Ticket holders for Saturday’s Wizards v. Raptors match up probably made their purchases with visions of Gilbert Arenas and Chris Bosh dancing in their head. With both stars injured for the game, instead it turned into the Roger Mason Jr. v. Jason Kapono show. It turns out this wasn’t a bad thing at all. After not playing at all in Thursday’s loss in Philadelphia, Mason Jr. came off the bench to score 15 big points, backing up strong games by Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler as the Wizards beat Toronto 101-97 Saturday night in front of a sellout crowd at the Phone Booth.

Jamsion, who was big on the boards all night, came up with the key play of the game by corralling a DeShawn Stevenson miss with the Wizards up four with 44 seconds to play. The Raptors were forced to foul after that and never threatened again. He finished with 14 rebounds and 28 points to go along with Caron Butler’s 29 points, seven assists and three steals. The Wizards “Big Two” actually outscored the Raptors starting five 57-55.

Mason Jr. did his part to lobby for more playing time, scoring 11 points in the second quarter, offsetting the 12 scored in the period by Kapono. Mason eventually cooled off, although he did hit a big bucket late in the game with the shot clock winding down, but Kapono kept firing, finishing with a season high 23 points, befuddling Wizards defenders on a variety of step backs and pump fakes to set up his jumper. Unfortunately for The Raps, he had little help as the visiting team ended up shooting 43 percent from the floor, compared to the Wizards 56 percent. After the game, Jordan made sure to let reporters know he thought his team played some pretty good defense.

Photos by Kyle Gustafson