» Raptors’ lottery positioning coming into focus after win in Washington

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There’s nothing like a date with the Washington Wizards to cure whatever ails an NBA team.

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The Raptors ended a four-game losing streak by triumphing 112-104 in a dreary slog of a game in D.C. on Monday night.

Both teams struggled to make shots and the Raptors pulled their most talented players for much of the fourth quarter in a possibly half-hearted tanking effort that didn’t pay off.

Jakob Poeltl was dominant, scoring 21 points on 10-for-13 shooting in an Elvin Hayes/Wes Unseld tribute to the former Washington greats. Immanuel Quickley matched Poeltl’s 21 despite shooting 5-for-16, Barnes had the same shooting line but scored 13 and was two assists away from a triple double, while Jamal Shead had 14 off the bench.

Jordan Poole led Washington with 23.

The game got off to an ugly start, with the teams combining to miss seveb of the first 11 shots, including 5-of-6 to start. But the Wizards heated up, nailed six treys in the first on 12 attempts and led 32-28 on the cold Raptors.

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Both teams couldn’t hit anything in the second, combining to somehow miss 14-of-15 threes, and Toronto led by two despite shooting 32.7% from the field. The Wizards hosted a block party early, rejecting seven Toronto shots in the second quarter alone, but just two others the rest of the game.

The two-point lead for the visitors held through three, and at the 8:32 mark of the fourth, head coach Darko Rajakovic subbed out Poeltl, Barnes and Quickley. The other Raptors responded by pushing the lead to 10 though, with rookie Jamison Battle catching fire, scoring eight straight points in one stretch.

Toronto was coming off an ugly 123-89 home loss to the San Antonio Spurs Sunday. The team finished 3-1 this season against Washington. The Wizards have sat in last place in the overall standings since Nov. 22 when both they and the Raptors were 2-12. Toronto has gone 23-35 since though, compared to Washington’s 13-44.

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Toronto went with its 33rd different starting lineup this season and rested RJ Barrett. Gradey Dick missed his 11th game in a row and Chris Boucher remained sidelined due to an illness. Ja’Kobe Walter did not play having just returned on Sunday.

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LOTTERY LOOKOUT

Taking a look at notable outcomes by teams Toronto is jockeying with in the lottery race:

Wins by Chicago Saturday, the Spurs over the Raptors Sunday and Miami finally getting a victory made it extremely unlikely either of those teams get “caught” by the Raptors in the standings. Miami moved six wins up on Toronto, Chicago and San Antonio seven (before Monday’s games).

Toronto is now likely locked into the NBA’s seventh-worst record at worst, before May’s lottery. It would take a truly crazy finish (like the Raptors winning eight more times in the final weeks and Miami, Chicago or San Antonio only winning one or two more games) for that not to happen.

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The difference between finishing seventh-worst and 10th (where the Spurs moved to after three wins in a row) is 31.9% odds at landing a Top 4 pick vs. 13.9% and a 7.5% shot at Cooper Flagg instead of 3% odds (ninth-worst gets 20.3% and 4.5% odds, respectively).

Brooklyn lost to Dallas Monday, while Philadelphia was in New Orleans. Both teams were a game worse than Toronto heading into Monday. Toronto plays at Brooklyn both Wednesday and on April 6 and at Philadelphia Sunday.

The league’s bottom 4 (Washington, Utah, Charlotte, New Orleans seems pretty much locked in in some order at this point).

@WolstatSun

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