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Faced with ultimate test in Embiid, Raptors prove size doesn’t equal destiny – Sportsnet.ca

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3 years ago

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Playing ‘small’ — without a big body at centre who can both defend the rim on one end and be dominant enough to collapse defences at the other — has proven to be an effective way to compete in the NBA. When the Golden State Warriors started playing an undersized Draymond Green at centre, it proved to be the key that unlocked a dynasty.

It’s been an option that’s been around for ever. Teams have resorted to playing five slashing, scoring ball-handlers to upset the rhythm of games for years. Like the no-huddle offence in the NFL, it was situational tactic that has become nearly standard because when well-executed, it’s difficult to defend.

Small ball is a fixture.

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And why not? It’s not like the NBA is loaded with big men that can punish smaller matchups. Nikola Jokic in Denver is one; Anthony Davis with the Los Angeles Lakers is another, Bam Adebayo in Miami – though he’s more of a hybrid big to begin with. Rudy Gobert with Utah, if his teammates can find him on the roll.

After that, the list gets pretty short.

But at the very the top of any list of bigs who can make lives miserable for smaller players – or almost any player – would be the Philadelphia 76ers Joel Embiid, who is big enough to hide smaller players behind him, has hands soft enough to make him a finisher and shot-maker from all angles and is an 85-per cent free-throw shooter this season on nearly 12 attempt a game. ‘Hack-a-Shaq’ – the tactic where teams would foul Shaquille O’Neal and take chances with his career 52.7 per cent free-throw shooting — is not an option.

After six years of promise interrupted by injuries, the seven-foot, 300-pounder is putting together the season of his career and potentially one of the best ever. He rolled into Sunday night’s match-up against the Toronto Raptors coming off a career-high 50 points against the Chicago Bulls and averaging 30.5 points and 11 rebounds a game while shooting 40 per cent from three.

The Raptors – you may have heard – are lacking when it comes to big bodies they can use to make life difficult for Embiid and, by extension, the 76ers. They’ve had to rely on the burly but otherwise limited Aron Baynes and Chris Boucher, who is long and fast and fearless, but weighs just 200 pounds. Even though they’ve found great success by playing small – with some combination of OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam at centre — with Kyle Lowry missing his third straight game with a sprained thumb, the Raptors’ margin for error seemed razor thin.

But against all odds the Raptors were able cobble together enough good moments from enough different players – including Boucher and Baynes – to overcome Embiid in an impressive 110-103 win, the Raptors’ fourth straight, three of them without Lowry as Toronto improved to 16-15 with the win over the East-leading Sixers.

Embiid finished with 25 points and 17 rebounds, but he shot just 6-of-20 from the floor, although going 12-of-14 from the free throw line helped his cause. But the Raptors answered with Boucher, the rail-thin Montrealer who came off the bench to shoot 5-of-6 from deep and score 17 points off the bench – all in the second half and 11 in the fourth quarter. He also had three blocks, including one on Embiid late in the fourth when the Sixers were trying to claw back into the Raptors’ lead.

Baynes wasn’t too bad either, with eight points on nine shots in 28 minutes. Every little bit helped as the Raptors were led by VanVleet’s 23 points and nine assists and Siakam with 23 points and eight assists. The Sixers most effective player was Simmons, who put up 28 points on 9-of-11 shooting, but the Raptors’ team defence was the real star as they held Philadelphia to 38.8-per cent shooting and only really stayed in the game because they held a 35-18 advantage in free throw attempts.

All game long, the Raptors’ means to neutralize Embiid and the Sixers’ size advantage generally was to swarm defensively, push the ball in transition before Philadelphia could set up in the half court and to take – and ideally make — threes.

The strategy came together beautifully late in the third quarter. Trailing by 11 after Embiid had scored on a pair of post-ups with three minutes to play in the period, Toronto scored three quick triples – two by Boucher – on an 11-0 run sparked by a pair of Raptors steals, allowing Toronto to start the fourth quarter down 84-83.

There was some mystery before the game about whether the Raptors would try to match up with Embiid and start Aron Baynes – the closest player Toronto has in size and strength – or would the Raptors continue to play small against the Sixers, who not only feature Embiid but play six-foot-10 Simmons as their point guard?

Nurse suggested playing a group of guards and forwards against Embiid would be too much to ask. Or at least that was his position before the game anyway.

“We had our hands full with him last time (Embiid had 29 points and shot 14-of-16 at the line in the Sixers win back in December), I would imagine we will again today,” said Nurse. “Obviously, the way he’s playing right now is levels up from the way he’s ever played. We’re liking playing small right now, which has kind of been my thought of what are we gonna do here tonight? There’s not much chance of playing small against him. So, I think we’re gonna see what we can do.”

But when the ball went up Nurse decided to stick with his strengths and had six-foot-seven OG Anunoby take the jump against Embiid, with Siakam and DeAndre Bembry – starting in place of Lowry – joined by Fred VanVleet and Norm Powell as starters.

There were problems immediately. Embiid’s first bucket was a post-up against the six-foot-six Bembry, who he outweighs by 60 pounds. He picked up a pair of free throws when six-foot VanVleet tried to battle him for a loose ball. At the other end the sure-handed Powell suddenly couldn’t finish with Embiid looming in the paint, and when the chance presented, Simmons was galloping the floor as a one-man fastbreak. In a blink, the Sixers were up 22-8.

But the advantages of playing five players based on skills instead of positions or size is you end up with a lot of playmakers on the floor and after their initial stumbles, Toronto began to find their way back. Making bombs from three is always a great equalizer. The Raptors made four of them in the space of two minutes late in the first quarter that were the backbone of 20-2 run that Toronto used to end up leading 28-24 after one quarter.

At that point the big man the Raptors struggled to contain was Simmons, who put up 13 points in the second quarter, alternating between full-court attacks on the rim while helping generate the Sixers’ 19-4 edge in free throw attempts — which, along with the Sixers’ 8-2 edge in offensive rebounds, were a better indication of the true tilt of the first half than the Sixers’ 55-52 lead necessarily was.

But the Raptors seemed determined to prove this season that size is not destiny. There is no greater test of that than Embiid and the 76ers, and the Raptors passed it with relative ease.

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Need to Know: Bruins at Maple Leafs | Game 3 | Boston Bruins – NHL.com

Published

9 hours ago

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April 24, 2024

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Familiar Territory

James van Riemsdyk has played his fair share of playoff contests here in Toronto – but all of them have come in blue and white. On Wednesday night, he would be on the other side for the first time if he indeed makes his Bruins postseason debut, which appeared to be a strong possibility based on the Black & Gold’s morning skate.

“It’s always special to play in this building,” said van Riemsdyk, who played in 20 postseason games with Toronto, including nine at Scotiabank Arena. “In this rivalry, it’s always a lot of fun. This time of year is always amazing, no matter where you’re at – if you’re at a 500-seat arena or a rink with all the tradition and history like this. It’s always fun and always a great opportunity to get in there.”

van Riemsdyk was a healthy scratch for the first two games of this series, following a trend across the second half of the regular season, during which he sat out several games.

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“Playoff time of year is always the best time of year,” said van Riemsdyk, who has 20 goals and 31 points in 71 career playoff games between Philadelphia and Toronto. “Obviously, in this rivalry, it’s always a lot of fun – two fun buildings to play in. You cherish every opportunity you get.

“This time of year, you learn that along the way, it’s all about the team. Whatever the team’s asking you to do, that’s always got to be your mindset and approach…you stay at it every day and just take it one day at a time.”

Montgomery said that if van Riemsdyk does re-enter the lineup, he’ll be looking for the veteran winger to help the Bruins’ offensive game. He also complimented van Riemsdyk’s professionalism throughout a trying second half.

“I guess getting his stick on more pucks,” Montgomery said on what he wants to see from van Riemsdyk. “We’ve talked about it a lot of times internally. Him and [Kevin] Shattenkirk have been great. They’re true pros. Every day come to work, come to get better. It’s not an easy situation, but he’s been great.”

van Riemsdyk concurred with his coach’s sentiments about helping Boston’s offensive attack, saying that he’ll be aiming to be around the net as much as possible.

“I think you’ve got to stay true to who you are as a player and play with good details and manage the game well and play to your strengths as a player,” he said. “This time of year, being around the net is always an important trait. You see all the goals being scored, it’s all within 5-10 feet of the net. That’s an area that I pride myself on, so going to be doing my best to get there and have an impact there.”

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NHL teams, take note: Alexandar Georgiev is proof that anything can happen in the playoffs

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20 hours ago

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April 24, 2024

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It’s hard to say when, exactly, Alexandar Georgiev truly began to win some hearts and change some minds on Tuesday night.

Maybe it was in the back half of the second period; that was when the Colorado Avalanche, for the first time in their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series against the Winnipeg Jets, actually managed to hold a lead for more than, oh, two minutes or thereabouts. Maybe it was when the Avs walked into the locker room up 4-2 with 20 minutes to play.

Maybe it was midway through the third, when a series of saves by the Avalanche’s beleaguered starting goaltender helped preserve their two-goal buffer. Maybe it was when the buzzer sounded after their 5-2 win. Maybe it didn’t happen until the Avs made it into their locker room at Canada Life Centre, tied 1-1 with the Jets and headed for Denver.

At some point, though, it should’ve happened. If you were watching, you should’ve realized that Colorado — after a 7-6 Game 1 loss that had us all talking not just about all those goals, but at least one of the guys who’d allowed them — had squared things up, thanks in part to … well, that same guy.

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Georgiev, indeed, was the story of Game 2, stopping 28 of 30 shots, improving as the game progressed and providing a lesson on how quickly things can change in the playoffs — series to series, game to game, period to period, moment to moment. The narrative doesn’t always hold. Facts don’t always cooperate. Alexandar Georgiev, for one night and counting, was not a problem for the Colorado Avalanche. He was, in direct opposition to the way he played in Game 1, a solution. How could we view him as anything else?

He had a few big-moment saves, and most of them came midway through the third period with his team up 4-2. There he was with 12:44 remaining, stopping a puck that had awkwardly rolled off Nino Niederreiter’s stick; two missed posts by the Avs at the other end had helped spring Niederreiter for a breakaway. Game 1 Georgiev doesn’t make that save.

There he was, stopping Nikolaj Ehlers from the circle a few minutes later. There wasn’t an Avs defender within five feet, and there was nothing awkward about the puck Ehlers fired at his shoulder. Game 1 Georgiev gets scored on twice.

(That one might’ve been poetic justice. It was Ehlers who’d put the first puck of the night on Georgiev — a chip from center ice that he stopped, and that the crowd in Winnipeg greeted with the ol’ mock cheer. Whoops.)

By the end of it all, Georgiev had stared down Connor Hellebuyck and won, saving nearly 0.5 goals more than expected according to Natural Stat Trick, giving the Avalanche precisely what they needed and looking almost nothing like the guy we’d seen a couple days before. Conventional wisdom coming into this series was twofold: That the Avs have firepower, high-end talent and an overall edge — slight as it may be — on Winnipeg, and that Georgiev is shaky enough to nuke the whole thing.

That wasn’t without merit, either. Georgiev’s .897 save percentage in the regular season was six percentage points below the league average, and he hadn’t broken even in expected goals allowed (minus-0.21). He’d been even worse down the stretch, putting up an .856 save percentage in his final eight appearances, and worse still in Game 1, allowing seven goals on 23 shots and more than five goals more than expected. That’s not bad; that’s an oil spill. Writing him off would’ve been understandable. Writing off Jared Bednar for rolling him out there in Game 2 would’ve been understandable. Writing the Avs off — for all of Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar’s greatness — would’ve been understandable.

It just wouldn’t have been correct.

The fact that this all went down now, four days into a two-month ordeal, is a gift — because the postseason thus far has been short on surprises, almost as a rule. The Rangers and Oilers are overwhelming the Capitals and Kings. The Hurricanes are halfway done with the Islanders. The Canucks are struggling with the Predators. Panthers–Lightning is tight, but one team is clearly better than the other. Bruins–Maple Leafs is a close matchup featuring psychic baggage that we don’t have time to unpack. In Golden Knights–Stars, Mark Stone came back and scored a huge goal.

None of that should shock you. None of that should make you blink.

Georgiev being good enough for Colorado, though? After what we saw in Game 1? Strange, surprising and completely true. For now.

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"Laugh it off": Evander Kane says Oilers won’t take the bait against Kings | Offside

Published

1 day ago

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April 23, 2024

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The LA Kings tried every trick in the book to get the Edmonton Oilers off their game last night.

Hacks after the whistle, punches to the face, and interference with line changes were just some of the things that the Oilers had to endure, and throughout it all, there was not an ounce of retaliation.

All that badgering by the Kings resulted in at least two penalties against them and fuelled a red-hot Oilers power play that made them pay with three goals on four chances. That was by design for Edmonton, who knew that LA was going to try to pester them as much as they could.

That may have worked on past Oilers teams, but not this one.

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“We’ve been in a series now for the third year in a row with these guys,” Kane said after practice this morning. “We know them, they know us… it’s one of those things where maybe it makes it a little easier to kind of laugh it off, walk away, or take a shot.

“That type of stuff isn’t gonna affect us.”

Once upon a time, this type of play would get under the Oilers’ skin and result in retaliatory penalties. Yet, with a few hard-knock lessons handed down to them in the past few seasons, it seems like the team is as determined as ever to cut the extracurriculars and focus on getting revenge on the scoreboard.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the longest-tenured player on this Oilers team, had to keep his emotions in check with Kings defender Vladislav Gavrikov, who punched him in the face early in the game. The easy reaction would be to punch back, but the veteran Nugen-Hopkins took his licks and wound up scoring later in the game.

“It’s going to be physical, the emotions are high, and there’s probably going to be some stuff after the whistle,” Nugent-Hopkins told reporters this morning. “I think it’s important to stay poised out there and not retaliate and just play through the whistles and let the other stuff just kind of happen.”

Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch also noticed his team’s discipline. Playoff hockey is full of emotion, and keeping those in check to focus on the larger goal is difficult. He was happy with how his team set the tone.

“It’s not necessarily easy to do,” Knoblauch said. “You get punched in the face and sometimes the referees feel it’s enough to call a penalty, sometimes it’s not… You just have to take them, and sometimes, you get rewarded with the power play.

“I liked our guy’s response and we want to be sticking up for each other, we want to have that pack mentality, but it’s really important that we’re not the ones taking that extra penalty.”

There is no doubt that the Kings will continue to poke and prod at the Oilers as the series continues. Keeping those retaliations in check will only get more difficult, but if the team can continue to succeed on the scoreboard, it could get easier.

 

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