Wow. That was fun. I wouldn’t recommend the Raptors fall behind by 22 points early in the third quarter on the second night of a back-to-back too often, but it was worth it to watch them will themselves to their spectacularly entertaining 114-109 win over the Philadelphia 76ers.
There is some room for nitpicking – the two teams combined for 44 turnovers with the Raptors making an uncharacteristic 21 of them, but to my eyes a lot of those errors – particularly in the second half – were attributable to the full-out physical combat the two teams engaged in for the guts of the game. It was a game played on the red line and the Raptors proved themselves able to stay there for longer.
An amazing comeback that improves the Raptors to 21-8 and 11-1 in their past 12.
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Appreciated DeRozan:
DeMar DeRozan finished with a career-high 45 points while shooting 6-of-9 from three (started four-of-four in the first half), 13-of-21 overall from the field and dished out three assists.
Down the stretch it was his ability to get to the line when needed that proved the difference. He was 13-of-15 from the stripe compared with the Sixers who were 10-of-14 for the game.
Was that the best game DeRozan has ever played as a Raptor? It just might have been. Not because of the scoring and the efficiency of it, but he was a huge part of the Raptors game-turning defensive effort in the middle of the third quarter too. If the Raptors are getting slept on in the US a little bit DeRozan is for sure. If you’re not watching him every night you’re missing out.
Wow. What a comeback:
The third quarter was amazing entertainment. Even a 76ers fan might have been able to appreciate it if they could their head around the idea that it was their team that was being victimized by a full-on assault of effort by the Raptors.
It really is hard to pin the reversal on anything the 76ers did. They came out blazing after half and were up 76-54 with 9:09 to play in the period. And then Toronto went crazy, sparked by a Kyle Lowry triple. Delon Wright – don’t think Dwane Casey isn’t happy to have his sticky fingers back on the floor – was everywhere. On one sequence he drew a charge, drew a foul, and made the free throws. It was contagious. On another Pascal Siakam made a block, made the outlet from his butt, hustled down the floor to set up a Lowry dribble drive that led to a a flurry of passes setting up Lowry for a three. He missed, but the energy never wavered.
There was possession after possession like that: swarming, play-making D leading into smart, ball-moving offense. DeRozan’s fifth three started with him chasing the 76ers’ Robert Covington off the line, contesting his two-point shot and then getting wide for a great pass from Wright who saved a well-intentioned, though wild, Ibaka kick-out.
In all it was a 22-2 run. It was the most entertaining quarter I think I’ve seen the Raptors play this season.
JV and Serge:
The red-hot Raptors have benefitted from the best stretch of basketball that Ibaka and Jonas Valanciunas have played as a tandem over the past month or so.
For the month of December Valanciunas came into Philadelphia averaging 12 points and nine rebounds in just 22.5 minutes a game with efficiency numbers that jumped off the page – an offensive rating of 124 and a defensive rating of 98. Meanwhile Ibaka was even better – averaging 19 points, 6.5 rebounds with nearly two blocks per game and net rating of +27.
As well, the Raptors bigs were shooting 50 and 58 per cent from three, respectively. I’m not sure what gremlins got in the system against the 76ers but from the outset Ibaka missed a couple of easy lay-ups in pick-and-roll situations and Valanciunas couldn’t seem to handle himself in any of the post-ups the Raptors ran for him. Ibaka had a post-up against the 76ers’ Ben Simmons in the third and was completely over-matched, spitting up Toronto’s 17th turnover.
It’s hard for the Raptors starters to be effective when two of them are as far off their game as Ibaka and Valanciunas were through three quarters.
Ibaka redeemed himself with his defensive contributions. It seemed he was in the middle of everything good that was happening in the Raptors’ own end in the fourth quarter, and it made sense that Casey played him 35 minutes on the second night of a back-to-back while Valanciunas played just 16. Still, had they combined for something better than 5-of-19 from the floor and 3-of-12 in the paint, perhaps the Raptors wouldn’t have been in the pickle they needed to struggle so mightily to free themselves from.
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Ben Simmons, beasting:
Simmons’ defensive potential is frigging awesome.
On consecutive sequences in the third quarter, the 6-foot-10 point guard completely smothered Ibaka in the post and then stymied DeRozan with a hard close out to the corner, one of the rare moments the Sixers had DeRozan bottled up. The 20-year-old Aussie has a way to go, presumably. His seven turnovers were an issue and he’s leading the NBA in giveaways at the moment, but one of his best attributes is he’s so willing to be a brute physically, even though he’s not all that thick at this stage.
LeBron James is, and was, bigger and probably at least as fast, but I don’t remember James being so eager to use his size and strength as Simmons at the same stage of his career. Simmons grew up playing Aussie Rules football and thinks nothing of dropping his shoulder into guys, and his elbows too as Delon Wright found out.
He loves to go the post and bury point guards or smaller wings. But one of the key possessions of the game came late in the fourth when he tried to post-up OG Anunoby and his Raptor rookie counterpart held his ground, forced the miss and stymied the Sixers’ chance to pull within one possession late.
But it’s fun to see a player with clear physical advantages so willing to use them on both ends of the floor.
Raptors missing star power:
The Raptors are for good reason getting some attention as one of the very best teams in the NBA. Their record demands it – heading into Thursday’s game against the 76ers they only Houston and Golden State had lost fewer games than the eight the Raptors have – with the Celtics loss to the New York Knicks the Raptors are now one up on Boston in the loss column as Boston dropped to 26-9.
Toronto has done it while managing a road-heavy schedule and while reducing the load both in style and minutes on their pillars, Lowry and DeRozan. So are the Raptors for real? They have some of the hallmarks of elite teams – they rank just behind Warriors and the Rockets in average point differential (+8.7) and are the only team in the league to rank in the top six in offensive (fourth) and defensive rating (sixth).
The only reason not to completely buy in on the Raptors as the best edition of the club in franchise history? This group is only 5-7 against teams with a winning record and they’ve had an incredible run of luck of missing top talent on other clubs: San Antonio without Kawhi Leonard; Houston without Chris Paul; the Clippers without Blake Griffin; The Wizards without John Wall (twice); the Celtics without Kyrie Irving and Charlotte without Kemba Walker.
The Raptors have played the 76ers twice now and missed Joel Embiid both times and there is a decent possibility that Embiid’s back won’t allow him to play against the Raptors on Saturday at the ACC either. Philadelphia is a completely different team without Embiid – as their loss Thursday dropped them to just 1-7 when he sits this year.