“It’s really mental with John,” Beal said. “He always wants to play well and he always tells me, I’m not always going to play well all the time, but the advice that he gives me, sometimes he needs to take his own advice. But John will be fine.”
Gay, a Baltimore native who joined the Raptors on Jan. 30 after a trade with Memphis, scored 24 points. He provided two of the more exciting plays of game, as he spun around Trevor Ariza and dunked over Okafor in the third quarter to give the Raptors a 68-57 lead. In the fourth quarter, Wall missed a driving layup that led to a fast-break dunk. Gay put the game away with a three-pointer that put the Raptors ahead 90-79 and led many fans to head to the exits.
DeRozan also had 24 points and point guard Kyle Lowry had 11 points and 10 assists for the Raptors (22-32), who have won five in a row, and gone 18-13 since a 4-19 start to the season.
Near the end of the third quarter, bored fans started chanting, “Jordan Crawford,” hoping that Wittman would finally put the team’s second-leading scorer in the game. As fans cheered for Crawford, his teammates looked over at him with amusement as he lounged on the bench, leaning to his left and taking up two seats with a towel over his head.
Before the game, Wittman didn’t deny that the Wizards would look to make a deal by the deadline, even with the team playing better in recent weeks. Crawford hasn’t seen the floor since attempting and missing a 28-foot three-pointer in a win over the Los Angeles Clippers and has been mentioned in trade rumors, with Thursday’s 3 p.m. deadline looming.
“You’re always looking to improve your team. Always,” Wittman said. “Especially when you’re in our situation. We’re not by any means, I think, done looking at improving our team or in the offseason, when the season is over. We got to look at those scenarios that, if it makes sense for your team, to improve your team, you’ve got to look at it.”
As he walked off the court, Crawford took off his unused jersey and tossed it in disgust into the stands. A lucky woman caught it and another fan offered to pay $200 for it before realizing that he didn’t have enough cash in his wallet. He wasn’t the only one who came up short on this night.
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