WASHINGTON, April 14 (Xinhua) -- The Toronto Raptors overcame some dicey moments to get past the Washington Wizards 114-106 in their first meeting of the NBA East Conference playoffs first-round matchup on Saturday.
Raptors' top stars Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan appeared good, scoring 12 and 17 respectively, but it's other players that made the difference.
Forward Serge Ibaka had 23. Delon Wright and C.J. Miles had 18 and 12 apiece.
"Their bench was great," Wizards star guard John Wall said. "They played well, made some big shots for them, and that's what they are going to do every game. We got to make adjustments."
"They are the No. 1 seed for a reason," Wizards coach Scott Brooks said. "They have a lot of good players. Guys off the bench came in and stepped up."
However, facing the top seed of the East Conference, Washington played bravely and almost pushed their opponents to corner. They had a close battle in most of time and led several times in the fourth quarter. But some sluggish play from the Wizards in the last six minutes gave the host team chances of coming back.
Wall, who was sidelined for two months and just came back before the start of the playoffs, had 23 points and 15 assists for Washington.
Washington will have two days to find a counter to Toronto's depth as Game 2 is set on Tuesday.
