The Toronto Raptors made some franchise history last night, but not in a good way. Last night the Toronto Raptors had three players on the opposing team score 30 or more points for the first time in franchise history, yikes. Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and Tobias Harris all scored 30 or more and this led to a 121-111 victory for Nick Nurse and the 76ers and added yet another loss to the Toronto Raptors record. For a team that has long prided itself on tenacity, effort, and toughness on defense, Toronto just does not embody that right now.
When the game first began the Raptors were in the driver’s seat. Notably it was Pascal Siakam who was putting immense pressure on the 76ers defense. He was constantly darting toward the rim whether it was in transition or in the halfcourt. He was cutting very well and attacking anytime he had the ball which led to 14 first quarter points and three trips to the free throw line. Jakob Poetl also began this game very well as he had 10 first quarter points of his own. Jakob had his best game in a while and he was really taking it to Embiid on both ends of the floor. Jakob was showing off his touch around the rim and he was a prominent force in the offense early on. After his recent stretch of getting his minutes cut it seemed as if this was a statement game from him. Scottie Barnes was also adding fuel to the fire as he was a flamethrower from three point land with 2 threes early and 8 points in the quarter.
Early on in the game the defense on Joel Embiid was immaculate. Obviously when you have the reigning MVP coming in on a bit of a hot streak, he is going to be the focal point of your defense and Darko Rajakovic’s game plan for him was working early on. Jakob Poetl did a great job of being physical with Embiid, not allowing him to comfortably get to the elbow area he loves to operate in. Poetl overall just did a great job covering Embiid but it was not just Poetl. The plan was to send two to the ball if Embiid ever got to his spot and to force someone else to make a play, and to have the weak side shade over as well to cover up anything. This coverage meant that the weak side 76ers players would have more space to operate and Tobias Harris took full advantage of that. Although Embiid was contained in the first half, Tobias Harris dropped 24 points of his own and that kept Toronto from garnering a large lead.
It has been the case much too often for Toronto lately that they are rolling on offense but defensively they allow the other team to be consistently scoring as well and when the offense inevitably slows down, the other team is in great position to pull away and that is what happened last night.
The second half was really the opposite of the first half where Toronto was in control for most of the time. For starters, Joel Embiid began to wake up and to Toronto’s credit, some of the shots he was hitting were outright ridiculous. You were only going to shut down Embiid for so long but to allow Tyrese Maxey to join in on the fun was too much for Toronto to manage. Maxey was showing off his ludicrous speed and his underrated shooting as he burned so many defenders with blazing drives to the rim and with insanely deep threes. Offensively, Pascal Siakam continued to apply a lot of pressure to the rim and doing his best to keep Toronto in the game. Gary Trent Jr was also lighting it up for Toronto and it felt like he was hitting a shot every time you turned your head. But ultimately the offensive attack from Philly was too much for Toronto to outlast, especially with multiple starters not really helping add to the score column much.
Watching this team game after game struggle defensively has been a jarring experience, this is not a team that can survive if they have to go shot for shot with top offenses around the league, they have to buckle down on defense if they want to have a shot to win these games. They face off against the Utah Jazz next so hopefully the defense can get back into stride and they can get back into the win column and closer to that pizza party.
