Sixers vs Raptors - Nov. 25th - 7:30pm ET

[A_Toney]

Yeah we played like crap and they barely beat us. We'll be fine

You do remember that the Raptors didn't have Lowry or Ibaka?

Lol

They’ll be fine in the old-timers game

[RaptorHooter]

Yeah we played like crap and they barely beat us. We'll be fine

Our best players also not playing tonight...but whatever. GG 6ers.

Our best player shot 0 for 11 with 4 TOs and 0 for 3 from the line, and after he hadn't failed to score in double figures a single time the last 3 years he scored zero pts total tonight. Think that's a worse night than Lowry had for you all.

Six players injured, you lost to a G league team with a couple of rookies and Spicy.

[brannigan73]

What i meant is that the Raptors dont really have a chance to beat us in the playoffs.

About us, it is early to say and a lot will depend on the match ups. We have some issues but i think most teams have issues at the moment. In any case the time of reckoning is nearing, if we dont get to the finals major changes are gonna happen in the summer.

Just out of curiosity...

How is your takeaway from all of this that the Raptors are not a threat in the playoffs? You realize that the Raptors were missing two of their best players right?

They dont have the offensive talent to win a 7 game series imo. A random game in November doesnt mean much anyway.

They are a good defensive team, that plays hard so it is not an opponent you'd wish to face but their offensive limitations would make it very hard for them to win 4 games against the Sixers, again imo.

I could say the same damn thing about the Sixers. Lowry, Siakam, and VanVleet I would argue are better in aggregate then our top 3 scorers. Our star center plays like a scrub in 60% of games against there center. We couldnt beat them with 35 points missing from there lineup and we were totally healthy. Take off the rose colored glasses. Sure if we have home field advatnage we likely would eek by Toronto. If they somehow got homefield forget about it. Toronto is worse then last year. But what some of you dont understand is we are worse too lol.

[thegreatone1b]

Embiid needs to look in mirror and start playing like a big man. He needs to back gasol down and use footwork to score on him. Enough of this ****.

Its whatever i literally have 0 expectations for this team anymore. Toronto is a joke and we lose to them. Unreal. Toronto nothin but a bunch of over achieving scrubs that will fade in playoffs without kawhi there to carry their bum asses

17-5 without Kawhi last season, so they can do it without him, just like they did to your team tonight. Yeah.. Toronto is nothing bunch of over achieving scrubs that have a better record than your underachieving Allstars.

[maternal85]

I don't even care about this one. Typical Raptors nonsense. I was ready to see the new-and-improved Siakam, but looks like the same bull in a china shop random charges and spinning bank shot guy from last year. If Embiid plays 20% of his typical game we win.

Ironically, people were ready to see the new and improved Simmons and Embiid. But it was the same nonsense. Simmons can't shoot a ball into the ocean, while Embiid's daddy Gasol spanks him. If Embiid actually scored a point Philly wins.

The thing is, you put Embiid with any other all-star playmaking PG/Wing and he's much harder to guard, but when the only options for him are post up or 3 he becomes easier to defend. I don't think people are cognizant of just how much Ben's game hurts Embiid's game, Embiid is used as a rollman as much as Ben McLemore, think about that for a second. Brown saw Embiid struggling and never once tried to get him a feel with a easy roll, because Ben can't really run it since any smart defender would drop under the screen and build a wall knowing Simmons wont shoot.


What the Sixers have right now is Blake Griffin & DeAndre Jordan spacing problems, the problem is that Ben is the DeAndre in that comparison.

Well said. That's why it's even comical to think the sixers are a title contending team. Their weaknesses are very obvious. You're not even an NBA coach and see how you broke it down. And in the playoffs, if you can't score in the half court, you're done. Simmons shot is even worse than a 6th grader. Lastly, losing Reddick and Butler was a horrible move. They had no play maker in the clutch, and no 3 point shooter on the team is as scary as Reddick was.

[Mik317]

It was the kind of game that'll make you sick to your stomach, but still only 1 RS game. On the road against a tough opponent. Just gotta move on and grow from it. Hopefully Embiid gets angry about this and comes out with some fire on Thursday. And more importantly, hopefully he comes out with some fire next time we play the Raps.

we have been saying some version of this for the last 3 years tho.

Joe; won't play this poorly again but he has been stimied by Gasol types for a while now. The fact that this was winnable is great but will Josh shoot like this all the time? They also were missing Lowry and Ibaka (another guy who guards Joel well). These are things that we probably can't keep handwaving off as "well it won't happen in the playoffs"...when it has in fact happened in the playoffs lol.

I think many are a bit too fatalistic due to their various agendas but there is a possibility that as is this is a dead end.

I am no basketball genius. I also don't think we will trade any of the big two any time soon...BUT i do think that we can win w/ both or at least Embiid. We just gotta have the best system for him to succeed. Right now double teams **** him up. And as much as we love to point to Ben (who is at fault) its also Horford and others. Its easy to close out on Al or just live w/ him shooting. Same kinda goes w/ everyone lol. With JJ...no team was living w/ that and as such doubles had to be more selective. Embiid and Josh seem to be building something but there needs to be more. Again broken record time but Elton went too in on Embiid insurance and at the expense of Embiid assistance. Horford is a luxury...not a need. I get that Jimmy is a butthole and maybe JJ too but you needed diet versions of those guys at the very least. Josh seems to be a nice amalgam of them but not fully....but even then we needed more Josh Richardson types then. Mattise seems like a waste. Ennis is a waste. Ironically Toronto is chock full of dudes that would help open the floor up for Embiid....so they are out there...and not for much. But instead we wasted money on a backup for our best player while hoping another guy replaces the value of two guys....which just doesn't seem like a great use of resources yknow...especially considering that last years team was pretty flawed too lol. Everything just feels very lateral at best....which of course could end in a chip because I don't think any team is that much better. The Bucks will run into the same issues as us. The Celtics seem to be getting bodied by the injury gods. The Raptors feel very Detroit Pistony. the Lakers haven't played anyone yet. The Clippers are on borrowed time. Jokic has the Mik 317 Body. So its still possible we struggle ball our way to the finals and win it but man...I just don't have much faith in anything right now lol.

That doesn't mean trade everyone for all level scorers or fire everyone into the sun....its more frustrating than that because there is a world in which this team figures it out and we get on a roll and that scares me because then the fear is the FO doesn't let that happen and yet again go all in on a short sighted deal. I still say the worst thing to happen to this tea, was that 16 game winning streak as it sped up everything and the team has been pushing everything to the middle and not really winning when doing so. So my constant fear is that we do that one more time and end back up in treadmill town.

fun times lol

[Oakville_Raptor]

I still think you guys will be right there in the playoffs, a 7 game series will be tough. It's funny, every team in the east at the top got worse (except Boston, addition by subtraction), so I don't have trouble seeing Philly, Bucks, Boston, or Toronto in the finals. A game like today would worry me more about Embiid's future than anything else. Dude is not aging well. He's down huge in basically every category this year. Hope he gets in shape, don't want to see him out of the league so quick.

I had the Sixers winning the championship before the season started, but with Simmons not improving & Embiid having stinkers like tonight it's making my prediction look whack.

[NoDopeOnSundays]

Embiid, a top 10 player, fails to score in 32 minutes yet Simmons draws more heat.

This forum has jumped the shark.

Embiid was terrible, but how can anyone watch the Sixers play, see Ben Simmons constantly posting up behind people when he doesn't have the ball and think that some of his limitations aren't impeding Embiid. As much as Simmons had the ball he scored 10 points, the assists are nice but they're a function of how much he has the ball, they needed him to take over the game with his scoring and attack the basket in the halfcourt. His own offense is regressing, he's down to 12.9ppg while being top 15 in time of possession with the ball, he and Ricky Rubio are the only 2 guys in the top 15 averaging under 17ppg. Your primary ball handler cannot be a non-scoring threat as a contender, and how he plays does effect Embiid, especially when Joel sees hard doubles which is a direct result of having 1 guy on the floor who will not shoot.

[RaptorHooter]

Our best player dose not score and we play bad as a team and
its at the raptors and yet they barley win,we are way better
than them,don't worry.

No Lowry, No Ibaka, No McCaw, missing our best 3pt shooter

but ok whatever helps you sleep at night.

Lol

Toronto will end up a 500 team by years end.

We're currently on the 3rd longest streak in NBA history without being under 500.

[djsunyc]

It was the kind of game that'll make you sick to your stomach, but still only 1 RS game. On the road against a tough opponent. Just gotta move on and grow from it. Hopefully Embiid gets angry about this and comes out with some fire on Thursday. And more importantly, hopefully he comes out with some fire next time we play the Raps.

do you feel the sixers are ready to win the chip? do you think elton brown feels they are? how about ownership?

the reason i ask is that it's very easy to be ok with the current situation - but if the answers to those questions are no, then you can be proactive.

so the raptors last year had a great center tandem in jonas v. and ibaka. they combined were killing folks. we also had a quality 4th guard in delon wright. jonas got hurt in mid december and was out till the trade deadline. we still continued to win - probably would've been close to the #1 seed if he didn't get hurt. with that said masai felt gasol would be an upgrade and moved jonas + delon + cj miles. i mean that's a pretty big in season trade but it was one made thinking something had to change b/c even tho we were winning, we needed a different dynamic from the center spot.

if i were a sixers fan, i would hope brand has the same foresight and is ready to make a bigger move to fix a hole in the squad.

as is, the sixers *could* come out of the east b/c all the east teams have flaws. but a move could make you not only the favorite to win the east but win the chip as well.

[P-K4]

I don't log in much and don't say much, but I will say this. In my 46 yrs and a good 40 of them pulling hard for my home team, that's the type game that sticks in your craw. Haven't felt that kind of burn since the 11 year old me watched the game where Bird was giving it to my hero to the point where Doc just decided he had enough and tried to choke out Larry Legend. This was truly painful. A real "is this your king(s)?" moment.

Meaningless regular season game, but it's time for soul searching. Jo should have been 0 for 8 and kept moving the ball to open shooters. In the 4th he was desperate to score against heavy doubles and threw up wild shots and hurt us down d stretch. Josh and Tobias could have won that game for us. Ben was utterly putrid when it mattered. I've just about had enough of him jumping in transition and turning around to pass and just not cherishing the ball.

What I love is that the challenge is clear. If our 2 identified leaders don't learn to tackle their biggest issues (Jo against size and Ben in the en-halfened court) we won't get to where we are trying to go.

[GeorgeMarcus]

It was the kind of game that'll make you sick to your stomach, but still only 1 RS game. On the road against a tough opponent. Just gotta move on and grow from it. Hopefully Embiid gets angry about this and comes out with some fire on Thursday. And more importantly, hopefully he comes out with some fire next time we play the Raps.

do you feel the sixers are ready to win the chip? do you think elton brown feels they are? how about ownership?

the reason i ask is that it's very easy to be ok with the current situation - but if the answers to those questions are no, then you can be proactive.

so the raptors last year had a great center tandem in jonas v. and ibaka. they combined were killing folks. we also had a quality 4th guard in delon wright. jonas got hurt in mid december and was out till the trade deadline. we still continued to win - probably would've been close to the #1 seed if he didn't get hurt. with that said masai felt gasol would be an upgrade and moved jonas + delon + cj miles. i mean that's a pretty big in season trade but it was one made thinking something had to change b/c even tho we were winning, we needed a different dynamic from the center spot.

if i were a sixers fan, i would hope brand has the same foresight and is ready to make a bigger move to fix a hole in the squad.

as is, the sixers *could* come out of the east b/c all the east teams have flaws. but a move could make you not only the favorite to win the east but win the chip as well.

I believe they're among a handful of teams good enough to win it as constructed. I have a lot of faith in what the defense can accomplish over a 7 game series. That said, we should try to improve if the right opportunity presents itself. Elton is probably in "wait and see" mode before pulling the trigger on anything major.

[eagereyez]

Raised by lions ya'll.

[Kolkmania]

The thing is, you put Embiid with any other all-star playmaking PG/Wing and he's much harder to guard, but when the only options for him are post up or 3 he becomes easier to defend. I don't think people are cognizant of just how much Ben's game hurts Embiid's game, Embiid is used as a rollman as much as Ben McLemore, think about that for a second. Brown saw Embiid struggling and never once tried to get him a feel with a easy roll, because Ben can't really run it since any smart defender would drop under the screen and build a wall knowing Simmons wont shoot.

What the Sixers have right now is Blake Griffin & DeAndre Jordan spacing problems, the problem is that Ben is the DeAndre in that comparison.

I am sure that an actual PG would get Embiid more easy points, but I'm not sure about him being a good roll man. Just because you are a big does not mean that you can do that effectively.
The timing, hands and coordination needed to finish the plays are not Embiid's strengths. I feel like he prefers to be a post threat as well.

[NoDopeOnSundays]

The thing is, you put Embiid with any other all-star playmaking PG/Wing and he's much harder to guard, but when the only options for him are post up or 3 he becomes easier to defend. I don't think people are cognizant of just how much Ben's game hurts Embiid's game, Embiid is used as a rollman as much as Ben McLemore, think about that for a second. Brown saw Embiid struggling and never once tried to get him a feel with a easy roll, because Ben can't really run it since any smart defender would drop under the screen and build a wall knowing Simmons wont shoot.

What the Sixers have right now is Blake Griffin & DeAndre Jordan spacing problems, the problem is that Ben is the DeAndre in that comparison.

I am sure that an actual PG would get Embiid more easy points, but I'm not sure about him being a good roll man. Just because you are a big does not mean that you can do that effectively.
The timing, hands and coordination needed to finish the plays are not Embiid's strengths. I feel like he prefers to be a post threat as well.

His numbers as a rollman were good his first year, he was good for 1.14ppp which was better than Anthony Davis, Clint Capella and Steven Adams while being only .09 behind KAT, coincidentally that was his only year without Ben. There are guards that roll to the basket more frequently than Embiid, it's pretty sad to be honest. A better coach would force Ben to try it and take some pull up jumpers off the screen, it's the sign of a bad coach to not add new wrinkles to an offense or change with his personnel. The team has changed parts several times now yet the offense has the same exact problems, and I'd be willing to bet that part of the reason Jimmy left was because of Brown's refusal to run PnR more.

[Jhawk03]

I'm only concerned about 2 things from here on out for the rest of the season

1. Joels commitment
2. Bens humility

I don't see any real changes until these things are addressed.

[76ciology]

The thing is, you put Embiid with any other all-star playmaking PG/Wing and he's much harder to guard, but when the only options for him are post up or 3 he becomes easier to defend. I don't think people are cognizant of just how much Ben's game hurts Embiid's game, Embiid is used as a rollman as much as Ben McLemore, think about that for a second. Brown saw Embiid struggling and never once tried to get him a feel with a easy roll, because Ben can't really run it since any smart defender would drop under the screen and build a wall knowing Simmons wont shoot.

What the Sixers have right now is Blake Griffin & DeAndre Jordan spacing problems, the problem is that Ben is the DeAndre in that comparison.

I am sure that an actual PG would get Embiid more easy points, but I'm not sure about him being a good roll man. Just because you are a big does not mean that you can do that effectively.
The timing, hands and coordination needed to finish the plays are not Embiid's strengths. I feel like he prefers to be a post threat as well.

Very true. And we might as well trade Embiid For a guy like Capela if we wants him to just be a finisher. Waste of skillset

[Stribor]

This year I have to much work, and being in Europe I am not able to see lot of games if I want some sleep. Most of the time I am annoyed with this, but today I am kind of happy. Imagine waiting until 1am to see JoJo as he was yesterday. I would be completely enraged (or depressed).

[Kova]

I feel so bad for Joel.. Gasol is really an exceptional defensive player on him. And when he is out of the play, they double him.

I also put that on Brett because he needs to be able to give our big man some easy looks.

[AI_Efficiency]

The thing is, you put Embiid with any other all-star playmaking PG/Wing and he's much harder to guard, but when the only options for him are post up or 3 he becomes easier to defend. I don't think people are cognizant of just how much Ben's game hurts Embiid's game, Embiid is used as a rollman as much as Ben McLemore, think about that for a second. Brown saw Embiid struggling and never once tried to get him a feel with a easy roll, because Ben can't really run it since any smart defender would drop under the screen and build a wall knowing Simmons wont shoot.

What the Sixers have right now is Blake Griffin & DeAndre Jordan spacing problems, the problem is that Ben is the DeAndre in that comparison.

I am sure that an actual PG would get Embiid more easy points, but I'm not sure about him being a good roll man. Just because you are a big does not mean that you can do that effectively.
The timing, hands and coordination needed to finish the plays are not Embiid's strengths. I feel like he prefers to be a post threat as well.

Very true. And we might as well trade Embiid For a guy like Capela if we wants him to just be a finisher. Waste of skillset

Nah, embiid’s best skill set was his defense. His offense was terrible in the Toronto series last year, but the on / off numbers were still staggering because of what he does on that side of the ball. Running our offense out of the post with embiid, with or without Ben on the floor, is inefficient imo. Whether it’s through iso or pick and roll, it would be much better if we had an elite guard or wing playmaker that could score and then let embiid use most of his energy on defense.

Edit: Honestly, given the roster construction, having Tobias and Josh try to improve their scoring is our best bet. If embiid started out as more of a traditional big I think we would be in better shape, but there’s almost the Dwight Howard situation now. Embiid sees himself as the star on offensive and defense and is so used to his post touches. Even if like Harden or Luka were magically transported to this team, embiid probably isn’t okay losing all of his post ups.