The Washington Wizards entered Wednesday night averaging 23.3 points per game off the bench, which ranked 29th in the NBA.
But it was their bench that carried them against the Raptors on Wednesday. The Wizards' reserves were the difference-makers in the second and third quarters, when the Wizards outscored the Raptors 58-30, including a 26-1 run in the first 5:54 of the second quarter.
The Wizards got to see just how much of an impact newcomer Bojan Bogdanovic can make. Bogdanovic was obtained in a trade from the Nets at the trade deadline, and after a two-point debut, he followed with 15 and 16 points in his next two games, and against the Wizards on Wednesday he finished with 27 points and six 3-pointers.
But it wasn’t just Bogdanovic. The best all-around quintet for the Wizards was him, Ian Mahinmi, Kelly Oubre Jr., Tomas Satoransky and Jason Smith. In the five minutes they played together, that group outscored the Raptors 20-5. Smith was the other scorer in the group, making all four of his field goal attempts.
All five of those players finished the second and third quarters plus-20 or better. The five Wizards starters shot a combined 8-of-28, including 1-of-8 from John Wall. None of them was better than plus-2.
One of the keys for Bogdanovic was that he was able to shoot from his most comfortable spots. He was 3-of-3 on 3-pointers from the right sideline extending out to the right wing. He’s 40-of-81 on shots from that area this season (32 percent on all other 3s).
