Here are 10 takeaways from the Toronto Raptors' 131-111 Game 1 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers.
One -- In short, everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. The Raptors were overrun in every sense of the word in Game 1, as the Sixers bullied and tricked the Raptors into a shambolic display on the defensive end.
To make matters worse, the Raptors suffered multiple injuries, while having another two players foul out. The Raptors made mini-runs in the third quarter to eat into the lead, but the Sixers had a response every time. The only positives to really take away are that many of their mistakes were uncharacteristic and entirely correctable.
Two -- The Raptors need to tighten up their defence or this will be a very short series. Philadelphia scored 131 points on 89 possessions, which ranks as the third-most efficient playoff performance in the last 26 years, according to John Schuhmann of NBA.com. The Raptors predictably sold out to pressure Joel Embiid and James Harden, but this wasn't a schematic issue.
The Raptors simply made too many mistakes in their execution and got burned for it. Of course, it doesn't help that the Sixers' secondary scorers in Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris combined for 65 points on 35 shots. The temptation will be to scrap the entire strategy, but the prudent approach is to cut out the inefficiencies. Embiid will always command a double team, and so will Harden to a large degree, but the Raptors have to be much sharper with their timing and rotations. Limiting their stars is only half the battle. It also goes without saying that the Raptors have to be better on the glass, and in transition.
Three -- The biggest adjustment is how the Raptors guard Harden. The Raptors were caught ball watching way too often when Harden attacked from the top, and he simply picked them apart with his playmaking. The strategy against him should be to guard him straight up, and to help last second at the basket -- ideally from a second defender who is coming off a non-shooter.
Harden's individual scoring should be encouraged, as he's not finishing well on drives, and his step-back three is fairly inconsistent. The Raptors should be looking for more of those looks, instead of giving up wide open threes and cuts. It will take discipline to execute, as the Raptors have been over-helping all season, but the series hinges on this. Harden burned the Raptors with his passing more than Embiid did with his size, and that simply should not be the case.
Four -- Maxey torched the Raptors from start to finish. He found his rhythm early by feasting on open threes and with his pace in transition, before single-handedly putting this game to bed with 19 points in the third quarter which thwarted every attempt at a comeback. Maxey's effectiveness has to do in large part with how the Raptors overreact to Harden. The Raptors kept helping off Maxey to shade over, and the trust is clearly there from Harden where he's actively looking to get Maxey the ball.
That's when he is at his most dangerous, as Maxey is both a threat to shoot from deep which requires you to run him off the line, while also being frighteningly quick to drive against the closeout. Maxey is relatively less of a threat creating with the ball in his hands, but it's always tricky if he's attacking off a screen from Embiid, as the Raptors don't want to help off him at all which opens up driving lanes for Maxey to puncture the defence. The decision the Raptors have to make is whether they should shuffled the assignments. Fred VanVleet is the first choice defender on opposing guards, but perhaps more size would shorten the closeouts and present more of a challenge for Maxey to shoot over.
Five -- It took exactly one game for Nick Nurse to call out the officials. Quite frankly, the Raptors were sapped of their aggression from the start. Just eight seconds in, VanVleet was slapped with a foul for a totally innocuous bit of pressure against Maxey. Less than a minute later, he was hit for his second foul against Embiid down low, which put a huge target on his back. The Sixers made a point to go at VanVleet in the first half, knowing that he could not play physical since he was on two fouls early and had his third with four minutes left in the second quarter.
The more detrimental calls were the decisions gifted to Embiid. Nurse decried that even when the Raptors were on time and in place with their hands straight up, the foul was still given to Embiid, who himself was thrashing about delivering elbows without a single penalty. It verged into the absurd in the second half, when the officials started falling for Embiid and Harden's trickery in the form of rip-through moves or hooking the arm. The trick for the Raptors is to remain aggressive despite the whistle, because they stand no chance of defending by backing off because the officials are in their head.
Six -- The Raptors were beat at their own game in transition and on the glass. The Sixers were much more diligent in how they protected the glass, with the biggest difference being Harden. In the two games against the Raptors in the regular season, Harden was caught napping for eight offensive rebounds. This time, he was attentive and was actively looking to box out.
On the other end, the Sixers went against convention for a Doc Rivers team as they hunted for their own chances on the glass as opposed to strictly running back on defence. Embiid always required two players to box him out, which meant that there was often a spare man waiting for the loose ball. That's still no excuse, however, as the Raptors were just lacking in attentiveness and physicality on that end.
The more worrisome trend was how leaky the Raptors were in transition, especially when they failed to hunt down offensive rebounds of their own. The Sixers typically play slow, but they were out and running early for 29 fast-break points. Maxey was often a one-man break as he accounted for 11 transition points with his blazing speed in the open court.
Seven -- Scottie Barnes was the bright spot for the Raptors. The star rookie came two assists shy of a triple-double in his playoff debut and showed no signs of hesitation. He mostly operated without the ball, but was aggressive in all instances. He was timely on cuts, drove it hard to the rim, took the punishment to get to the line, and was noticeably more attentive on defense. On top of it all, he played with his signature flair and joy for the game, including a no-look dart to a cutting Chris Boucher for one of his eight dimes. It says a lot about him that Barnes showed more composure than some of the veterans on the team.
Eight -- The most harrowing moment in the loss was Barnes' injury. Embiid planted his foot and all 300 pounds of weight directly into Barnes' ankle, which left the 20-year-old writhing in pain and completely immobilized. Somehow, just as earlier in the game when Embiid elbowed Khem Birch in the temple which knocked him out for the half as he was checked for a concussion, the officials did not stop the play for the injury.
Instead, VanVleet had to take his sixth foul of the game just to get Barnes some badly-needed medical attention as Barnes was helped to the locker room by teammates. It was not the only infringement on the night, as Thad Young's thumb was dislocated early in the game while Harden wrestled him to the floor over a loose rebound. OG Anunoby also took a shot to the head from Harden which caused him to lose his contact, and Gary Trent Jr. was also spotted talking to the head trainer. Barnes also took a shove to the head from Embiid on a flagrant foul earlier in the match. It's hard to accept so much carnage in just one game.
Nine -- The Raptors badly need Trent Jr. to step up. He was the least productive starter by far, and his decision-making was off on both ends. He is mostly in for his offense, but he was forcing shots, missing obvious reads, and baiting for fouls without the star cachet from the officials. Defensively, he was passive and not crisp with his help defense. There was already a case to be made that the Raptors should have started bigger and swapped out Trent Jr. for a center to match up with Embiid, but that option is less palatable if Barnes and Young are unavailable, so the Raptors are just left to ride out Trent Jr.'s inconsistencies. It's just unfortunate that he remains so streaky, because consistency is what will take Trent Jr.'s career to the next level. What good is a player who can score 30 points on a hot night when they're accompanied by single-digit no-shows?
Ten -- Chris Boucher is too important to the Raptors to be so unavailable. Did Boucher receive a friendly whistle? No. At least two of his six fouls were bogus. But he can't be in a situation where he picks up three fouls in four minutes which completely takes him out of the first half, two of which led to five free throws for the Sixers. Boucher's activity as a help defender at the basket is a pivotal strategy against Embiid and Harden at the basket (although Rivers' decision to limit Thybulle and Reed's minutes as non-shooters did limit Boucher's roaming), and his ability to hit threes might make the Sixers think twice about loading up in the paint. Boucher's struggle is similar to Trent Jr.'s, in that they both regressed into bad habits when the pressure was felt. They need to fight that urge and stay solid as they each had been this season.
