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

[Cubbies2120]

That I exactly what I thought while watching the nuggets Warriors yesterday. Draymond would literally have his arms wrapped around jokics waist on the low post and everyone was praising his defence, meanwhile embiid just throws up wild attempts if he gets clamped and he gets the call every single damn time.

If Jokic was ref'd like Embiid he'd be putting up 35ppg Jokic gets deep post position and gets fouled a lot with no calls - which is why you see him running at the refs yelling at them.

He just wants to be ref'd fairly, as all players should be.

[Black Mage]

I don't see how Raptors are a treadmill team. They have a very strong GM. They have excellent player development coaches as far as I can tell.

I do have to ask, I love FVV as a player, but he seems like a shell of himself the last year or so. Are injuries catching up to him?

[76ersForLife]

I'm just waiting for Embiid to start showboating in game 2 now that Raptors are missing Barnes, Trent, Thad.....will he bring back the airplane? who knows.

All three of those players combined do not offer superstar impact.

doesn't matter, it's enough for Embiid to start showboating

Not really, Embiid is a different person and has matured alot since that series.

[HardenGoat]

I still don't understand why the poll is so lopsided in favor of the Raptors. Like they have a good team and have definitely been trending upwards but it's like people just want to speak the 76ers losing into existence. I get Doc and Harden are two of the most hated people in the league but at least try to stay somewhat objective.

Half of the fans on this board are raptor fans

[pingpongrac]

I don't see how Raptors are a treadmill team. They have a very strong GM. They have excellent player development coaches as far as I can tell.

I do have to ask, I love FVV as a player, but he seems like a shell of himself the last year or so. Are injuries catching up to him?

I wouldn't say injuries are catching up to him, but his last two seasons have been derailed by COVID and injuries.

2020/21 pre-COVID: 20/4/7 on 55 TS%
2020/21 post-COVID: 19/4/6 on 51 TS%

2021/22 pre-injury: 22/5/7 on 57 TS%
2021/22 post-injury: 16/4/6 on 48 TS%

Last season he was playing at a borderline all-star level for the first half of the season, then he fell off pretty hard after COVID sidelined him (and 4 or 5 other Raptors) for 3 weeks. This season he was playing at an all-star level until just around the ASG where news came out that he was dealing with a knee injury. He's been trying to push through for the most part, but he has taken a noticeable step back on the offensive end (17.3 FGA and 24 USG% vs 15.3 FGA and 22 USG%) and his defence has also suffered at times.

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[Black Mage]

I don't see how Raptors are a treadmill team. They have a very strong GM. They have excellent player development coaches as far as I can tell.

I do have to ask, I love FVV as a player, but he seems like a shell of himself the last year or so. Are injuries catching up to him?

I wouldn't say injuries are catching up to him, but his last two seasons have been derailed by COVID and injuries.

2020/21 pre-COVID: 20/4/7 on 55 TS%
2020/21 post-COVID: 19/4/6 on 51 TS%

2021/22 pre-injury: 22/5/7 on 57 TS%
2021/22 post-injury: 16/4/6 on 48 TS%

Last season he was playing at a borderline all-star level for the first half of the season, then he fell off pretty hard after COVID sidelined him (and 4 or 5 other Raptors) for 3 weeks. This season he was playing at an all-star level until just around the ASG where news came out that he was dealing with a knee injury. He's been trying to push through for the most part, but he has taken a noticeable step back on the offensive end (17.3 FGA and 24 USG% vs 15.3 FGA and 22 USG%) and his defence has also suffered at times.

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That would definitely explain it.

[SFour]

All three of those players combined do not offer superstar impact.

doesn't matter, it's enough for Embiid to start showboating

Not really, Embiid is a different person and has matured alot since that series.

we'll see in game 2

[aj174]

Nothing illagal about those elbows. Get your face out of the way and stop triple teaming, if you don't want that to happen. Have you seen Shaq and what he did to Mutombo in the 2001 Finals. Mutombo's face was Shaq's punching bag.

It's not the same NBA as back then though, I guarantee someone just standing with their hands up, and a post player just jumping into them and making a layup wouldn't have been a foul in 2001.

This league's foul calls are too subjective and extremely soft. So many possessions it felt like just standing in front of Embiid is a foul.

I've been saying this the entire year. He's officiated differently...look at this soft foul

People that think he could hang in the early 2000's brutal post game...y'all wild lol

https://imgur.com/a/p4w4nJj

BOUCHER SHOULD BE EJECTED FOR THAT BRUTAL FOUL!!

This is the exact play I was thinking of! Can anyone explain how this is a foul on Boucher? I've seen this so many times in this league, where someone is standing with their hands up and it's a foul. Nowadays an offensive player can just run into a defensive player and that's a foul too, which is more understandable compared to standing with your hands up.

[Black Mage]

It's not the same NBA as back then though, I guarantee someone just standing with their hands up, and a post player just jumping into them and making a layup wouldn't have been a foul in 2001.

This league's foul calls are too subjective and extremely soft. So many possessions it felt like just standing in front of Embiid is a foul.

I've been saying this the entire year. He's officiated differently...look at this soft foul

People that think he could hang in the early 2000's brutal post game...y'all wild lol

https://imgur.com/a/p4w4nJj

BOUCHER SHOULD BE EJECTED FOR THAT BRUTAL FOUL!!

This is the exact play I was thinking of! Can anyone explain how this is a foul on Boucher? I've seen this so many times in this league, where someone is standing with their hands up and it's a foul. Nowadays an offensive player can just run into a defensive player and that's a foul too, which is more understandable compared to standing with your hands up.

It's really not hard to understand if you know anything about NBA rules. A defender must keep his arms straight up. Boucher leaned his arm(s) forward as Embiid was going up and then after the ball was out he pulled them back to be straight up. You'll clearly see his arm fall forward into Embiid's air space at the .02 second mark.

That's an easy Fouls 101 call against a defender especially a big at the rim.

::EDIT:: Here I even did the work for you and have a link for the rule you clearly don't know about.

https://official.nba.com/nba-rule-authority-restricted-area-and-verticality-plays/

[nikster]

I can't find the one you were talking about but I watched the whole game, and didn't see what he did that was so wrong. Can you please link the one you mentioned?


For the one he had a flagrant called on him for...

Watch on YouTube

Let's see, Embiid was going for the ball. Stop bitching about this. Embiid got posterized by John Collins last year in the playoffs, and Collins choked out Embiid. NOthing from anyone about that.

Watch on YouTube

Ah so you didn't see the play but had no problem coming up with excuses for why it was fine.

I watched the entire game, show me the play you're talking about. The fact that you can't, means it wasn't egregious enough for it to be posted to social media.

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It wasn't egregious or dirty, certainly reckless and reviewable for a flagrant one. Philly played 5 on 4 for 2 possesions and Birch had to come off the floor for concussion protocol

What's weird to me is that you can say elbows to the head are part of the game if you aggressively double but have no problem with that "foul" on Boucher being called

[Clay Davis]

I don't see how Raptors are a treadmill team. They have a very strong GM. They have excellent player development coaches as far as I can tell.

I do have to ask, I love FVV as a player, but he seems like a shell of himself the last year or so. Are injuries catching up to him?

FVV is definitely injured but this is the play-offs... it's still early, but a lot of teams are pretty beat up after the regular season. I don't really want to give him that excuse. I think he has (and always will) have a hard time against a team like the 76ers. He's a scrappy dude but he gets knocked off his rhythm when he's facing teams with players like Embiid or Giannis who can slap him away like he's a petty gnat. Fred Gnat Vleet lol

[HotelVitale]

I've been saying this the entire year. He's officiated differently...look at this soft foul People that think he could hang in the early 2000's brutal post game...y'all wild lol
https://imgur.com/a/p4w4nJj
BOUCHER SHOULD BE EJECTED FOR THAT BRUTAL FOUL!!

This is the exact play I was thinking of! Can anyone explain how this is a foul on Boucher? I've seen this so many times in this league, where someone is standing with their hands up and it's a foul. Nowadays an offensive player can just run into a defensive player and that's a foul too, which is more understandable compared to standing with your hands up.

It's really not hard to understand if you know anything about NBA rules. A defender must keep his arms straight up. Boucher leaned his arm(s) forward as Embiid was going up and then after the ball was out he pulled them back to be straight up. You'll clearly see his arm fall forward into Embiid's air space at the .02 second mark. That's an easy Fouls 101 call against a defender especially a big at the rim.

You can't really see from this angle but the ref is like 6 feet away and has a clear view of it, seems like Boucher's hand must've slapped Embiid's arm when he brought it down. The ref doesn't hesitate for a second in calling it.

We can't really see it from there, so I guess you could either go with that explanation, or go with what seems like it's in Cubbies and AJ's head which is that there is no arm contact here and the ref is part of a larger a conspiracy to allow Embiid to score maybe 2-3 more points per game--a conspiracy that gets the league pretty much nothing from and could risk them a major season-shattering scandal. But I guess we don't know it's not happening for sure, gotta choose which thing we can't see is real.

[eyeatoma]

Ah so you didn't see the play but had no problem coming up with excuses for why it was fine.

I watched the entire game, show me the play you're talking about. The fact that you can't, means it wasn't egregious enough for it to be posted to social media.

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It wasn't egregious or dirty, certainly reckless and reviewable for a flagrant one. Philly played 5 on 4 for 2 possesions and Birch had to come off the floor for concussion protocol

What's weird to me is that you can say elbows to the head are part of the game if you aggressively double but have no problem with that "foul" on Boucher being called

I'm saying a lot of this stuff is inadvertent. If it gets called, so be it, if not, it's part of the playoffs. Every team has this happen, Embiid by no means has it happen more than other players. Does he draw more contact? Yes, because he is a far more physical player, so the likeliness of these inadvertent hits happening is higher.

[76ersForLife]

It's not the same NBA as back then though, I guarantee someone just standing with their hands up, and a post player just jumping into them and making a layup wouldn't have been a foul in 2001.

This league's foul calls are too subjective and extremely soft. So many possessions it felt like just standing in front of Embiid is a foul.

I've been saying this the entire year. He's officiated differently...look at this soft foul

People that think he could hang in the early 2000's brutal post game...y'all wild lol

https://imgur.com/a/p4w4nJj

BOUCHER SHOULD BE EJECTED FOR THAT BRUTAL FOUL!!

This is the exact play I was thinking of! Can anyone explain how this is a foul on Boucher? I've seen this so many times in this league, where someone is standing with their hands up and it's a foul. Nowadays an offensive player can just run into a defensive player and that's a foul too, which is more understandable compared to standing with your hands up.

It was terrible positoning by Boucher because instead of putting a body on Embiid he had to help with the dribble penetration and breakdow of Raps defense by Milton. He was literally so deep that he was standing under the rim. Any time u let a big catch the ball that deep its gonna be a foul call 9 out of 10 times.

[LoveMyRaps]

Off the court:






On the court:

[SelfishPlayer]

Toronto lost Kawhi and still went further in the playoffs than the Sixers in 2020......Sixers got swept by the Celtics in the 1st round while the Raptors took them to 7 games.

if anything the Sixers are the treadmilling team, and that tag will stick to them until they get past the 2nd round

Treadmilling means, no hope of winning a championship while making the playoffs. You can't redefine it. The Raptors have no hope. Sweep!

No, that really isn't what treadmilling means.

Most normal people understand it to mean good enough to make the playoffs and not bad enough to get a pick, but not just once - repeatedly - with no real means to improve. When you keep doing the same thing but neither move forward or backward THAT is when teams are treadmilling.

The Raptors were in the lotto last year and making a playoff appearance this year, as a first step on their way back up. If they flub it for multiple years in a row and don't exit 1st or 2nd round repeatedly, then you can come back here and call them a treadmill team.

Teams have up and down cycles, and almost no one ever goes from lotto team to title contender in one season, which is what you're expecting here, otherwise those teams who don't are treadmill.

Philly needs to make the ECF this year, otherwise they are far closer to a treadmill 1st Rnd / 2nd Rnd team that is capped out and no lotto picks, and very much doing the same things every year with not much added success to show for it. The talent is there if they can keep playing like Game 1, but the rest of the games need to be played.

Toronto's two best players are 28 years old. Treadmill!

[rocketsfan100]

You know I had Philly having the best two players of the series but with Maxey emerging he might give the Sixers three of the best players by series end.

Also I mentioned earlier keys will be for the Sixers to control the defensive glass and they did it it amazingly well. Another one was turnovers and harden in particular . Harden had 14 assists to 1 turnover and Sixers had 4 as a team. If this continues the Raptors will get wiped off the floor again and again.

[Foshan]

I still don't understand why the poll is so lopsided in favor of the Raptors. Like they have a good team and have definitely been trending upwards but it's like people just want to speak the 76ers losing into existence. I get Doc and Harden are two of the most hated people in the league but at least try to stay somewhat objective.

Half of the fans on this board are raptor fans

It’s the city of Philly against all of Canada lol

[PhilBlackson]

It was an uphill battle to begin trying to beat a higher seed with 2 (possibly 3) stars...

But being killed by an injury bug at the absolute worst time we're all but cooked. Fred has been trying to play through bad knee for over a month now (watch how he gets surgery this off season) and he's being asked to guard the fastest guy on the court. Then we have bad depth at guard missing Gary who also helps our spacing. Anunoby barely has his legs under him after weeks off from injury so he's bound to struggle with extended minutes then our biggest body and best passer in Barnes is gone....throw losing depth with Thad and running whoever is left into the ground. Yeah it's all but officially over.

It sucks, it's noones fault. Some sh*tty luck and we'll have to see how each guy develops during the off-season and hopefully Masai can improve the depth for next year. Just sucks how anti-climatic the end of this season will be as a Rap fan. It will be interesting to see how if PHI will be ready for the fight MIA is gonna bring them next round.

[Lou84]

What's up with all the talk about the whistles for embiid? You guys are new to the NBA? It's called superstar calls. Sixers had to life through it since Iverson was gone. No whistles for us either. It's just how the NBA works since the Jordan days. (If it happened before MJ too I apologize, I am not old enough to have seen bird/magic live)


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