Wizards head north of the border to face Raptors

An Eastern Conference showdown is on tap north of the border Wednesday night, as the Toronto Raptors host the Washington Wizards at Air Canada Centre.

The Raptors sit second in the conference standings and are 2 1/2 games ahead of the Wizards and Chicago Bulls.

Toronto will wrap up a five-game homestand (2-2) and won for the eighth time in the last 10 games with Sunday's 87-82 victory over the San Antonio Spurs. James Johnson scored 20 points, DeMar DeRozan had 18 and Amir Johnson posted 15 points to go along with eight rebounds.

Johnson buried a 3-pointer with 49 seconds remaining to give the Raptors an 84-82 lead. He later made 1-of-2 foul shots and Spurs forward Tim Duncan had a costly turnover on an inbounds pass. DeRozan then sealed the win at the line.

Jonas Valanciunas grabbed 16 boards and scored eight points, and helped the Raptors hold San Antonio to 33.3 percent shooting. The win also prevented Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich of celebrating the 1,000th win of his career. Popovich reached the milestone Monday in Indiana.

The Raptors are 20-9 at home and will begin a four-game road trip after the All-Star break.

Washington has won two in a row following a five-game slide and defeated the Orlando Magic, 96-80, last time out on Monday.

Rasual Butler led the Wizards with 15 points off the bench, Marcin Gortat compiled 14 points and 14 rebounds, and Nene scored 14 points. John Wall came up short for a triple-double and finished with nine points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists for Washington, which pulled away with a 31-19 scoring advantage in the third quarter.

"Everybody was contributing," Gortat said. "John was aggressive. John has a lot of energy recently, that's why he was rebounding. Everybody was helping so that's good."

The Wizards are 12-0 this season when holding opponents under 90 points, while Wall is posting an average of 18.5 points, 10.6 assists and 5.4 rebounds in his last 10 games. He has six double-doubles in that stretch (29 overall).

Washington has a 13-12 away record and will host Cleveland after the break.

Wizards guard Bradley Beal is still nursing a toe injury and is expected to miss Wednesday's game. Raptors guard Kyle Lowry and Wall will be teammates for the Eastern Conference All-Stars this weekend.

The Raptors have won the first two meetings with the Wizards this season and are 6-1 in the last seven games in this series.

[SportsNetwork.com]