Paul Pierce embraces villain's role vs. Raptors

Paul Pierce threw the first punch before the series by stating in an interview that the Toronto Raptors don't have "the 'it'" to worry him.

He landed another by letting his play do the talking while leading the Washington Wizards to an overtime victory in Game 1.

Now, Pierce has the Raptors discussing how they plan to stop the veteran heading into Tuesday night's Game 2 in Toronto (8 p.m. ET).

"I haven't seen many people talk their way into winning a game," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. "If that's the way he feels, that's fine. Paul is a great player. His game speaks for itself."

Pierce drowned out the boos — and ignored the barbs directed at him by Toronto general manager Masai Ujiri — to score five of his 20 points in overtime of the Wizards' 93-86 victory on Saturday.

''You've just got to embrace it,'' said Pierce, who blocked Kyle Lowry's last-second shot in Game 7 to help Brooklyn knock off the Raptors in the first round last season. ''It's not that I'm a bad guy. That's just the role you portray to media on the court, on the road. Everybody is booing you, no one likes you. I embrace it. It fuels me, truthfully.''

Road warriors

Pierce saw minutes at power forward in Game 1, and that may have thrown off the Raptors. Pierce found his shot from the outside in transition and hit 7 of 10 from the field, including 4 of 7 from three-point range.

''It's a unique situation having a guy like him,'' coach Randy Wittman said. ''If I don't take advantage of having a guy who's going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer and pick his brain, then I'm not doing a very good job.''

Washington lost 15 of its last 19 road games, but it has won six of seven away from home in the playoffs over the last two years. The Wizards won all three at Chicago in last year's first round.

"You have to have that selfish attitude about getting the next game also," Pierce said. "If you can get two games on an opponent with home-court advantage, it really breaks their back."

Casey insisted the Raptors were prepared for Washington to go small with Pierce at power forward, which drew Toronto's big men out of the paint. The Wizards held a 61-48 rebounding advantage.

Foul trouble

Toronto also had to overcome Lowry fouling out with 2:36 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Raptors rallied to force OT on Greivis Vasquez's three-pointer with 25 seconds left, but Lowry finished with seven points while shooting 2 of 10 from the floor.

Lou Williams, who was named Sixth Man of the Year on Monday, shot 4 of 16 and had 10 points.

"Fouling out in general, not being able to be myself and help my teammates made it more frustrating," Lowry said. "But that's Game 1, you learn from the mistakes and you get better."

Washington's backcourt didn't shoot all that well either, as Bradley Beal finished 6 of 23 and had 16 points while John Wall hit 5 of 18 and scored 10.

Wittman said both did enough by combining for 14 assists and solid defence, but the Wizards may need more offence from the pair in this contest.

"Game 2 is going to be harder than Game 1," Wittman said. "If you're just going to be happy with [winning Game 1], then we don't have a chance. We're going to have to play better than we did in Game 1. No question about it."