John Wall, Wizards take Game 4 over Raptors

Bradley Beal couldn’t believe it, sprinting away in anger. As Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan hauled in a rebound, he collided with the Wizards guard — resulting in yet another whistle.

With five minutes remaining, and with the game tied no less, Beal fouled out. On the most borderline of calls. Until then, Beal had been the main source of the Wizards’ offense with 31 points.

But, down one superstar, the Wizards had another step up.

Wizards guard John Wall controlled the final stretch of Game 4, lifting his team Sunday to a 106-98 win over the Toronto Raptors. Wall had 27 points — eight of the team’s last 14.

The Wizards have now won eight straight playoff games at home, dating back to last season. More importantly for Washington, the series is now tied at 2.

“We just have a lot of fight in us,” Wall said. “A lot of people, go down 2-0, a lot of people wrote us off, that we were going to get swept. I guess when the pressure is on us, we like to step up to the plate. It’s not a good position to be in … but we’re showing that we can step up to the plate.”

Wall and Beal were both phenomenal for a second straight game. Each had 28 during Friday’s 122-103 win, and combined for 58 in Game 4.

Beal said he was “beyond mad” when he was called for his sixth foul, adding he was surprised the refs didn’t throw him out of the game entirely.

“I gathered my emotions, gathered my thoughts and told my team that we were going to win regardless,” Beal said. “I knew, especially, we had John still in the game. I loved our chances. He did a great job leading guys.”

At home, the Wizards play like a different team.

The Wizards took Game 3 by being more aggressive and playing with a swagger that invoked last season’s “Death Row” persona. They thrived off the multiple skirmishes throughout the game, and kept Toronto in check.

Washington had that edge from the beginning. Early in the first, Wall blew by Kyle Lowry and leaped over Raptors center Jonas Valanciunas for a ferocious one-handed slam. After Wall landed, he swiped his arms from side-to-side and yelled, “I don’t take that [expletive].”

But while the energy was there, the discipline was not. Raptors star DeMar DeRozan, among league’s best at drawing fouls, took 12 attempts from the line in the first quarter.

The Wizards also didn’t close out well enough, allowing Toronto to shoot 75 percent from deep (3-of-4). The Wizards trailed 30-22 by the end of the first quarter.

The Wizards’ offense, however, was the reason they failed to close the gap in the first half. Wall attacked the rim only to end up sprawled on the floor. Otto Porter went without a basket. A point guard trio of Wall, Ty Lawson and Tomas Satoransky couldn’t generate points in limited minutes.

At halftime, the Wizards were just 16-of-47 (34 percent) from the field, 1-of-7 (14.3 percent) from beyond the arc and 7-of-13 (53.8 percent) from the line. It was no coincidence they trailed 51-40.

Things changed in the second half.

Beal and Porter both came out determined on offense, and they lifted the Wizards. Beal had 12 in the quarter, Porter had 10. Beal’s 23-foot 3-pointer gave the Wizards a 66-65 lead with 5:27 left in the third, fueling an eruption in the Capital Arena One crowd. The teams went back-and-forth in the following minutes, and the Raptors took advantage of Beal exiting with his fourth foul with 4:45 remaining in the quarter.

Wizards forward Mike Scott hit a running layup to tie the contest at 80 at the end of the third.

The bucket capped off a 40-point quarter from the Wizards.

The Raptors, though, opened the fourth on an 8-0 run. Washington answered back with a pair of baskets from Beal and Wall to cut the lead to two. The Wizards never looked frazzled down the stretch, even with Beal fouling out.

Wall’s takeover wasn’t just in the scoring column. He found Markieff Morris for an alley-oop. He was assertive on the defensive end.  When he went to the line with 15 seconds left, he was met with “MVP” chants from the crowd.

“You have to have resolve to win in this league,” coach Scott Brooks said. “We’ve had some tough moments this year, with John being out, missing half the season. But we found it and it puts us in the position to make the playoffs through resolve.

“You win playoff games and playoff series with having that. And we have that.”