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TORONTO – Brett Brown has become a member of the team, Joel Embiid was mocked by Toronto Raptors fans as he normally makes fun of his opponents.
The Sixers are now following the Raptors 3-2 in the semifinal of the Eastern Conference.
"I think we laid an egg," said guard Jimmy Butler after the 76ers totaled 19 turnovers leading to 31 points for Toronto and failed to score 100 points for the fourth time in the series.
It was to put things lightly.
The Raptors blew the Sixers' gates early in the game – beating them 37-17 in the second quarter – before squeezing in late, leading 40 points in the fourth quarter.
At half-time, Philadelphia had more personal fouls (16) than scored goals (14) and the two All-Stars of the Sixers, Embiid and Ben Simmons, fought as much as anyone else. The duo made seven turnovers in the first period, which was more than the field goals and assists they combined to register in that period (six).
Embiid, still in shock from the upper respiratory infections that had limited him in the fourth game, finished with 13 points on a 5-on-10 shot (2 against 6 of 3), six rebounds, one assist and eight turnovers . Over the past five reasons, only two players have finished a game with one or two assists and eight or more turnovers: Kevin Durant in 2016 and Embiid, who has already done it twice, while there matched his game to an assist and eight times in the first round against the Miami Heat last year.
"It's zero," said Embiid. "I know I have to do a better job to win, I have to do the little things, when I have to score the ball, I have to come in. Set the screens, I have to do a better job of bouncing the ball. So it's for me … I can only do more. "
Embiid played one of his best games as a professional in the third game against the Raptors, scoring 33 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks to give the Sixers a 2-1 lead in the series. In both losses since then, he has totaled only 24 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks.
When the Sixers' center left the fifth game for the rest of the game, while it was 9:05 in the fourth quarter, spectators present in the stands of the Scotiabank Arena – including the Canadian rapper Drake, world ambassador of the Raptors – extended their arms and imitated the Embiid aircraft celebration that he broke after his windmill dunk ended in the third game.
Embiid has not been able to help the Sixers to win a victory since.
"I just saw them shaking their bodies," said Embiid to the fans. "I did not pay attention to what they were doing.Good for them … I'm not sure if it offends anyone, but what I do is it does not matter. I'm going to do it because I know I'm going to dominate. "
Butler supported the tough discussion of the great man of the Sixers.
"Not concerned, man," said Butler of Embiid. "We're going to go up or die with a big guy, everyone around this locker room knows it, everyone in the world should know, fans should know that.
"All will be well, we will continue doing what we are doing, encouraging him to continue to fight against all wounds, all diseases, and we are with him."
Brown looked like he wanted to be anywhere, but where he was when the carnage was going on in front of him. A few minutes after the start of the third quarter, as the Sixers scored 15 minutes, Brown dropped to his seat and stared at the rafters with a painful look, his reaction becoming instantly viral.
Brown said that the Sixers' spirit "is far away faster than I would have hoped" in the fifth game, but he pointed out that Thursday's sixth game at the Wells Fargo Center of Philadelphia was a chance of redemption.
"We are delighted to return to Philadelphia," he said. "Nobody comes out of here," Woe to me. "I promise you, we have a proud team, we have a team that has had a mediocre performance tonight … But nobody comes out of here thinking about anything else but we're excited to go back to Philadelphia and to find a way to earn C & # 39; s is the bottom line.
"There is no breach in our minds, there is no self-pity, we are happy to come back and get ready to play again."
In what was tied for the second-biggest loss in Philadelphia's playoff history (the Sixers lost 121 to 81 against the Boston Celtics in 1982), Simmons and Embiid combined to score just 20 points. According to ESPN Stats & Information's research, they scored the third combined point total this season, and their four lowest combined scores were against Toronto.
"It just was not there," Simmons said. "The offensive was not there, the defense was not there, we were terrible tonight."
Still, there's another game to play – and Embiid said that there was at least one extra game after that, telling Drake that he was planning to see him come back to Toronto for a seventh game on Sunday .
"I have to have fun – it's one of the keys to my game so well all season, this post-season." That's about – I mean, I have to smile on the ground, I have to raise my teammates, "Embiid told me. "I just have to be myself and not really worry about doing what I want, and in the end, that's how I dominate.
"If you see me smile, it means I'm doing what I'm supposed to do, and I intend to do it in two days."
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