Apr 18, 2022
Sixers prove too tough for Raptors again, take 2-0 lead in series
Unlike Game 1, the Toronto Raptors showed they weren’t going to back down, but they came in undermanned, and in the end, they were simply overmatched as the Philadelphia 76ers walked away with a 112-97 victory in Game 2 and a 2-0 series lead on Monday night.
PHILADELPHIA – Nick Nurse didn’t waste time in sending a strong message to the officials ahead of Monday’s Game 2.
“We’ve got to survive some of the physicality out there,” said the Raptors’ head coach, whose pre-game press conference began with a question about adjusting after his team dropped its series opener to Philadelphia, 131-111, on Saturday. “You heard me saying it after the game, we got ran over a bunch when we were legal, which was true. There were several shots to the face, which I don’t understand [why they] were not reviewed.
“I hope they’ve got enough guts to at least stop the game and look at that stuff tonight.”
Toronto didn’t play well in Game 1, certainly not well enough to win, and a little gamesmanship between coaches is hardly unusual at this time of year. But Nurse had a point: the Sixers got away with an awful lot.
However, it was also a message to his team, or at least it would’ve been had he not spent the previous 46 hours or so emphasizing that same message. Philly was extremely physical on Saturday, and while the officials may have allowed them to be a little too physical, the Raptors never came close to matching that physicality.
“I don’t mind physicality,” Nurse continued. “It’s the playoffs and we expect it to be physical. We’ve got to be able to handle that.”
Message received, at least to start. Just 90 seconds into the game, OG Anunoby and Joel Embiid needed to be separated after the two exchanged shoves, and then a few words, while fighting for position on an inbounds play. A couple minutes after that, Pascal Siakam put Embiid on the ground with a hard foul, returning the favour after Embiid spent most of the opener doing the same.
Unlike Game 1, the Raptors showed they weren’t going to back down, but they came in undermanned, and in the end, they were simply overmatched.
“This was going to be a huge challenge tonight,” Nurse said after Philadelphia took a 2-0 series lead with a 112-97 victory. “Completely healthy coming here and getting the game, I think people would have considered that a major upset.”
But they were far from completely healthy. Scottie Barnes, who was wearing a walking boot on his injured left foot Monday morning, missed Game 2. Gary Trent Jr. tried to play through an illness that limited him in Game 1 and kept him out of practice on Sunday, but after playing 10 scoreless minutes, he called it a night. Thaddeus Young also gave it go with the injured thumb on his shooting hand taped up but was ineffective in his eight minutes.
Siakam, Anunoby and Fred VanVleet combined for 66 of Toronto’s 97 points, and Chris Boucher had a good night off the bench, but with a third of their nine-man rotation out or limited, the Raptors’ lack of depth was exposed by a talented and mostly healthy Philadelphia team.
“I liked the way we started but we didn't really sustain it there, looked like we ran out of gas a little bit in some areas,” VanVleet said. “We brought a lot more fight and intensity tonight, and that's something that we can build on going forward.”
The Sixers played so well in their dominant series-opening win that it became a source of optimism for Toronto. The thinking was that Philly, who was led by 38 points from sophomore Tyrese Maxey, couldn’t play much better than that, and the Raptors couldn’t play much worse.
The problem with that theory was that Embiid, Philly’s MVP finalist, was held to 19 points on just 5-of-15 shooting. He was physically imposing and took advantage of Toronto’s defensive pressure by making plays for his teammates, but he had a quiet offensive game, at least by his standards. What would happen if and when he decided to take over?
We saw it in the opening quarter of Game 2. In 12 minutes, Embiid matched his scoring total from Game 1, and 11 of his 19 points came at the free throw line. He attempted 12 of his team’s 15 free throws and drew eight of the Raptors’ nine fouls.
Embiid went to the line 14 times in the game, more than the entire Raptors team. Overall, the free throw disparity was 30-12 in favour of Philadelphia.
Yes, Nurse and the Raptors had a reason to be frustrated, but not about the calls on Embiid – most of which were deserved – but with the calls they felt they should have been getting and weren’t.
“There was another open-handed slap to the face [and], again, I don’t understand why they will not call them,” Nurse said afterwards. “But other than that, at least there [weren’t] as many elbows thrown to the face tonight that we had to endure.”
But pointing at the refs is low-hanging fruit. When he wants to, Embiid can impose his will on just about any player and against any team. Despite their length and defensive creativity, the Raptors don’t have a player that can match his size. On Monday, it showed. They didn’t have an answer for the Sixers’ superstar centre.
“I thought we did a pretty good job, but at a certain point, we have to stop arguing with the refs and find another solution, because they're not budging,” VanVleet said.
If you’re not going to slow Embiid down – and most can’t, to be fair – you absolutely have to take advantage when he’s not on the floor. That was always going to be a non-negotiable if the Raptors were going to have a shot in this series. In Game 1, they were outscored by four points in Embiid’s 11 rest minutes.
With Embiid on the bench to start the second quarter, Toronto went to its box-and-one, deploying Precious Achiuwa to chase around James Harden. However, that only works when the other four guys on the floor aren’t hitting their shots. In this case, Maxey, Danny Green, Tobias Harris and Shake Milton combined to shoot 7-for-8, as the Sixers outscored Toronto 23-11 in nearly six minutes before Embiid re-entered the game.
The Raptors’ best stretch of the series came in the fourth quarter when a 20-2 run cut their deficit from 29 points to 11 before Philly pulled away. They’re hoping they can carry that over to Wednesday’s Game 3 in Toronto. But with the Sixers playing at the top of their game, it’s going to be an uphill climb, especially without Barnes.
Toronto was undermanned for most of the season. They were without at least one of their starters in 61 of 82 games, and went 33-28 in those contests, so they’ve proven they can both play and win through adversity. What Barnes brings is not easily replaced, though. He does so many things on both ends of the floor that, as Nurse put it pre-game, you probably need three other players to fill the void of the one.
Making his playoff debut, Barnes was one of Toronto’s lone bright spots in an otherwise disappointing Game 1 loss, recording 15 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists before the full weight of the 280-pound Embiid came down on his left foot early in the fourth quarter and ended his night – and maybe his series – at 31 minutes.
A post-game X-ray on his ankle came back negative and Sunday’s MRI revealed a sprain, which would seem to be encouraging news in that nothing is broken. Still, not all sprains are made equal. Barnes was in good spirits, but wouldn’t indicate whether there’s a timetable for his return to the court.
“I’m still a very positive, happy human being,” said the always-cheerful rookie forward. “Just taking it one day at a time.”
“Here we are, [down] 2-0,” Nurse said. “The way we finished the game, I don't see our guys are discouraged at all. I think they'll rise up and they'll play better. And you know we need to get one. We need to get one and we get ourselves back in the series.”