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What we saw Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia was a bit like a coronation. After all, the coronations do not happen in the second round of the playoffs, and they certainly are not in a third game.
However, the explosion of the Toronto Raptors visiting between the Philadelphia 76ers and his 116-95 was a terrifying vision of what the best version of the 76ers looks like.
And, woo boy, it's a team that can not only win the East. It's a team that maybe, maybe, can win everything and get that official crown in June.
We knew the Sixers would start in the playoffs from the age of five – Joel Embiid, Jimmy "James" Butler, Ben Simmons, Tobias Harris and J.J. Redick – was among the top five NBA teams. We also knew that these Sixers brought with them as many differences as any other leading NBA team. There was the lack of depth to take into account. The lack of spacing. The fact that this group only had a few months to collapse after the trading deadline. Butler's combustibility, the inexperience of Simmons, and especially that throbbing knee of Embiid. All of these things meant that there was such a vast space between the Sixers 'ceiling and the Sixers' floor that any other team left in those series.
The Sixers need things to go well.
But when all is well … well, it was Thursday night. Embiid only played MVP level basketball. He did a 3 – in fact, he made three of his four attempts beyond the bow – but the bottom line was that Embiid does not settle for the 3's and that's it. he does not content himself with jumpers. He attacked the edge. He got a deep pole position against Marc Gasol. Protector of the rim of defensive player of the year, he blocked five shots, some of which were demoralizing for the poor Raptors. He finished with 33 points and 10 rebounds, and he returned the ball only three times. Chained no less than 82 seasons like this and the argument that commentator Mark Jackson has advanced (and that Jeff Van Gundy has vividly disputed) is correct: he's a great man of all time that we let's see it flourish before our eyes.
Jimmy "James" Butler was once again "the adult in the room", to use the term of the 76ers Brett Brown's head coach; he was on the brink of a triple-double with 22 points, nine assists and nine rebounds, and Brown's decision to give Butler a few minutes as a relief leader seems like a wise and savvy fit. Simmons may not have been an offensive force, but he has already played against the elite at a defensive game, and he jostled every minute he was on the ground. Redick toppled his 3 (3 over 6 over the bow) and Harris did everything asked of him as one of the best third or fourth options of the match.
Part of what looked like the best version of the Sixers was that it also looked like the worst version of the Raptors. Yeah, sure, it was a close match until the Sixers went into a 21-2 series early in the fourth quarter time to blow up this case. But it was a close match that looked almost like an accident; It was not the Raptors at their best. Kawhi Leonard was generally good, scoring 33 points on 22 shots while playing an excellent defense. Pascal Siakam was not dominant, but he was certainly a positive for the Raptors, just like Danny Green. Where was Kyle Lowry? He once again turned to the pumpkin in the playoffs, scoring seven points on 10 shots, missing all 3 and looking like a defensive passive.
"We must help [Leonard], especially myself, "Lowry told reporters after the match. I have to help him, score more, I have to help him down. We must all help it. He is amazing right now, but we are not giving him any help. I do not give him any help. I have to help him. "
Marc Gasol was not only dominated by Embiid, but was also a non-offensive entity, rising from 3 to 0 in favor of a scoreless ball movement and scoring only seven points. And this bench of Raptors so much boasted? Trash can. They scored a total of seven points before the game ended wildly with around five minutes in the fourth quarter. Where was Fred VanVleet? Where was Serge Ibaka? Found.
Honestly, though, what the Raptors do in this series may not matter if the Sixers can still play a few games like this. This version of the Sixers will be really hard to beat. Nick Nurse will definitely come back to the drawing board to suggest something before the fourth game. But really, what can stop Embiid when he plays like this? There are three things: his knee, his pride, or a nasty stomach virus. That's all. And Embiid, playing this way, is the key that opens the way to the greatness of the rest of the Sixers.
This series is not over – not far away. The Sixers are always a team with question marks. They can always come back to something closer to their floor than their ceiling.
But if they can continue to play as close to their ceiling as Thursday, then this team will play basketball until June.
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