snagged a rebound and found Nene for a midrange jumper to give the Wizards a lead.

Just 30 seconds later, The Truth knocked down a deep three, his first of the game, to put Washington up four. Then on the next Wizards possession, he drove to the hoop and missed a layup, but was there to tip in his own miss and put D.C. up by six. After Nene forced a turnover on the other end, Wall missed a three but the Wiz grabbed the rebound and got the ball back into No. 34’s hands. Without hesitation, Paul fired up another three, nailing it to put Washington up by nine.

His personal 8-0 run gave the Wizards some needed momentum, and when he came out near the end of the third, they were up 75-72 with John Wall at the free throw line.

Over the next several minutes, with Paul on the bench, Washington struggled to connect from the field and when he came back in with just 4:45 remaining in the contest, the Wizards trailed by two. The Truth wasted little time getting D.C. back even and knocked down a mid-range jumper to tie the game at 89 just 12 second after returning to the game.

But the final four minutes of the contest were not kind to the Wizards. After Paul tied it up, Washington committed back-to-back turnovers, then missed six of their final seven shots. The Truth played exceptional defense on Raptors star DeMar DeRozan all night, but the athletic wing made a very difficult shot over Paul’s outstretched arms to put Toronto up 95-93.

After DeRozan’s big bucket, the Wizards still had 12.9 seconds to tie the game up or take the lead. But Wall had a layup blocked out of bounds, then missed a deep three at the buzzer to spell defeat for Washington.

After the game, center Marcin Gortat, who did not play in the fourth quarter told reporters that the Wizards made key mistakes throughout the game, not just in the final frame, that led to the tough loss.

“We relaxed too much, and we just can’t do that,” Gortat said. “Unfortunately, each one of us made too many simple, easy, small mistakes. That’s how you lose the game. I won’t look at the last quarter, I’ll look at the whole game. We had a few situations where we were supposed to swing the ball or take a better shot or have a different rotation and unfortunately we didn’t do it.”

The loss, coupled with a win by the Cleveland Cavaliers and a day off for the Chicago Bulls, dropped the Wizards (33-21) to a tie for fourth place with the Cavs in the Eastern Conference standings. The Wizards and Cavs trail the Bulls by just half a game. They also now trail the first-place Atlanta Hawks by 10 games and the Raptors by 6.5 games.

Washington will have more than a week to regroup before their next game, after the All-Star Break and Gortat revealed on Wednesday night that on his way out the door, The Truth had a message for his teammates.

“We’ve got to continue to work on it,” Gortat said. “Just as Paul said after the game, we have to clear our heads. We have to come back strong after this break and start playing the basketball that we want to play in the playoffs—championship basketball.”

NEXT UP

The upcoming All-Star break is the longest in NBA history and gives the Wizards eight days off before their next game, when they host LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers (33-21) on Friday, February 20 at the Verizon Center.

Though the teams are currently tied with identical records, that won’t be the case by the time they meet. The Cavs take on the Bulls this Thursday night before beginning their seven-day break.

Next week’s game will mark the third of four meetings between the Wizards and Cavs and each team has a win on their home court from back in November. In those two games, Paul combined for 24 points on 8-of-12 shooting to go with eight rebounds, five assists and a block.

Next Friday’s game will tip-off at 8 p.m. ET and will be broadcast nationally on ESPN.

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