The Wizards franchise has never swept a team in a best-of-7 series in the NBA playoffs, and had never even gone up 3-0 in a best-of-7 series until Friday’s victory in Washington. Even with all of the struggles faced by Washington this season, they have managed to walk all over a team they failed to beat in the regular season. Now, it is their turn to send the Raptors home and do something no other Wizards team has ever done.
No team in the history of the NBA has come back to win a series from a 3-0 deficit, so history is on Washington’s side. As long as they are able to hold off a push from Toronto in any of the next four games, the Wizards will win the series, but closing it out on home court would be special for the fans. After suffering a playoff loss to Indiana at home last season, Washington fans were chanting “let’s go Wizards,” and this year, they aim to do it after a playoff sweep.
The frontcourt for Washington is going to seal the deal tonight and secure the first four-game sweep in franchise history. Nene and Marcin Gortat have yet to perform at their top-level on the same night so far this postseason, and tonight has to be the night they decide to show up on the same night. Both have performed well enough to help Washington win the first 3 games of the series, but need to bring everything to send Toronto packing.
We all know Paul Pierce is going to bring his all to shut up the Toronto fans to make sure he wont “have to go through customs again.” With all of the talk going on between Pierce and Toronto, it would not be surprising if there was some scrappy play once the Wizards put the game away. As long as Pierce continues to win games, there isn’t much you can hate about him.
The starting backcourt of John Wall and Bradley Beal have to close this one out if they want to show people they are the best backcourt in the league. Earlier in the season, there was a lot of talk about how they were one of the top backcourts, but that talk died down a little as the Wizards began to slide. Once they learn how to finish, they will be right back in that discussion.
A Wizards sweep would not only mean so much to the franchise as a whole, but to the players and fans involved as well. Nobody expected the Wizards to be competing in this series, but they have come out and grabbed a commanding 3-0 lead. Now, all they have to do is finish the Raptors off and make history.
