The Toronto Raptors have nothing to lose in their first-round series against the Philadelphia 76ers, who carry the weight of expectations due to the presence of two future Hall-of-Famers and three max players in their starting lineup, not to mention homecourt advantage in the first-round series.
But the Raptors don’t see themselves as warm-up acts for the Sixers power couple of Joel Embiid and James Harden. They look at the Sixers as a team with vulnerabilities they can exploit and themselves as having strengths Philadelphia might have difficulty matching.
But the Raptors’ best chance is if they can control the nature of the competition and force the Sixers into uncomfortable places thanks to the very specific ways the Raptors believe they have to play to win games — especially against teams with higher-end top-line talent.
Well, better luck in Game 2.
Because the Philadelphia 76ers put on a seminar on how to turn the Raptors’ weirdo ways on their head and served themselves up an all-too-easy 131-111 win.
And luck? From the Raptors point of view that will have to start with hoping that star rookie Scottie Barnes — the team’s bright spot in his playoff debut — is not as badly injured as it appeared when he was helped off the court by his teammates after writhing in pain as Sixers star Joel Embiid — all 300 pounds or so — stepped on his left foot and ended his night early in the fourth quarter.
The Raptors can only hope Embiid’s big foot didn’t end the rookie’s season, because the way the Sixers played in Game 1, it might not have too many games left.
It’s only one game of a seven-game series, but the Raptors were beaten by a better team playing superior basketball.
Just one example? The Sixers counted 29 assists on 43 made field goals against — astoundingly — just three turnovers for the game. It doesn’t get much better than that.
But that was one example of Philadelphia doing what they wanted and what they needed with the Raptors only able to watch, barely affecting the trajectory of the game.
The Raptors’ path to success generally relies on controlling the offensive glass; forcing teams into turnovers and mistakes and making opposing stars’ lives a vision of basketball hell thanks to double and triple teams when necessary and an accompanying flurry of long, reaching hands and arms every time their opponents touch the ball.
It’s an approach that has worked over-and-over again during the regular season when teams don’t have the luxury or the energy to adjust their game plan for a couple of meetings a season.
But the playoffs give teams the luxury to prepare, and full credit to the Sixers, they were extremely well-prepared.
The Raptors didn’t play particularly poorly — early in the fourth quarter they were shooting better than 50 per cent from the floor, were 12-of-26 from three and had made just seven turnovers: all outstanding levels for them. Four of their five starters were in double figures.
But the Sixers were playing almost perfectly as they shrink-wrapped the paint to keep the Raptors off the offensive glass, while forcing their way into enough of their own to make Toronto pay for all the running around they do to help defensively. They were antiseptic with the ball all game and while Sixers stars Embiid (19 points and 15 rebounds) and Harden (22 points and 14 assists) made themselves known, the attention they drew created ample chances for Philadelphia’s secondary players to shine and they bathed themselves in the light.
No one more than second-year guard Tyrese Maxey who finished with a career playoff-high of 38, while Tobias Harris had 26 points on 14 shots.
The Raptors were led by Pascal Siakam who had 24 points and seven assists while Fred VanVleet and OG Anunoby had 18 and 20, respectively. Barnes looked comfortable in his first playoff start, chipping in 15 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists before going down with his injury after 32 minutes.
That signalled the end, but before that you kept waiting for the Raptors to force a mistake and turn a trickle into a torrent, but the Sixers were so tidy, Toronto could never get rolling.
The Raptors didn’t let go of the rope easily. The effort was there. Their best stretch came during a 17-4 run early in the third quarter that helped cut what had been 24-point Sixers lead to 11, but with the Sixers making so few mistakes, the Raptors didn’t have the materials to blow the game open. They could score off of the Sixers misses, but there weren’t enough extra chances to turn the run into a game-turning avalanche.
Harden steadied Philadelphia with a triple, then drove the lane for lay-up and then hit a streaking Maxey for a fastbreak and order was restored.
The Raptors had one more chance to make a dent when Sixers head coach Doc Rivers opted to rest both Embiid and Harden in the final minutes of the third quarter. For this series to have a long life the Raptors are going to have to dominate those type of opportunities, but it didn’t happen in Game 1.
Maxey’s presentation as a legitimate third star didn’t miss a beat as he launched himself on a 10-run in the final two minutes of the third to send the Sixers into the fourth leading by 21.
The Raptors success during the regular season hinged mainly on their commitment to earn more field goal attempts than their opponents, something they do by being aggressive on the offensive glass, in the passing lanes and on double teams to generate additional shots and possessions.
They are the kinds of things that a well-coached team would aim to clean up during a playoff series, so it was going to be interesting to see which would win out early: the Raptors’ determination to generate extra shots or the Sixers’ care in limiting offensive rebounds or turnovers.
“We kind of thought we’d better emphasize that at the start of the year,” said Nurse before the game. “Give the guys credit: It takes a lot of work to offensive rebound, and they’ve been pretty relentless at it… I know they want to block us out pretty badly today and this series and keep us off the offensive glass. We’ll see who will win that part of the game.”
In the early going it was the Sixers, and specifically Embiid. The 76ers jumped out to an early 11-2 run that was fueled by a trio of elements Rivers will take all series long: a three from Harden, a strip on the Raptors and a fast break by Maxey, and an offensive rebound and bucket by Embiid.
The Sixers had more elements working for them than that: all the bodies being sent at Embiid and Harden inevitably is going to leave open looks elsewhere and no one benefitted more than Maxey and Harris.
Maxey came into the game shooting 43 per cent from deep on a steady diet of open threes thanks to his superstar teammates and didn’t let the pressure of the playoffs bother him one bit.
He finished the first quarter with 10 points while Harris added seven as the Sixers jumped out to a 35-27 lead. The Raptors were also hampered as VanVleet picked up two fouls in the first 58 seconds of the game which instantly took some of the zip out of his role as the Raptors’ — and one of the NBA’s — most dangerous help defenders, as he had to guard against picking up a third foul early.
The next key moments game early in the second quarter when Embiid went to the bench. Navigating those minutes has always been a challenge for the Sixers and often the difference in whether they win or lose games or series. So much has changed since the Raptors sent Embiid and the Sixers home in the second round in 2019 but that the Raptors dominated the six-to-eight minutes a game that Embiid sat was the difference in the series.
That plan didn’t unfold as the Raptors hoped in Game 1 as the Sixers won the 5:33 that Embiid rested — which overlapped with Siakam being out for Toronto — 13-11 with Harden, Maxey and Harris allowing the Sixers to more than hold their own with the big man out
For their part, the Raptors carried themselves reasonably well offensively, with the exception of Gary Trent Jr. who was 0-of-5 in the first half. Even with that the Raptors had four starters with at least three field goals and shot 47.4 from the floor and 5-of-13 from three — both reasonable numbers for them.
Where the Raptors struggled was that the Sixers remained committed to keeping them off the offensive glass — Toronto had just two in the first half — while Embiid bullied them under their own basket as he grabbed three of Philadelphia’s eight offensive rebounds by himself.
Combined with the Sixers’ care with the ball — they didn’t make a single turnover in the first two quarters — and the Raptors simply didn’t have the extra possessions and shot attempts they’re used to working with.
Philadelphia took 10 more shots in the first half and in translated on the scoreboard as the Sixers headed into the half on the heels of a 21-4 run that put Toronto into a 69-51 hole.
The hole got only deeper from there, and with the Barnes injury the Raptors can only hope they will have their full complement of tools on hand to start digging in Game 2 on Monday night.
It looks like they’re going to need them.
