Staring down the possibility of starting a campaign 0-3 for the first time since their dreadful 2005-06 season, the Toronto Raptors won’t have an easy time of things facing off against the Philadelphia 76ers Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. ET on Sportsnet.
Led by the all-star duo of Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid, the Sixers remain as talented and threatening as ever and without Toronto’s former fearsome centre twosome of Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka to neutralize Embiid it could be a long night for the Raptors.
With that said, however, the tiny bit of worry and adversity Toronto’s facing right now starting the season 0-2 with a good opponent in its sights next may be just what the Raptors need right now, oddly enough.
If this Kyle Lowry-led era of Raptors basketball has taught us anything over the past seven-plus seasons it’s that the Raptors are a resilient bunch that know how to bounce back from a few bumps in the road, and a great way to illustrate that point would be a big win over a big Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference rival like the 76ers.
Here’s a closer look at what we might be in for in Tuesday evening’s affair.
New centres vs. Embiid
Embiid has not enjoyed facing the Raptors the past two seasons.
Thanks largely to the efforts of Gasol, the Raptors have effectively made him a non-factor since Nick Nurse took over as head coach of the team with last season’s notorious zero-point, 0-for-11 performance on Nov. 25, 2019 being a perfect example of just how effective Toronto’s been at shutting him down.
Things may be different this go-around, however.
No longer with Gasol and Ibaka on the roster, Nurse will need to go with his new centres to try to slow Embiid down.
“I think we’ve always attacked Embiid with a two-guy platoon and different coverages depending on whether Marc or Serge was guarding him,” said Nurse after Raptors practice Monday. “It may be two guys, it may be we get our first glimpse of Alex [Len] tomorrow, I don’t think it’s a matchup for Chris.”
Yes, because of Embiid’s hulking size, as well as his backup Dwight Howard, we’re likely to see Len make his regular-season Raptors debut Tuesday, trying to check Embiid in partnership with starting five Aron Baynes.
“He’s so talented. He’s physically gifted, he’s talented on the court and he covers a lot of space, as well and takes up a lot of space,” Baynes said of Embiid. “So it’s gonna be a whole-team effort on him. He can definitely make you pay if you don’t come out ready every single possession so full credit for what he’s able to do, but we’re focused on what we need to do as a group and Nick’s gonna have a few things up his sleeve as always, I’m sure.”
No doubt, Embiid will be a handful for Baynes and Len — or whoever else — trying to check him individually, but as Baynes mentioned this shouldn’t just be a one-on-one deal here and Nurse always has something up his sleeve schematically to try to help his team limit opposing stars.
It’ll be interesting to see what, exactly, Nurse has in store for Embiid this time.
Of course, that is if Embiid even plays Tuesday. He missed a game Sunday — the second night of a back-to-back — with back stiffness and was listed as “probable” for the game against the Raptors Monday night. That means chances are Embiid will play, but given his injury history, you can never be sure.
Powell’s response
After practice Monday, Nurse was asked about Norman Powell and being the honest guy he is the Raptors coach kind of called Powell out a little.
“I would say that Norm hasn’t got on track really at all, let’s be honest. He hasn’t shown anything since the pre-season or the regular season,” said Nurse. “But I think we know he’s a veteran guy for us, he’s usually 15 points a game off the bench, which we need. Again, he’s one of our best scorers, a guy that can vault up and get a shot when we need one, when a shot clock’s running down, things like that.”
It’s no secret Powell’s struggled to start the season, even looking poor during the pre-season, so maybe this bit of public criticism from his coach can get him going here against Philadelphia.
It’s an old-school method of motivation, but for a veteran like Powell who doesn’t necessarily need to be coddled for encouragement, it just might be the message he needs to hear.
Toronto’s defence
It’s been spoken of a lot to start the season, but the fact of the matter is that the Raptors’ usually reliable, stout defence hasn’t been there in the first two games.
The Raptors have looked slow on rotations, have had communication breakdowns and have hardly been able to string together more than one or two stops in a row all leading to the team giving up a rough 111.5 points per 100 possessions to start the season.
By the sounds of things, the Raptors are aware of their problems and are trying to correct them but until we do see them back to their old defensive-monster selves how they fare on defence will be something worth monitoring closely every game here.
