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The Sixers’ road fights against the Raptors continued Sunday night, even in a game that did not take place in Toronto.
Playing at Amalie Arena in Tampa Bay, Florida, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sixers have fallen to the Raptors, 110-103, dropping to 20-11 this season.
Ben Simmons had 28 points, nine rebounds and five assists, while Joel Embiid scored 25 points and 17 rebounds the game after scoring a career-high 50. Danny Green had five steals and two blocks, but made a foul with 6:40 to play.
Fred VanVleet (23 points, nine assists) and Pascal Siakam (23 points, eight assists) stood out for Toronto, and Chris Boucher’s 5 for 6 night beyond the arc injured the Sixers.
The Sixers and Raptors will conclude their two-game mini-series on Tuesday night. Here are some observations from Sunday’s game:
Simmons picks up where he left off
Playing his first game since scoring a career-high 42 points, it looked like no offensive assault from Simmons had faded during his illness-related absence. He scored five of the Sixers’ first seven points by pushing the ball forward into open ground as much as possible and plowing through contact to reach the rim.
Simmons maintained this approach throughout the first half, shooting 6 for 8 both off the field and off the free throw line. His sharp defensive instincts were also visible.
After his night of 10 on 14 on the foul line, Simmons is 22 of 27 on free throws in his last two games.
“Sometimes it takes just a little bit before you see what we’re trying to do, and Ben does,” Sixers head coach Doc Rivers said. “He’s aggressive; he gets to the basket; he makes plays; he forces doubles teams. With his speed. And our goal before the year was to see if he could hit the foul line 10 times a night, and He did it.
Raptors head coach Nick Nurse said ahead of the game how the way the potential All-Stars play against his team generally has an impact on how he votes for the Eastern Conference’s seven reserves. , which will be announced Tuesday evening. We’re assuming Simmons bolstered her case to be on the nurse’s ballot with her performance on Sunday.
Raptors slow down (relatively) Embiid
Six-foot-seven OG Anunoby took the first board against Embiid as Toronto started out playing small ball. The Raptors attempted to thwart Embiid by facing him and immediately throwing traps at him whenever he caught the ball near the basket. Familiar foe Aron Baynes also took into account Nurse’s diverse defensive game plan and started the second half, although true 1v1 odds were very rare for Embiid.
While he wasn’t as good as normal in the midrange and shot 6 of 20 from the floor, Embiid’s decision making was generally solid when he was on a two-team.
“As soon as I walked through half the pitch they sent two, three guys of mine to make sure I wasn’t going to be the one to beat them tonight,” Embiid said. “Overall I felt like I was staying with myself and myself. The team concept, and I made a lot of passes. We just didn’t do enough shots tonight.
Toronto’s defensive plan was ripe for three-point chances for the Sixers. The team went 11 for 37 at long distance, their biggest three-point tries in a game since Jan. 14. Embiid’s pass led to several crisp possessions in which the Sixers swung the ball around the perimeter and forced Toronto to scramble. To the Raptors’ credit, they make a strong defensive team on those types of streaks.
Simmons acknowledged what Toronto had done well defensively while noting that the Sixers had missed shots they usually took, a consensus among team members who spoke to reporters after the game.
“They cover each other up, communicate, and move quite well,” Simmons said. “I think overall we had a lot of great looks on the attack. They just didn’t fall.
Tobias Harris had an unusually tough first quarter, shooting 1 for 9 from the floor and scoring several times in isolation against Siakam. None of the shots he attempted were inadvisable, but their misses allowed VanVleet to shift the momentum in Toronto’s favor in a 20-2 run to finish the quarter.
He fared better after that, registering 13 points on a 6-for-17 shot and seven assists in the game, but the Sixers could have used a more effective third-scoring option on Sunday night, especially when Embiid and the squad as a whole had difficulty producing on the stretch.
Search for answers with the bench
Shake Milton returned after missing five games with a sprained left ankle, and he was the Sixers’ first substitute. He replaced Simmons, whom Rivers later played with four members of the Sixers’ second unit. It has become clear to Rivers that using rosters on all benches is a dangerous game with the current roster.
“We have to have Tobias, Joel or Ben with this unit,” he said on Friday. “And when we don’t, sometimes we just have to look at the head. Tonight was one of those things where I honestly just watched the score. You can see that this will be one of those games where it ends. We used the second unit in the second half to get to eight minutes. This is what we were trying to do.
Isaiah Joe was part of the rotation again, while Furkan Korkmaz only appeared when Matisse Thybulle landed his third foul (and a technique) at the start of the second quarter.
Korkmaz’s place has felt precarious for a while, especially after scoring just 3 of his last 19 field goals before Sunday’s game. His defense and decision-making certainly weren’t positive either. He was 0-2 in two minutes of the first half against Toronto.
Joe played several solid defensive possessions when paired with Norman Powell, stalking him well off the ball, knocking out potential driving angles and taking control on a game where Powell attempted to pass the rookie through.
Speaking after the Sixers shoot on Sunday morning, Joe thanked the team’s veterans for helping him adjust to not having much certainty about his playing time in the NBA.
“Even when I arrive, take a few shots and miss them or take them, they always keep me awake and tell me it’s just part of the job, it’s part of the game,” he said. he declares. “I work every day, I keep grinding and everything else is basketball – nothing changes.”
Unlike Simmons, Milton didn’t touch the ground when he returned. He missed his first five field goals before breaking the ice by knocking down a three-runner from the top of the key in the third quarter. Milton then drained two more three threes and finished with nine points on a 3 for 11 shot and two assists in 29 minutes.
“Keep working on it,” Rivers said when asked about his bench, which was outscored 35-16 by the Raptors’ second unit. “It’s 31 games in the season. It hasn’t been like that all year with our bench, it’s I told myself that in the second half, we had never equaled properly in transition . I thought that’s where they beat us the most. And then we couldn’t score. We’ll fix it. “
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