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

[aminiaturebuddha]

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That's game 7. That ended in regulation. That means in the 3 minutes he sat the Sixers got stabbed for a net negative 12 point differential. 3 MINUTES.

The fact that he was subpar offensively (battling illness) and still just rocked the minutes the way he did confirms he put on an absolutely generational clinic defensively. Two way superstar.

What's most amazing about those stats from 2019 is that it's not as though the Philly squad was a one-man team. Whatever people's thoughts on Simmons, that team also had Jimmy Butler on it! How the hell did the Sixers get so thoroughly dominated in the minutes that Embiid didn't play?

Embiid is obviously incredible, but there was some tremendous matchup hunting being done by Toronto in that series (Ibaka in particular had some great games). And, of course, that was probably Kawhi's best series of the whole playoffs. He really carried the team through it until some of the other guys were ready to step it up against Milwaukee and Golden State.

Ibaka was the red herring dude. I truly believe we win that series if Nurse doesn't swap Ibaka for Green in that starting 5. He just went demon mode on the glass and was hitting some KD ass deep 3's.

That Sixers roster was such an enigma, but they mostly got stomped whenever Embiid left the court because of who they were replacing him with. They had no bench depth whatsoever and Jimmy Butler wasn't the long way 4 quarter dominanting superstar like Kawhi/Giannis/Durant.

Yep, it was an incredibly close series, and probably came down to a few decisions on either side (including the Ibaka one).

As for this series, I think it comes down to a few things for the Toronto side. 1) Can the Raps defence mostly contain Embiid (as in, keep him to around 30 ppg lol) and Harden without having secondary scorers go off? 2) Can the Raps shooters (VanVleet, Trent, OG) hit their open shots at a respectable clip - >37%, especially if the Philly defence focuses on Siakam? 3) Will the Raptors be able to create enough turnovers to make the Sixers pay for their lacklustre transition defence?

I'm sure there are some important "keys to the series" for the Sixers side as well. But that's how I see it from the Raptor side.

[everdiso]

Height/Wingspan/Standing Reach

Achiuwa 6'8" / 7'1" / 9'1" ---- Embiid 7'0" / 7'6" / 9'6"
Siakam 6'8" / 7'3" / 9'0" ----- Harris 6'7" / 6'11" / 8'8"
Barnes 6'7" / 7'3" / 9'0" ------ Thybulle 6'5" / 7'0" / ???
Anunoby 6'6" / 7'2" / 9'0" --- Harden 6'4" / 6'11" / 8'8"
VanVleet 6'0" / 6'2" / ??? ---- Maxey 6'2" / 6'6" / 8'4"

Boucher 6'8" / 7'4" / 9'3" ---- Reed 6'9" / 7'2" / 9'2"
Birch 6'8" / 7'1" / 8'11" ------- Niang 6'7" / 6'10" / 8'7"
Young 6'6" / 7'0" / 8'10" ------ Green 6'6" / 6'10" / 8'7"
Brooks 6'3" / 6'9" / 8'7" ------ Milton 6'4" / 7'1" / 8'4"
Trent 6'4" / 6'9" / 8'2" ------- Korkmaz 6'5" / 6'6" / ???

[And1+2]

Embiid is going to have to really bang down low to score points, as soon as he starts settling for his finesse game he will be playing right into the Raptors hand.

We can't stop him in the post, he's just too big and skilled. We can definitely make his life a living hell, though.

Should be an interesting series, and if the Raps win it's gravy given our expectations for the season. If the Sixers lose, heads should roll.

Love it.

[canada_dry]

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spoooky

How'd that series work out for you?

Oh right, now I remember, with Embiid crying his way to the locker room

He literally won his minutes in dominant fashion, can't ask the big fella for too much more

Sure i can. I can ask him to play better through a tummy ache. I could ask him to be actually more productive in the games he played too. His stats werent great that series at all even tho the Sixers might have won his minutes. He had 3 games he shot less than 30% in. A couple others he shot 35% or less in. Thats 5 games out of 7 he played awful. 37% for the series. 17 ppg. What are we talking about here?

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[Harcore Fenton Mun]

The Sixers are going to have some real existential questions going forward if they don't win here. The whole Harden thing, along with Doc remaining HC.

It feels like they might need to question Morey's path if this series goes south. It'll be interesting to watch how it all shakes out.

[vulture]

Reminder to please not get into personal feelings about Thybulle's vax status. We can discuss the impact of his absence but passing judgment on him in either direction is just going to get people heated and get the thread locked. And we can't lock it and have no thread for the series, obviously. Thank you.

It would be cool to just let people know that this isn't just a canadian policy and that the US has the same policy too, but 100% of the raptors are vaccinated. This is a Thybulle and sixers issue.

[heatwillbeback]

Embiid is going to have to really bang down low to score points, as soon as he starts settling for his finesse game, he will be playing right into the Raptors hand.

We can't stop in in the post, he's just too big and skilled. We can definitely make his life a living hell, though.

Should be an interesting series, and if the Raps win it's gravy given our expectations for the season. If the Sixers lose, heads should roll.

Love it.

100% agreed.

Embiid is pretty good at the three point line, but if he falls in love with it this series, that helps the Raptors. Embiid needs to punish the 6-8 guys thrown at him.

[CoachD]

The "experts" and everyone on this site (aside from Rap die hards) thought Toronto would be in the lottery.
The season is already a success.

They're playing with house money.

Philly has ALL the pressure and expectation.

Philly SHOULD win (especially if Harden and Embiid get 15 FTA a night) but if Toronto's top 6 perform to season averages - they'll win a long series. If one or 2 guys goes God mode (like Fred VS Bucks in the ECF) they'll win it in 5

[bisme37]

Reminder to please not get into personal feelings about Thybulle's vax status. We can discuss the impact of his absence but passing judgment on him in either direction is just going to get people heated and get the thread locked. And we can't lock it and have no thread for the series, obviously. Thank you.

It would be cool to just let people know that this isn't just a canadian policy and that the US has the same policy too, but 100% of the raptors are vaccinated. This is a Thybulle and sixers issue.

Fair enough. What he said, everyone.

[Perseus1966]

Reminder to please not get into personal feelings about Thybulle's vax status. We can discuss the impact of his absence but passing judgment on him in either direction is just going to get people heated and get the thread locked. And we can't lock it and have no thread for the series, obviously. Thank you.

It would be cool to just let people know that this isn't just a canadian policy and that the US has the same policy too, but 100% of the raptors are vaccinated. This is a Thybulle and sixers issue.

Fair enough. What he said, everyone.

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[SeanieWard]

76ers in 6

[And1+2]

Embiid is going to have to really bang down low to score points, as soon as he starts settling for his finesse game, he will be playing right into the Raptors hand.

We can't stop in in the post, he's just too big and skilled. We can definitely make his life a living hell, though.

Should be an interesting series, and if the Raps win it's gravy given our expectations for the season. If the Sixers lose, heads should roll.

Love it.

100% agreed.

Embiid is pretty good at the three point line, but if he falls in love with it this series, that helps the Raptors. Embiid needs to punish the 6-8 guys thrown at him.

If Embiid starts settling for fadeaway jumpers early in the shot clock, Raps will just grab the rebound and push it FAST up the court and Embiid will need to rush back with them to make a defensive play. Embiid will tire himself off the court playing this way, the quicker the pace the better it is for the Raps…

[canz55]

The Sixers just don't have "it". They have some really talented players but as a team, they're just not a cohesive unit.

Maxey is a terrific player obviously - he'll keep the Sixers in the series with his great shooting and rim pressure but the rest of the Sixers outside of Embiid is a garbage heap. Even if the Sixers end up winning the series, the thought that it will be enough to endear Sixer's front office to either keep Doc and/or give Harden a 200 million dollar contract has to be upsetting for Philadelphia fans.

[Parataxis]

What are people's thoughts about what the Sixers are going to do regarding Thybulle and the starting lineup?

Will they have him start in Philly, or will the constant changes in starting lineups whenever they move cities prove more disruptive than it's worth? (especially games 4,5,6,7 which switch every game)

Philly fans, you know Doc better than we do - is he likely to keep the same starting lineup and use Thybulle as a bench option to maintain consistency, or just mix it up in each city as needed?

[HotelVitale]

Exposed, the entire point of the pn'r is that it doesn't require Harden to be explosive to get into the teeth of the defense. That's literally why the pn'r exists. It's been good for the Sixers even when Harden's iso game has been less reliable (to put it mildly), Harden is still a killer passer in tight spots and he's very crafty with timing so that set has been by far the most reliable set.

I actually thought they were intentionally not running it last game to not expose their hand, only explanation I could fin for why they basically didn't run it at all in the 4th q. They'd been running it steadily in tight games for the weeks before that and even my partner (who doens't knw bball at all) was saying 'how come they're not doing their little play now?' the other night. I hope that's the explanation at least, cuz if they still think Harden, Embiid, and Tobias isos are the way to go at 4th q PO offense again, there's going to be a lot of tears in the Delaware Valley over the next couple weeks.

The point of a pick and roll is to force the defense into an uncomfortable position. The issue here is that the raps are very comfortable just switching, and they’re comfortable with it because harden cantor punish it (or at least hasn’t been able to yet)

That's exactly what I said..Because the Raps are so comfortable switching (that is a big reason why the Raps are such a bad matchup for the Sixers, the Raps are very unique that way..no switch to 'hunt') added to the fact that Harden isn't a real scoring threat (or at least at a level that the Raps will live with) - The Pnr will fail to put Toronto in those uncomfortable positions...they will just stay with Embiid and dare Harden to hit those mid range floaters. IF he can...that will be a diff story and Philly should win in 5 quite easily.

The raps almost have to double Embiid on the roll, or at least some shadowing...trying to deny him the ball down low from the front and the back, that will leave a lot of space for Harden but he needs to be a real scoring threat otherwise Raps will live with the results imo

Eh, I don't think that's grounded in bball reality but guess there's no point arguing too deep when we get to see it in action in a few days. You're maybe creating a caricature of Harden here--yes he's not his old MVP self but he's still a very good driver and finisher with a good shot, and he'll absolutely get to the basket or get fouled if you leave him a lane off the pn'r. It's not real basketball talk to say 'they Raptors can just double Embiid and leave him alone.' And as I said above, the point of the pn'r is very rarely to force a switch for a guy to iso against--it's used far more often in almost very NBA game to create little gaps either for the ball-handler or the diver/roller, to get the defense to over- or under-play something or miscommunicate, etc. Being switchable makes it a little easier to defend but it doesn't just flat stop it; every time down there's multiple threats to contain and you just have to play it right every time.

I guess it's obvious that Harden can't be an awful, bricked-out version of himself for the Sixers to have a chance, but I don't get why multiple folks on here seem to insist that his entire offensive game is founded on him switching onto bigs and then iso-attacking them.

Anyway, I really don't know how well the pn'r strategy is going to work, and I'm really not trying to argue that JH will totally house the Raptors with the pn'r. Just saying that that's the Harden you're probably going to see a lot of (instead of the guy miserably forcing iso drives like that last TOR-PHI game) and that it'll be a pretty different equation for the Raptors on the defenisve end.

[LordCovington33]

What are people's thoughts about what the Sixers are going to do regarding Thybulle and the starting lineup?

Will they have him start in Philly, or will the constant changes in starting lineups whenever they move cities prove more disruptive than it's worth? (especially games 4,5,6,7 which switch every game)

Philly fans, you know Doc better than we do - is he likely to keep the same starting lineup and use Thybulle as a bench option to maintain consistency, or just mix it up in each city as needed?

Danny Green started in that Toronto match, and started in the next match against the Pacers. Either for continuity or a FU from Doc to Thybulle. I suspect the same starting line-up throughout the series for cohesion. But who know what goes on in Doc’s head. He is an enigma to himself even.

[stormi]

even tho the Sixers won his minutes.

All I care about dude.

[HotelVitale]

The Sixers just don't have "it". They have some really talented players but as a team, they're just not a cohesive unit.
Maxey is a terrific player obviously - he'll keep the Sixers in the series with his great shooting and rim pressure but the rest of the Sixers outside of Embiid is a garbage heap. Even if the Sixers end up winning the series, the thought that it will be enough to endear Sixer's front office to either keep Doc and/or give Harden a 200 million dollar contract has to be upsetting for Philadelphia fans.

I agree with your first couple sentences--team is lacking cohesion and is missing something--but the rest of it seems like it might be based on a bad game or two you saw. Harden is often very good and Maxey is often pretty irrelevant, and the Sixers' shooters and secondary players have a pretty big role playing off Embiid and Harden (and they're pretty good at it). Maxey is usually fairly low down the list of major factors for a win, and he was struggling for a long spell before the last week or two.

Also if this is based mostly on the last Sixers-Raptors game, as I've mentioned a bunch in this thread that was an unusual game. Most notably you're really really not going to see so much late-game isos like in that game. Sixers haven't been doing that very often and something strange was going on in that 4th q, since they went to it so frequently and since it was obviously working so badly (not to mention Harden was exceptionally awful at it that game).

[Slim Charlez]

Sixers in 6. Toronto will make it tough but I see Embiid being too much for them. Going with the best player in the series carrying the 6ers to the next round.

[Courtside]

The point of a pick and roll is to force the defense into an uncomfortable position. The issue here is that the raps are very comfortable just switching, and they’re comfortable with it because harden cantor punish it (or at least hasn’t been able to yet)

That's exactly what I said..Because the Raps are so comfortable switching (that is a big reason why the Raps are such a bad matchup for the Sixers, the Raps are very unique that way..no switch to 'hunt') added to the fact that Harden isn't a real scoring threat (or at least at a level that the Raps will live with) - The Pnr will fail to put Toronto in those uncomfortable positions...they will just stay with Embiid and dare Harden to hit those mid range floaters. IF he can...that will be a diff story and Philly should win in 5 quite easily.

The raps almost have to double Embiid on the roll, or at least some shadowing...trying to deny him the ball down low from the front and the back, that will leave a lot of space for Harden but he needs to be a real scoring threat otherwise Raps will live with the results imo

Eh, I don't think that's grounded in bball reality but guess there's no point arguing too deep when we get to see it in action in a few days. You're maybe creating a caricature of Harden here--yes he's not his old MVP self but he's still a very good driver and finisher with a good shot, and he'll absolutely get to the basket or get fouled if you leave him a lane off the pn'r. It's not real basketball talk to say 'they Raptors can just double Embiid and leave him alone.' And as I said above, the point of the pn'r is very rarely to force a switch for a guy to iso against--it's used far more often in almost very NBA game to create little gaps either for the ball-handler or the diver/roller, to get the defense to over- or under-play something or miscommunicate, etc. Being switchable makes it a little easier to defend but it doesn't just flat stop it; every time down there's multiple threats to contain and you just have to play it right every time.

I guess it's obvious that Harden can't be an awful, bricked-out version of himself for the Sixers to have a chance, but I don't get why multiple folks on here seem to insist that his entire offensive game is founded on him switching onto bigs and then iso-attacking them. I really don't know how well it's going to work, and I'm Really not trying to argue that he'll totally house the Raptors in the pn'r. Just saying that that's the Harden you're probably going to see a lot of (instead of the guy miserably forcing iso drives like that last TOR-PHI game) and that it'll be a pretty different equation for the Raptors on the defenisve end.

I think what he was saying is that the Raptors will switch on the Harden-Embiid pnrs, leaving a long and quick defender to stymie Harden's ability to complete the pass to Joel, to shoot himself, or to drive... while bringing a quick double/help on Embiid if he's getting the ball on the roll.

The Raptors can't stop Joel the way Gasol did in 19, so they can only try to contain him as best they can. Keeping the ball out of his hands is one way, and doubles are the other. They happen to be among the best in the league at these two things, so there's hope that they'll be at least somewhat successful, which then forces Harden, Maxey and Harris to play above their averages to win, and there's decent to excellent ability to contain those guys also.

It's gonna be a fun series.