By Canadian Press

Toronto’s Delon Wright heeds advice, shoots the ball in win over Washington

Apr 25, 2018 | 9:10 PM

Toronto’s Delon Wright heard it from everyone going into Game 5 against the Washington Wizards. Stop hesitating and just shoot the ball.

“I had people all on my Twitter, Instagram. My family,” said Wright, when asked exactly who had been giving him the advice. “About 30 people. I kind of felt bad. And I saw the (Game 4) film, it was crazy.”

Wright, who had a combined 13 points on 5-of-15 shooting in the Raptors’ Game 3 and 4 losses in Washington, made six of 10 shots to finish with a bench-high 18 points Wednesday.

The six-foot-five guard scored 11 of those points in a fourth quarter that saw the Wizards lead 87-82 with some nine minutes remaining only to see Toronto claw its way back into the lead with a 12-4 run. After a Markieff Morris dunk trimmed the Raptors advantage to 94-93, Wright reeled off seven straight points to move the Raptors ahead 101-93 with two minutes remaining.

Wright did it in style, burying a 31-foot three-pointer before converting an ally-oop from DeMar DeRozan and sinking two free throws.

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“I thought Delon Wright did a good job down the stretch, handling the ball.” said Toronto coach Dwane Casey. “He gave us an opportunity for Kyle (Lowry) and DeMar (DeRozan) to get of the ball a little bit more. And I thought that was the difference.”

The long-distance three-pointer came with the shot clock winding down. “From Barrie,” said a smiling Casey

“That was a big shot for him,” he added.  

Wright, who missed his first two shot attempts of the quarter, added three rebounds and two steals in the fourth while making all four free throws.

Toronto outscored Washington 29-20 in the final quarter, holding the Wizards to .333 shooting (8-for-24). Wright played all 12 minutes.

“Everybody stepped up, Delon stepped up big,” said DeRozan.

For Casey, the Raptors went back to taking “the shots we normally take.”

That was not the case in the U.S. capital thanks to a shooting display that Casey, repeatedly, called uncharacteristic of his team.

Wright was part of that. He had six shots on 2-of-8 shooting in Game 3 and seven points on 3-of-7 shooting in Game 4.

In Game 1 he had 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting. Games 2 produced 11 points on 3-of 9 shooting.

Wright had no explanation for why he gave up shots in the fourth quarter of Game 4.

“Honestly I couldn’t even tell you,” he said. “It was just one of those things where I was trying to be kind of unselfish and make an extra pass. But there wasn’t an extra pass there.”

Wright averaged 8.0 points a game during the regular season but is getting more playing time in the post-season thanks to Fred VanVleet’s shoulder injury. 

Toronto leads the series three games to two, with Game 6 slated for Friday in Washington.

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Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press