Searching for their first win of the season, the Washington Wizards took a twelve 46-34 lead over the Toronto Raptors into the locker room at halftime of Monday night's matchup at Verizon Center. For the first time this season, the Wizards were the ones forcing the action and turning over their opponent, as the Raptors gave it away nine times in the second quarter alone. Toronto's second quarter sloppiness led to a 15 point advantage for Washington over those 12 minutes.
The Washington bench outscored the Raptors bench 26-5 in the first twenty four minutes. Dealing with a shoulder injury, Andray Blatche, who was a game time decision, was an integral part of that bench-scoring advantage. Blatche had six points and five boards in just 11 minutes off the bench. Jordan Crawford was also huge off the bench, getting off eight shots for nine points in 12 minutes. Everyone who has played for the Wizards, 10 guys total, has scored. After another awful shooting day against Minnesota on Sunday, the Wizards are shooting better than 45 percent tonight against Toronto.
Washington will look to build on the momentum of the second quarter to end their season-opening losing streak.
Keep up with the latest news and score updates from Tuesday night's game on our Wizards Vs. Raptors StoryStream. For more on the Wizards, visit our community at Bullets Forever, and for more from the opposing bench, check out Raptors HQ, SB Nation's Raptors blog.