Wizards complete sweep with rout of Raptors
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Washington, DC (SportsNetwork.com) - Paul Pierce had his arms wrapped around John Wall and Bradley Beal as the trio shared a laugh on the bench in the fourth quarter.
A smiling Wall waved his towel and strutted in the corner as he cheered on some of his seldom-used teammates.
Sunday's series finale between the Washington Wizards and Toronto Raptors was never in doubt.
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Marcin Gortat had 21 points and 11 rebounds, Wall added 14 points and 10 assists and Washington routed Toronto 125-94 to sweep their Eastern Conference first-round set.
The Wizards have won their first-round playoff series in consecutive years after winning just two in the 34 seasons prior. Sunday also marked the first time they swept an opponent in a seven-game series.
"To get to four is the hardest game and I'm really proud of our group," Wizards coach Randy Wittman said. "They were locked in ... That was a workman like four wins for us."
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Washington immediately raced out to a big advantage and led by as many as 37 in the second half.
Toronto, meanwhile, failed to win a playoff game after setting a franchise record for victories.
"At the end of the day it was unsuccessful," Raptors All-Star guard Kyle Lowry said. "We got to learn from it, the regular season is completely different than the playoffs."
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Beal posted 23 points, five assists and four steals and Pierce scored 14 for the fifth-seeded Wizards, who shot 55.4 percent (41-of-74) from the field and made 15-of-26 from beyond the arc.
They will play either top-seeded Atlanta or eighth-seeded Brooklyn in the conference semifinals. The Hawks lead that series 2-1.
Lowry recorded 21 points, eight rebounds and four assists for Toronto, which has tallied just one playoff series victory in its history -- a first- round win over New York in 2001.
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"They outplayed us every single game ... They executed," Raptors All-Star guard DeMar DeRozan said.
Nene's jumper midway through the opening frame capped a 9-1 spurt and staked the hosts to an 18-8 margin.
The Wizards, who made 13-of-15 attempts from the foul line in the first while Toronto made its lone try, were up 36-22 following a quarter of play and took a 66-50 cushion into the break.
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Pierce hit a pair of early triples in the third to extend the advantage to 22 and Beal sunk three foul shots in the waning moments of the period after being fouled on a 3 to make it a 102-70 spread going into the fourth.
Game Notes
The Wizards scored 24 points off 16 Toronto turnovers ... Lowry finished 5- of-23 from long distance in the series ... Washington finished 28-of-34 from the foul line ... The Raptors were 7-of-25 from beyond the arc.