Washington @ Toronto preview

Last Meeting ( Feb 13, 2019 ) Washington 120, Toronto 129

The Toronto Raptors are winners of three straight but are starting to catch an injury bug that might make things a little more difficult moving forward. The Raptors will try to make it four in a row with all the healthy players they can find when they host the Washington Wizards on Friday.

Toronto was able to survive a knee injury to starting guard Fred VanVleet due to the strong play of Norman Powell, but Powell was forced to exit Wednesday's 112-99 win over the Detroit Pistons with a shoulder injury shortly after starting center Marc Gasol limped off with a hamstring injury. "As a team we're trying to get our rhythm back and now these guys go down," Raptors power forward Serge Ibaka told reporters. "...They play good and then you go down. It's nothing we can control. It's the NBA. It's very hard. But everybody has to be ready to step up and to play." The Wizards will be trying to bounce back from another tough loss after squandering an 18-point, fourth-quarter lead and dropping a 110-109 overtime decision at home against the Chicago Bulls. "We're showing signs that we're doing the right things on the defensive end, but moments like tonight, we've got to be better," Washington star guard Bradley Beal told reporters. "Execute down the stretch, and I've got to put it away. Plain and simple."

TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, NBCS Washington, TSNN (Toronto)

ABOUT THE WIZARDS (8-18): Washington was trying to pick up back-to-back wins following a four-game slide and pointed to a lack of ball movement in the fourth quarter on Wednesday, during which the team totaled 13 points, as one of the reasons for the letdown. "We may have depended on (Beal) too much," Wizards point guard Isaiah Thomas told the Washington Post. "We just didn't execute like we did to get us the lead, and I think that hurt us. That was probably the biggest thing. We played like we were stalling, for whatever reason." Beal finished 4-of-19 from the floor (1-of-9 from beyond the arc) in the loss while Davis Bertans made the most of a start in place of Rui Hachimura (groin) and scored a team-high 26 points.

ABOUT THE RAPTORS (19-8): Powell, who averaged 24.3 points on 68.3 percent shooting over the previous three games, missed a chunk of last season with a left shoulder injury and was hurt on the same side in Wednesday's win. Toronto got a triple-double from Kyle Lowry and Ibaka stepped up with 25 points and 13 rebounds off the bench to help the team overcome the injuries. "It's super concerning (that it's the left shoulder for Powell)," Toronto coach Nick Nurse told reporters. "He looked like he was in a lot of pain. Both had been playing great. It's not unlike Kyle and Serge that were really in a groove when they went down a long time ago. And (Powell and Gasol) were really in a nice groove right now."

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Raptors PF Pascal Siakam is averaging 29.7 points over the last three games and is 14-of-24 from 3-point range in that span.

2. Wizards F Moritz Wagner (ankle) sat out the last three games and is day-to-day.

3. Toronto swept the four-game series last season and took the last six meetings, dating back to the 2018 postseason.

PREDICTION: Raptors 124, Wizards 102