Toronto Raptors guard Cory Joseph (6) leaps to pass the ball as Washington Wizards forward Markieff Morris (5) defends in the first quarter at Verizon Center.Geoff Burke
DeMar DeRozan scored 32 points, including a key 3-pointer late, and grabbed 13 rebounds as the Toronto Raptors defeated the Washington Wizards 114-106 on Friday night despite giving back a 19-point first-half lead.
Norman Powell added a season-high 21 points, including 14 in the fourth quarter, as the Raptors (37-25) pulled back into a tie with the Wizards (36-24) for third place in the Eastern Conference.
Toronto also secured a 2-1 victory in the season series, a potential tiebreaker for playoff seeding, two days after losing to Washington 105-96 in the first game of a home-and-home set.
John Wall scored 30 points and Bradley Beal added 27 for Wizards, who have now lost nine consecutive regular season series to the Raptors.
Washington shot 37 per cent (34 of 92) from the floor. After their second unit played a key role in a 26-1 second-quarter run on Wednesday night, the Wizards' bench was outscored 44-14 by the Raptors' reserves.
Beal's baseline 3-pointer gave Washington its only second-half lead at 72-71, before DeRozan hit a baseline jumper a few possessions later to give Toronto the lead for good, 76-74 late in the third.
Washington last got within one possession when Wall's 3 cut it to 108-105 inside a minute, but DeRozan answered with his own 3-pointer from an almost identical spot with 20.9 seconds left.