This was a tough loss for the Raptors. PHI played well, leading almost wire-to-wire (they took the lead for good at 6:27 of the first quarter). Philadelphia’s bench played well, with Greg Monroe scoring 10 as the lead back-up centre instead of Boban Marjanovic. Kawhi got his numbers, but Siakam didn’t shoot nearly as well as in Game 1. The Raptors made some comeback attempts, cutting the lead to 1 two separate times, but ultimately fell short 94-89.
First Quarter:
The game started with a series of scoreless positions, foreshadowing the defensive nature of this game before a Lowry layup at 10:40. The Sixers doubled and tripled Kawhi. He did a good job of passing the ball out of double-teams without turning it over, but the Raps weren’t able to do enough to get open looks. Kawhi’s first bucket didn’t come until 6:53 of the first. Ben Simmons, who made a point of proclaiming the Sixers’ defensive strategy for this game, got the lead assignment on Kawhi, getting a couple of denial deflections in the first quarter. Simmons wasn’t always getting steals, but it did keep the ball out of Kawhi’s hands – and one of the deflections lead to a 24-second violation (at 6:00).
Similar to last game, Brett Brown pulled Embiid around the 6:00 minute mark of the first quarter for Greg Monroe (6:41), returning him around the 2:30 mark (2:49). Just like last game, Nick Nurse kept Gasol in during those minutes, replacing him with Ibaka at 2:49 right as Embiid returned. Embiid didn’t exactly dominate Ibaka, but the Raptors were sending help earlier, leading to open passes or other offensive opportunities. For example – Ibaka left his feet on a sloooow pump fake from Embiid, which forced Kawhi into fouling Embiid (1:41) – Embiid made both.
Jimmy Butler clearly read my Game 1 recap, making his presence felt early with back-to-back three pointers, and leading the team on offence all game. Greg Monroe (!?) also had a great first quarter, cutting the Raptors up with hard rolls to the hoop and getting some O-rebs. Norman Powell had a beautiful fake swing pass to shake Monroe, who in his eagerness to rotate effectively, started moving as soon as the pass motion started. Powell held the ball and drained the open 3.
Second Quarter:
Embiid picked up a travel and an offensive foul in the first two minutes. At 10:13, Ibaka left his feet (again!), resulting in a foul on Embiid. Visibly frustrated at himself, Ibaka slammed his head into the basket stanchion … BUT, he stayed down on future pump fakes throughout the game!
I don’t have too many notes on this depressing quarter. The Sixers bench shot well and started building a lead. A Kawhi dunk cut the lead to 12 at 7:10 – I checked the box score at that point and the Raps were shooting 9-34 FGA/FGM and 2-12 3PM/3PA. “Surely they won’t shoot this poorly the ENTIRE game”, I said to myself optimistically; wrongly.
Butler completely airmailed a pass to a wide-open Greg Monroe on an ATO play, lobbing it way out of bounds. Lucky break for the Raps. That play aside, Butler, Monroe and James Ennis III all looked good this quarter. Danny Green cut the lead to 13 with a late 3-pointer right before the half.
I have a misguided note from halftime: “[TOR: 15-46, 3-15 + PHI: 16-39, 8-16 = HOPE]”.
Third Quarter:
Kawhi opened the scoring with a 3-pointer. Gasol had some nice assists in this quarter. In semi-transition, he had Redick guarding him, leading to a double from Simmons, which left a cutting Kawhi open for a dunk (around 9:08).
When Boban entered the game, Gasol stepped out to the perimeter for an open 3 – his only FG of the game. On that note, Gasol’s long mid-range game, a staple of his Grizzlies days, has been off in this series. He hasn’t shot well either game.
The Raptors had the advantage this quarter, but weren’t able to take the lead either. They outscored Philly 25-18 and cut the lead to 61-60 on a pair of Gasol free throws with only 2:50 remaining, but the left the quarter down 6 – still attainable!
Fourth Quarter:
Philly kept the lead up the whole quarter. Whenever the Raps would cut the lead, someone on Philly would answer. Butler in particular had 12 points this quarter. They pushed the lead back up to double digits quite quickly, before a final comeback attempt when we got within 4:00 minutes remaining. “Still plenty of time left!” enthused the Raps’ announcers. Sure thing, Jack. Down 8 with 4:30 remaining, cue the This Is Fine dog.
Toronto did ultimately pull within one possession at 1:36 when Kyle made two 3-pointers in 24 seconds, and got it to 1 point at on Siakam bucket at 0:46 (after Siakam pulled down two (2!) offensive rebounds in a row). Embiid, with one of his only baskets of the game, scored a huge basket put the Philly back up 3. He pump-faked at the 3-point line; Gasol stayed down and stayed with him. Embiid drove to the basket, spun, and looked like he was pulling up for a shot. Gasol jumped, baited, and Embiid went with an up-and-under and an easy basket.
Toronto’s final possession was total chaos, with a possible nutmeg attempt by Lowry leading to a broken play, the ball out to Kawhi, and somehow a fairly open 3 from Danny Green .. which clanked out.
It’s hard to say the Raptors played poorly. Their defence looked great again, and the offence was a mixed bag. There were moments of overreliance on isolation, but they also just clanked plenty of shots I would consider good, desirable attempts: open 3’s from Green, Siakam, Lowry and Gasol. It would have been nice to have gone to Philly with a 2-0 lead, but the Raptors are still looking alright. At the same time, I can’t help but think that we haven’t seen a big game from Simmons or Embiid yet.
Key Numbers
19 (PHI’s largest lead, in the second quarter)
Philly put up a 19-point lead at 4:18 of the second quarter after a technical free throw by Jimmy Butler (the T was on Nick Nurse, although I missed the interaction that lead to the T). The Raps cut the deficit to 13 on a Danny Green 3-pointer just before the half, and managed to pull within 1 once each in the 3rd and 4th quarters, but couldn’t quite catch up.
183 (total combined points in the 94-89 game)
It was a low scoring contest overall. The 76ers have to be happy with how they shut down the Kawhi’s supporting cast, while the Raptors continued to minimize Embiid’s influence (32 minutes, 2-7 shooting, 6 TOs, 12 points) and Simmons’ offensive impact (44 minutes, 3-6 shooting, 6 points). Neither team shot above 40% from the field or 30% from 3. Hard to take to much meaning from this shared weakness, but I feel like the Raptors missed quite a few open 3’s (Green, Gasol and Lowry all missed a couple), while it seemed like Philly was missing more contested shots. Or maybe I’m just a blatant homer.
191 (total minutes of the Raptors starters)
Siakam (40), Kawhi (42) and Lowry (42) all played over 40 minutes. Simmons played 44, Butler was in for 43, and Embiid was in for 32 (matching his game high from the first round). From watching, I actually thought that Philly had played its starters more, but it was actually quite even (191 for the Raptors starters, 190 for Philly). Both teams are heavily reliant on their starters – something I thought would be advantage Toronto at the start of the series.
Other Thoughts
Defence Wins Championships
Simmons played 44 minutes. He took 6 shots. It’s not like he was carving up the floor as the point guard – he only tallied 5 assists. But I think the reason he stayed in so much of the game was for his defence on Kawhi. It’s not like Kawhi’s numbers were weak (13-24, 35 points, 6 assists), but they weren’t as outrageously efficient as last game. Simmons also got multiple deflections to keep the ball away from Kawhi, burning clock time and forcing the Raptors to take a worse look than they might have otherwise seen.
Battle of the Benches
The Raptors bench had another tough shooting game. I was optimistic in the last post that they’d recover, but it’s possible that the Raptors’ smaller guards are bothered by Philly’s length and we’ll keep seeing these results. (FREE PAT MCCAW!) McCaw aside, I wouldn’t mind inching a few of Powell’s minutes over to Green. Green had an awful shooting night, but PHI takes him seriously on the perimeter, and he’s been effective on defense. The Raps are just too small when any two of Lowry, Powell and VanVleet are in, unless PHI is playing a two guard lineup which doesn’t feature Simmons. This is rare – McConnell and Korkmaz both got DNP’s after getting 4 and 12 minutes respectively in game 1.
Philly meanwhile, got great games from both Greg Monroe and James Ennis III.
curious winnipeg 