Down the stretch, in some of the key moments of a tight game, the Toronto Raptors decided to guard the Philadelphia 76ers superstars straight up, no help.
The Raptors were up three in the dying moments on Sunday and wanted to stay home on the Sixers’ long-range threats.
It meant trusting young Raptors playing out of position against some of the best scorers in the NBA.
And it worked. First it was 20-year-old Scottie Barnes playing Philadelphia’s MVP favourite Joel Embiid one-on-one in the post, giving up 70 pounds and seven inches or so. The Sixers centre couldn’t make the Raptors rookie pay with just under two minutes to play.
Then it was Precious Achiuwa — ostensibly the Raptors centre — who squared up Sixers all-star guard James Harden on the perimeter and came up with a stop with 58 seconds on the clock.
So far so good, but things were still ramping up.
A moment later the Raptors did throw a double at Embiid on the perimeter, while leading by three with 27 seconds to play. Gary Trent Jr. made the steal and it looked like the reward was going to be a lay-up and a five-point lead.
No so fast. Trent Jr. missed the lay-up after Harden got his hand on the ball. A foul was called but over-turned upon review – frustrating from a Raptors point of view because Embiid fouled Raptors twice on the put-back after Trent’s miss, calls that can’t be corrected on the initial review.
The Raptors had two more chances to ice things, but Achiuwa and then Barnes missed three of four free throws.
“Certainly, we have to step up and make our free throws,” said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse. His team went 8-of-12 in the fourth quarter.
It all led to one more Raptors defensive stand against a Sixers superstar as Chris Boucher went chest-to-chest with a driving Harden, got the stop and when the Sixers star got called for a flagrant foul for delivering an elbow to the Montrealer’s face while driving, the game was finally over.
Boucher made one of two free throws with 2.7 seconds left for the flagrant. The Raptors kept the ball and Pascal Siakam made his two foul shots to lock down a very impressive 93-88 win over the star-driven Sixers..
“I love it, being in these close games,” said Nurse, his fingernails having survived. “It’s so good for these guys, Scottie and Precious and Gary that have never been in them. They need as much of them as they can.”
The Raptors are showing signs that they will coming out on the right side of them more often than not as they reeled off their sixth straight road win.
The victory improved the Raptors’ record to 40-31 and pulled them to a game behind sixth-place Cleveland and a game-and-a-half behind fifth-place Chicago, where Toronto will be playing on Monday night.
Toronto was without Fred VanVleet, who opted to rest his knee on the first half of the back-to-back with the expectation that he’ll be available in Chicago. They were also missing OG Anunoby (finger) and Malachi Flynn.
But maybe all the Raptors need is their improving defence and a healthy Siakam, who has been Toronto’s best player in 2022 and one of the league’s best too. He sparked the Raptors with 26 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, while Achiuwa — starting in place of VanVleet — added 21 points and nine rebounds.
But it was their team defensive effort that made the difference as they held the Sixers to 41.1 per cent shooting (7-of-27 from three) and held Embiid and Harden to 11-of-32 shooting while the latter ended up making six turnovers.
“I think we stayed together. We all knew the defensive scheme,” said Boucher, who scored 12 points and grabbed 14 rebounds — including five of the Raptors’ 20 offensive rebounds — off the bench. “We tried to make it hard on Joel Embiid. Obviously they have great shooters, so it’s sometimes hard to do both, but I think we have five guys connected, trying to do the help defence. That always helps. When we play with that energy, we can beat a lot of teams.”
The Raptors’ advantage — in theory — would be to push the pace and get the Sixers in transition: Harden and Embiid aren’t the types to slam the brakes and peel back when an offensive possession gets broken up.
Meanwhile, Philadelphia is in the bottom quarter of the NBA in points off turnovers while the Raptors lead the league in deflections and are third in points from turnovers.
Put simply, the Raptors’ key to victory was to hustle. The Raptors ended up taking 20 more shots that Philadelphia — they needed them since they only shot 37.5 per cent from the floor — thanks to their edge in offensive rebounds and turnovers (10-8) and put themselves in position to win against another quality opponent.
The Raptors were successful bottling up Embiid and Harden, but early on it looked like the rest of the Sixers were going to make them pay.
Whatever game plan the Raptors may have dreamed up, none of them involved selling out to run Matisse Thybulle off the three-point line. But sure enough, it was the Sixers’ defensive specialist — who has shot 30.1 per cent from deep this season on a steady diet of wide-open looks as teams tilt their defenses to Embiid and more recently Embiid and Harden — who got Philadelphia rolling early with a pair of threes in the game’s first three minutes.
It was the early story of the game. The Sixers jumped out to a 28-12 lead, but Harden and Embiid were only tangentially involved. In addition to Thybulle’s quick start, Tyrese Maxey — who has emerged as Philly’s third option after the ‘big two’ — took advantage of the operating room available as he scored nine points in the first nine minutes, including a steal and a fast break that gave the Sixers their 16-point lead.
But Toronto began playing to its identity soon after that. A Barnes three and a floater helped change the momentum as Toronto cut the Sixers’ lead to 10 to start the second quarter. At that point, Boucher knocked in a three and scored three times on offensive rebounds to pull Toronto within six.
And then Achiuwa — the 22-year-old second-year big man who has made huge strides since the All-Star break –- showed why has earned Nurse’s trust and the spot start in place of VanVleet as he hit two threes and a floater in close succession. But perhaps equally indicative of his growth was when he grabbed an offensive rebound but rather than force it up in a crowd — a guarantee earlier in the season — he dribbled out and found Trent Jr. who in turn drove the lane and dished to Siakam for a dunk. By the time Barnes was able to get a left hand above the rim to tip in yet another rebound just before the buzzer, Toronto was able to take a 57-54 lead into the half.
Along the way, the Raptors were able to limit the Sixers stars. They played long stretches of zone, always with an eye having help available whenever Harden or Embiid attacked. They sent a second defender at them when needed and between Khem Birch, Achiuwa and Boucher, Nurse generally kept at least two of the Raptors not-so-big trio of bigs on the floor.
For the most part it worked as the Sixers pair were a combined 6-of-18 from the floor and — perhaps just as importantly — combined for only six free-throw attempts in the first half.
But the Raptors have had trouble scoring in the half-court all season and never more than when VanVleet and Anunoby – two of their best three-point shooters – are out. Fortunately Siakam was able to generate some offence — he scored 10 of the Raptors’ 12 points in the third. Outside of Siakam, who was 4-of-7, Toronto shot just 1-of-17 in the period. Toronto went scoreless for five minutes and a 12-0 run by the Sixers allowed them to take a 74-69 lead to start the fourth.
“It’s something I’m trying to get better at, just reading situations and knowing when to attack or when to be more in pass mode or whatever the case might be,” said Siakam.
In the end the Raptors were able to grind out another key win and show that they have a defensive approach that can work against some of the best players in the NBA. It bodes well. The Raptors have 11 games left to lock in their playoff seed but are unquestionably trending in the right direction.
“I know it’s important because we’d really like to make the playoffs. I think our team needs that experience,” said Nurse. “My bigger concern I think all the time is can we go out there and play? Can we go out there and look these really good teams eye to eye and go compete and believe we can win and execute to win? And if we believe we can and compete as hard as we’ve been competing, we’re going to get our share, we’re going to deserve to get our share of wins.”
The star-laden Sixers would have no choice but to agree.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points in a record-setting performance and the Sacramento Kings beat the Toronto Raptors 122-107 on Wednesday night.
Domantas Sabonis added 17 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds for his third triple-double of the season for Sacramento. He shot 6 for 6 from the field and 5 for 5 at the free-throw line.
Keegan Murray chipped in with 22 points and 12 rebounds, and De’Aaron Fox scored 21.
The 35-year-old DeRozan has scored at least 20 points in each of his first eight games with the Kings, breaking a franchise mark established by Chris Webber when he reached 20 in his first seven games with Sacramento in 1999.
DeRozan spent the past three seasons with the Chicago Bulls. The six-time All-Star also has played for Toronto and San Antonio during his 16-year NBA career.
RJ Barrett had 23 points to lead the Raptors. Davion Mitchell scored 20 in his first game in Sacramento since being traded to Toronto last summer.
Takeaways
Raptors: Toronto led for most of the first three quarters before wilting in the fourth. The Raptors were outscored 33-14 in the final period.
Kings: Fox played strong defense but struggled again shooting from the floor as he is dealing with a finger injury. Fox went 5 for 17 and just 2 of 8 on 3-pointers. He is 5 for 25 from beyond the arc in his last three games.
Key moment
The Kings trailed 95-89 early in the fourth before going on a 9-0 run that gave them the lead for good. DeRozan started the spurt with a jumper, and Malik Monk scored the final seven points.
Key stat
Sabonis had the eighth game in the NBA since at least 1982-83 with a triple-double while missing no shots from the field or foul line. The previous player to do it was Josh Giddey for Oklahoma City against Portland on Jan. 11.
Up next
Raptors: At the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night, the third stop on a five-game trip.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps are one win away from moving on to the next round of the Major League Soccer playoffs.
To get there, however, the Whitecaps will need to pull off the improbable by defeating the powerhouse Los Angeles FC for a second straight game.
Vancouver blanked the visitors 3-0 on Sunday to level their best-of-three first-round playoff series at a game apiece. As the matchup shifts back to California for a decisive Game 3 on Friday, the Whitecaps are looking for a repeat performance, said striker Brian White.
“We take the good and the bad from last game, learn from what we could have done better and go to LAFC with confidence and, obviously, with a whole lot of respect,” he said.
“We know that we can go there and give them a very good fight and hopefully come away with a win.”
The winner of Friday’s game will face the No. 4-seed Seattle Sounders in a one-game Western Conference semifinal on Nov. 23 or 24.
The ‘Caps finished the regular season eighth in the west with a 13-13-8 record and have since surprised many with their post-season play.
First, Vancouver trounced its regional rivals, the Portland Timbers, 5-0 in a wild-card game. Then, the squad dropped a tightly contested 2-1 decision to the top-seeded L.A. before posting a decisive home victory on Sunday.
Vancouver has scored seven goals this post-season, second only to the L.A. Galaxy (nine). Vancouver also leads the league in expected goals (6.84) through the playoffs.
No one outside of the club expected the Whitecaps to win when the Vancouver-L. A. series began, said defender Ranko Veselinovic.
“We’ve shown to ourselves that we can compete with them,” he said.
Now in his fifth season with the ‘Caps, Veselinovic said Friday’s game will be the biggest he’s played for the team.
“We haven’t had much success in the playoffs so, definitely, this is the one that can put our season on another level,” he said.
This is the second year in a row the Whitecaps have faced LAFC in the first round of the playoffs and last year, Vancouver was ousted in two straight games.
The team isn’t thinking about revenge as it prepares for Game 3, White said.
“More importantly than (beating LAFC), we want to get to the next round,” he said. “LAFC’s a very good team. We’ve come up against them a number of times in different competitions and they always seem to get the better of us. So it’d be huge for us to get the better of them this time.”
Earning a win last weekend required slowing L.A.’s transition game and limiting offensive opportunities for the team’s big stars, including Denis Bouanga.
Those factors will be important again on Friday, said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini, who warned that his team could face a different style of game.
“I think the most important thing is going to be to match their intensity at the beginning of the game,” he said. “Because I think they’re going to come at us a million miles per hour.”
The ‘Caps will once again look to captain Ryan Gauld for some offensive firepower. The Scottish attacking midfielder leads MLS in playoff goals with five and has scored in all three of Vancouver’s post-season appearances this year.
Gearing up for another do-or-die matchup is exciting, Gauld said.
“Knowing it’s a winner-takes-all kind of game, being in that kind of environment is nice,” he said. “It’s when you see the best in players.”
LAFC faces the bulk of the pressure heading into the matchup, Sartini said, given the club’s appearances in the last two MLS Cup finals and its 2022 championship title.
“They’re supposed to win and we are not,” the coach said. “But it’s beautiful to have a little bit of pressure on us, too.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
Each PWHL team operated under its city name, with players wearing jerseys featuring the league’s logo in its inaugural season before names and logos were announced last month.
The Toronto Sceptres, Montreal Victoire, Ottawa Charge, Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens will start the PWHL’s second season on Nov. 30 with jerseys designed to reflect each team’s identity and to be sold to the public as replicas.
Led by PWHL vice-president of brand and marketing Kanan Bhatt-Shah, the league consulted Creative Agency Flower Shop to design the jerseys manufactured by Bauer, the PWHL said Thursday in a statement.
“Players and fans alike have been waiting for this moment and we couldn’t be happier with the six unique looks each team will don moving forward,” said PWHL senior vice president of business operations Amy Scheer.
“These jerseys mark the latest evolution in our league’s history, and we can’t wait to see them showcased both on the ice and in the stands.”
Training camps open Tuesday with teams allowed to carry 32 players.
Each team’s 23-player roster, plus three reserves, will be announced Nov. 27.
Each team will play 30 regular-season games, which is six more than the first season.
Minnesota won the first Walter Cup on May 29 by beating Boston three games to two in the championship series.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
