Eastern Conference | Round 1 | (4) Philadelphia 76ers vs. (5) Toronto Raptors

[Ballerhogger]

When your best defender can’t play road games because of covid shots….. should be good series sixers in 5 though

[Duffman100]

Really impressed with the Raps and think they have a really bright future. Their one kryptonite might be trying to defend an Embiid type center though. Ultimately I will go with the Sixers but it won't be easy.

Oddly they've been one of the best teams at defending Embiid this season.

[NirvanaFC]

Honestly this series might depend on whether FVV's knee or Harden's hamstring shows up

[NirvanaFC]

All I know is Tobias Harris is gonna put up 12 ppg on 37/24/77 shooting splits

Hopefully that's not also FVV's line...

[Exp0sed]

Raps in 6

This is a nightmare matchup for the 76ers and gets a little worse when u factor in no Thybulle for 4/7 possible Toronto games

I can't believe the 76ers didn't try to prevent this matchup, ironically its that late season loss to the Raps which kinda ensured this is the matchup they'll be facing. They would have advanced easily vs. any other possible first round matchup imo but will have their hands full with the Raps.

All the pressure on Philly, The raps have no one to even challenge Embiid one on one but they have demonstrated their strategy in defending him in the past, which I think will be enough. He will get his, but will exert alot more energy and commit plenty of To's which will fuel the Raps transition game

Embiid will need to play heavy mins, I just don't think he will have enough Stamina over 5-6-7 games to play 40+ mins of Playoff basketball

Raps needs Achiuwa to be the shooter he was this last game and not througout the season. They need him on the floor a lot to win a series, Boucher is completely useless when Embiid plays and the open 3 ball will be there for Precious - he needs to make enough of those and stay out of foul trouble.
Not saying he's all that important in general, but in this particular matchup I think he is crucial to the raps in order to have a real shot of an upset.

If this wasn't Doc's team i'd probably go for Philly in 6. He's just that bad..

[GoCeltics123]

Philly in 7 but Doc is going to get badly outcoached, Harden is going to be bad for a lot of the series and Thybulle is a dumbass.

But Embiid will be the difference

[Jadoogar]

I can't believe the 76ers didn't try to prevent this matchup, ironically its that late season loss to the Raps which kinda ensured this is the matchup they'll be facing. They would have advanced easily vs. any other possible first round matchup imo but will have their hands full with the Raps.
.

I don't think they could have. They won their final 2 games but Celtics also won so they were kind of stuck in 4th. Their best chance was to win the game against the raptors and we all know they tried their best.

[HotelVitale]

Really impressed with the Raps and think they have a really bright future. Their one kryptonite might be trying to defend an Embiid type center though. Ultimately I will go with the Sixers but it won't be easy.

Oddly they've been one of the best teams at defending Embiid this season.

They've been awesome at defending Embiid. Quick doubles but not in a predictable way, with long active arms from the other defenders contesting his passing lanes. It's thrown him off for sure, in my mind they bothered him the most of any team (although I wasn't taking notes or anything).

That said, I feel like the Raptors haven't really faced the full-on Harden/Embiid pn'r game, and I think that'll be a much better set for the Sixers than Embiid isos in this series. Hopefully Doc makes ample use of that, cuz the post-ups are much more work and much more room for mistakes against a team like TOR.

[Swag]

This is a toss-up series. I'm going with Raps in 7.

Just so hard. If Harden shows up, Raptors aren't winning. Philly would have the 2 best players. If Harden doesn't show up and Siakam becomes the 2nd best player, then the series is on.

The entire season, the Raps probably has been depth. But their 8 man rotation is solid.

Siakam
Barnes
OG
Trent
FVV

Boucher
Precious
Thad
(little bit of Birch ew)

Honestly, I'd advise Philly to play Zone and make us shoot.

This type of game plan requires a coach with a game plan. Unfortunately the 6ers have Glenn Rivers as their coach.

[everdiso]

Everyone keeps saying "X-Factor" is this or that depth player.

But tbh, the actual X-Factor in this series is one Pascal Siakam.

Because the real question in this series is whether the Raps have a go-to scorer or not.

This season for Siakam has been one long incline rising all year - from missing the start of the year due to shoulder surgery, to feeling his way back into the NBA over his first ~20gms back as a secondary scorer behind Fred, to levelling up to a co-primary ball-handler and primary scorer over his next ~20gms....to then levelling up again and become a stud-level primary scorer and primary ball handler over his last 20gms.

Last 20gms: 39.3mpg, 27.0pts (52.4/36.6/75.9), 8.8reb, 5.6ast/2.6to

And of course 2 of those last 20gms were against PHI, where he did this: 36.5mpg, 31.5pts (50.0/20.0/81.3), 10.0rb, 8.5ast/2.5to

If this latest version of Siakam shows up in the playoffs, then all the narrative about the Raps not having a star primary scorer disappear.

Of course, on the other hand, it could just be a hot streak, and of course we know that Pascal flopped horribly in the playoffs last time he tried to be a #1 option. (though no, it wasn't the celtics who did it - Siakam sucked horribly all bubble long, likely due to that shoulder injury he finally got surgery on).

And then of course there's the fact that back when TOR and PHI matched up in the playoffs last time - Siakam went OFF to start the series, before the 6ers just switched Embiid on to him and Embiid completely shut him down the rest of the series. If embiid can do that again, (maybe even along with Thybulle shutting down Fred), then the raps might be in serious trouble. Of course, Siakam kind of destroyed Embiid one on one the last couple head to head games so maybe Embiid can't stop him like that again.


Anyways, it seems pretty clear that Siakam is the biggest X-Factor in the series. I'm not sure anyone would be surprised by him continuing his recent trend of being a stud #1 option, and I don't think anyone would be surprised if he was a playoffs flop again. When you have that kind of potential variance in one team's most important player, that has to be the X-Factor in the series.

[Snotbubbles]

In both games the Sixers lost this season, the Sixers bench did them in. Georges Niang was terrible in the two losses. I think, with a week off and entering the series well rested, the Sixers will cruise in this series.

Honestly, I kinda hope the Sixers lose so we can fire Doc and bring in a new coach.

[Bruin]

Read on Twitter

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[Exp0sed]

Really impressed with the Raps and think they have a really bright future. Their one kryptonite might be trying to defend an Embiid type center though. Ultimately I will go with the Sixers but it won't be easy.

Oddly they've been one of the best teams at defending Embiid this season.

They've been awesome at defending Embiid. Quick doubles but not in a predictable way, with long active arms from the other defenders contesting his passing lanes. It's thrown him off for sure, in my mind they bothered him the most of any team (although I wasn't taking notes or anything).

That said, I feel like the Raptors haven't really faced the full-on Harden/Embiid pn'r game, and I think that'll be a much better set for the Sixers than Embiid isos in this series. Hopefully Doc makes ample use of that, cuz the post-ups are much more work and much more room for mistakes against a team like TOR.

I think ur 100% right in depicting their brand of defense on Embiid and it has certainly thrown him off, especially the quick unpredictable doubles. If this was a diff coach I would just say..ok - that's something u can plan for and adjust for but this is Doc so the 76ers have a problem

I think The Harden\Embiid Pnr isn't rly all that scary unless ur actually scared of Harden blowing by you (not a real concern with how he looked and Raps Personel) and/or of Harden trying to score via of floaters and stepbacks.
Meaning if u know he's dishing 75% (either kicking out to a shooter or looking for Embiid\cutters) of the time...it makes it a lot harder to defend.

Doesn't appear to apply to this version of Harden, pehaps he will surprise a lot of ppl...but there is a reason it's a suspect proposition almost a consensus that he can't\won't

[everdiso]

Raps needs Achiuwa to be the shooter he was this last game and not througout the season. They need him on the floor a lot to win a series, Boucher is completely useless when Embiid plays and the open 3 ball will be there for Precious - he needs to make enough of those and stay out of foul trouble.
Not saying he's all that important in general, but in this particular matchup I think he is crucial to the raps in order to have a real shot of an upset.

Wasn't just a one game thing for Precious - over his last 24gms he shot 40.0% from three, on 4 attempts per game (5.5 attempts per 36min).

[Exp0sed]

Raps needs Achiuwa to be the shooter he was this last game and not througout the season. They need him on the floor a lot to win a series, Boucher is completely useless when Embiid plays and the open 3 ball will be there for Precious - he needs to make enough of those and stay out of foul trouble.
Not saying he's all that important in general, but in this particular matchup I think he is crucial to the raps in order to have a real shot of an upset.

Wasn't just a one game thing for Precious - over his last 24gms he shot 40.0% from three, on 4 attempts per game (5.5 attempts per 36min).

I know, that's what I mean. He's been showing signs of real improvement from 3 and I think it will be the deiciding factor...If he manages to hit those 3's under playoff pressue, as opposed to earlier in his career - the Raps have a real shot imo

[Tacoma]

Because it's a thread about Philly vs Toronto and you're spouting the same conspiracy garbage I can find anywhere else.

What drives this conspiracy thread drift is not the anti-vaxers themselves but rather from those responding to them. Responding is like throwing gasoline into a fire, it gives them opportunity to spout even more. The spouting stops when no one responds.

[First Step]

Toronto has no pressure as they exceeded Vegas win total but 13 games. Philly is under immense pressure, as a first round exit would be a catastrophic failure for the organization after going all in on Harden. We’ve seen how quickly players can decline — Westbrook as an example, that a lot hinges on this season.

Toronto needs to steal one in Philly and then the water will start to boil. Thybulle should embarrassed. What an amazing display of incoherence at his press conference.

[Jadoogar]

In both games the Sixers lost this season, the Sixers bench did them in. Georges Niang was terrible in the two losses. I think, with a week off and entering the series well rested, the Sixers will cruise in this series.

Honestly, I kinda hope the Sixers lose so we can fire Doc and bring in a new coach.

This is the story of the Sixers. Even in 2019, the sixers won the Embiid minutes.
As long as the raptors don't lose the embiid minutes by double digits, they should be in a good place.

[GeorgeSears]

Philadelphia outscored teams by 15.9 points per 100 possessions with their two All-Stars sharing the court, the second-best mark among NBA duos with at least 600 minutes playing together.

Despite Harden's shooting struggles, when he's on the court with Embiid the Sixers have been unstoppable offensively. He's also helping Embiid immensely with PnR.

[Exp0sed]

In both games the Sixers lost this season, the Sixers bench did them in. Georges Niang was terrible in the two losses. I think, with a week off and entering the series well rested, the Sixers will cruise in this series.

Honestly, I kinda hope the Sixers lose so we can fire Doc and bring in a new coach.

I find it unfathomable that Both Sixers and Nuggets, Teams with Center MVP candidates have such poor bench at C
They are both good teams with Playoff and even Championship aspirations, very hard to justifity having such a gaping hole.

Not saying that the Sixers bench problem is limited to the Center position just that it's very hard for a team so reliant on one dude, to have basically nothing in his place when he sits and still be a real contender.