The Philadelphia 76ers jumped out to an early lead against the Toronto Raptors, but were unable to use that to capture a win.
The Philadelphia 76ers were not expected to win against the Toronto Raptors. Prior to Saturday night’s matchup, they had lost the last six games against Toronto, and were embarrassed in both of the two games against them already this season. But this time around, the Sixers had Ish Smith, and seeing what he could do against the daunting backcourt of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan was going to be intriguing.
In the first quarter, the Sixers came out screaming, going on a 12-0 run that seemed to have no end. Even after the Raptors called a timeout to regroup, the run continued until it extended to 12 points. Following that, the Raptors answered finally with eight unanswered points and the Sixers found themselves in a close game. Any time Jahlil Okafor got the ball, the team was set up nicely to score, and anyone else touching the ball seemed to either want to give it to Jah, or miss a shot. After the first quarter, the Sixers lead by one.
The Sixers first half was additionally highlighted by a lack of turnovers, which is interesting to say, especially about this team. They didn’t have a turnover until halfway through the second quarter, something fans have been wanting to see improvements on all season. Once they broke the turnover seal, though, they would not stop. By the end of the game, the Sixers had 13 turnovers, which is still low compared to their usual 18 per game.
On top of not turning the ball over, they kept it somewhat close even in the second half when things began to look dreary by hitting some 3-pointers, something they haven’t done all season. They ended the game hitting 11 of their attempted 17 3-pointers, a season high in 3-point percentage. Isaiah Canaan hit two in the first half, and Hollis Thompson, Ish Smith, and Robert Covington each tacked on two of their own. The shooting was overall decent, as they shot nearly 50 percent from the field.
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The Raptors, although not good from beyond the arc (below 30 percent) were outstanding everywhere else, finishing with nearly 55 percent of their shots from the field finding the net. Every time the Sixers seemed to get some ground somewhere, they lost it again, and the Raptors kept finding ways to jab at the Sixers. Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, as expected, were huge, combining for 44 points on 56 percent shooting.
Jonas Valanciunas was also tough to contain, scoring 17 points and grabbing 9 rebounds.
The Sixers knew they needed to shut Luis Scola down, and they did, only allowing him to score two points. Unfortunately, this allowed two bench players, Patrick Peterson and Terrence Ross to really step up during this game and show what they were made of, each scoring over 10 points.
Overall, for the Raptors, this was an impressive win on a back-to-back for them. Their next game is overseas in London against the Orlando Magic.
26 assists was another positive for the Sixers.
Lastly, Ish Smith had a career high 28 points, thanks to a near-20 point performance in the third quarter alone. Smith was practically the only thing keeping the Sixers in the game at that point, and they were lucky to have him around. Although the Sixers didn’t win, this does go to show that they are much more competitive now that they have a true point guard on their roster.
At the same time, it just shows how bad the rest of the roster can be, since when Smith was out, no one stepped up. Kendall Marshall was yet again not given a chance to play, and T.J. McConnell had just 5 points. His 8 assists was a nice glimmer back to his first big back-to-back 12 assist games as a Sixer earlier this season.
Richaun Holmes didn’t get a chance to play, which was interesting since he has been playing well, averaging 8.5 points per game in the last six games. We have to think that Brett Brown was saving him for tomorrow’s game, not wanting him to be exhausted against Timofey Mozgov and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
One might think that with all of the playing Ish did tonight (33 minutes) Kendall may get his first decent amount of minutes since before Christmas, as the Sixers may need some relief in the backcourt.
Overall, Brett Brown can’t be pleased with the outcome of this game, but his strange lineups were yet again present. Although the outcome is not likable, there were a lot of components that he can look at individually and say, “wow, we’re really starting to show some growth here.”
Overall, this was not an expected win for Philadelphia, and they played decently at points against this impressive, and arguably underrated Raptors team. The loss wasn’t all bad, and the Sixers showed some fight that we might not have seen from the same team just a few weeks ago.
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The next game for Philadelphia is on Sunday against the Cleveland Cavaliers.