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TSN Raptors Reporter

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TORONTO – If there’s any question how much game-to-game momentum matters in the playoffs, or whether it even exists at all, this second-round series between the Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers has your answer.

On Sunday, a series-deciding Game 7 will determine which team advances to face the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals, leaving the other to start a long off-season of self-reflection earlier than they had hoped or anticipated.

It’s hardly a surprise that we’re headed for a deciding game. Many pundits believed this could go the distance – two great teams loaded with talent, each with so much at stake and so much to lose. It was a highly anticipated matchup, but how many people saw it playing out quite like this?

Through six contests, there’s been almost no flow or carryover from one game to the next. Two of them were decided by exactly five points. Both were ugly wins, one by each team.

The other four were decided by 10 points or more, with each team winning a pair. In a couple cases, including Philadelphia’s 112-101 Game 6 win, the final score wasn’t indicative of how lopsided things were. These were all blowouts, one-sided affairs that left the team on the losing end feeling embarrassed and looking for redemption.

The Sixers got theirs on Thursday, saving their season in the process. Facing elimination at home, Philadelphia dominated Game 6 from start to finish. Toronto had done the same to them a couple nights earlier, and here they were returning the favour.

The Raptors, who seemingly solved many of their problems in a 36-point win on Tuesday – the largest margin of victory in franchise playoff history – reverted back to some old habits. Nobody other than Kawhi Leonard or Pascal Siakam could score. Nobody could hit an open shot. Nobody could grab a defensive rebound, stop the Sixers in transition or protect the paint.

It was a missed opportunity and one they might come to regret, if they don’t already.

“We have big goals ahead of us,” Kyle Lowry said the morning of Game 6. “This is one of the goals we want to achieve, getting to the next round. You [rarely] have these opportunities and when you have them you have to throw it all out there because you never know when that opportunity is going to come back again.”

Fortunately for the Raptors, they do have another opportunity, one last chance to keep their season alive and get one step closer to reaching their stated goal of making their first ever NBA Finals.

Given what’s on the line, you could make a compelling argument that Sunday’s game is the biggest and most important in the 24-year history of the Toronto Raptors.

They’ve never had a better team and a finals berth has never been this attainable. As a result, the expectations – both inside and outside the organization – have never been higher.

They’ve also never had a player of Leonard’s calibre, and now is not the time to take that for granted. With Leonard’s impending free agency hanging over them like a dark cloud, the Raptors’ window of opportunity could be closing in a hurry.

They’ll try to extend that window by selling him on a future in Toronto this summer. Regardless of how you feel about their chances of doing so, their sales pitch becomes stronger with each win.

Advance to the Conference Finals, or further, and there’s a real case to be made: not only can we offer you more money, an extra year and a proven track record of prioritizing and maintaining your health, but we are also your best chance to win. Flame out in the second round, even in a back-and-forth series against a really good team, and that could be a much tougher sell.

Game 7 won’t just decide the Raptors’ current fate; it could conceivably determine the future of the franchise. No pressure.

One thing that could be working in their favour, in addition to being at home – where they had the league’s third-best record during the regular season and have outscored Philly by 44 in this series – is how little momentum has factored in. If anything it’s been better not to have it. The team on the losing end of each blowout has bounced back and won the following game.

“Both are very good ball clubs, coached well and [have] some guys with edge and pride,” Raptors guard Danny Green said following Thursday’s defeat. “You’re not going to just let teams continue to embarrass you [after a bad loss]. You come out with more anger and motivation. But it shouldn’t take that for you to play that type of basketball. It’s playoff time. It seems as if they play pretty well with their backs up against the wall and we’ll see what we’re made of with our backs up against the wall next game.”

As fun and entertaining as a Game 7 can be, it’s certainly not ideal for the favoured team. Do or die. Win or go home. Needless to say, the Raptors would have preferred to take care of business earlier rather than allowing 48 minutes to define their season. But you reap what you sow.

It’s hard to believe they didn’t play with a greater sense of urgency in a closeout game on Thursday, but the real missed opportunity was their Game 2 loss. Despite shooting an abysmal 36 per cent, the Raptors held Ben Simmons, Tobias Harris and the flu-ridden Joel Embiid to 26 points and had a chance to win.

What if a couple of those open looks had fallen? What if they had gotten something, anything, from their bench, which was unplayable that night, as they’ve been for most the series?

To be fair, Philadelphia is probably saying the same thing about Game 4 – the game they let slip away at home. Going into Game 7, perhaps that’s been the underlying story of the series: missed opportunities.

With one opportunity left, who will take advantage?

“It’s not unlike where we have been a couple of times already in this series,” said head coach Nick Nurse. “They are critical games. They are all critical. We’ve got to play with great physicality, great speed, connected on the defensive end. I think we have to play one of our best defensive games of the year and play with some gusto on offence.”

“It’s what we live for,” Green said. “It’s what we play this game for, moments like this.”

“It’s going to be a big game for us,” said Lowry. “We have to play harder. We have to do everything we need to do to win the game. It’s do or die, win or go home, really.”