TORONTO – These have been the longest 48 hours or so of the season for the Philadelphia 76ers.
With a couple days between their Game 5 loss at home on Monday and Thursday’s crucial Game 6 in Toronto, they’ve had plenty of time to stew in their own juices. For a team that’s clearly feeling the pressure and a cast of characters with uninspiring track records at this time of year, that may not bode well.
The Raptors have scrapped and clawed their way back into a series that many assumed was all but over. No team has ever overcome a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven playoff series, and yet, here they are halfway to making history. Of course, that means the Sixers are halfway to being on the wrong side of history, and they’re well aware of it.
Their own fans spent three quarters of Monday’s contest booing them. Their MVP called out their prized trade deadline acquisition for not being assertive enough. Their head coach took time out of his media availability on the eve of Game 6 to defend his own checkered playoff resume.
From the discourse, you would think they were the ones fighting for their postseason lives. They owe the Brooklyn Nets a debt of gratitude; if not for their sweep at the hands of Boston, the backlash would be even worse.
It probably doesn’t feel this way, but they’re still in a decent spot, leading 3-2 with a couple of chances to get a win and advance. The momentum has certainly shifted, though.
Since getting blown out in a pair of losses to open the postseason, the Raptors have only trailed for 11 of 149 minutes over the last three games, including just eight minutes in regulation time. They believe that they’re the ones who should be in a position to close out the series on Thursday. If not for some poor crunch-time execution, missed free throws and miscommunication on the Joel Embiid winner at the end of Game 3, they would be.
“Even though we came out on the wrong side of that game, I think we certainly knew that we were capable of beating them,” said head coach Nick Nurse, following his team’s Wednesday morning practice session at OVO Athletic Centre. “I think we outplayed them for a majority of that game, we just didn’t get it done.”
While a heartbreaking defeat and seemingly insurmountable 0-3 hole would have broken a lot of teams, the Raptors didn’t flinch. They didn’t take their foot off the gas or start planning their vacations, but they also didn’t think of it in terms of mounting an unprecedented comeback. Their approach, cliché as it may sound, was to take it one game at time. Win one, and then go from there.
“I feel like we always get a couple of slaps in the face before we start playing well,” Chris Boucher said. “I think Game 3 really helped us realize what we needed to do. Losing like that really opens your eyes.”
“We got put in a big hole here, 3-0, and we just knew that getting one [win] could get us back in this thing and give us a chance to keep it going,” said Nurse. “I mean, listen, everybody was disappointed about the 3-0 start and it felt a little heavy for a while, but not that long a while.”
The odds were not in their favour; they’re still not. In league history, 146 teams have lost the first three games of a best-of-seven playoff series, including these Raptors, the Nets and Nuggets, who all did it this past week. Toronto is just the 14th to force a Game 6. Only three have ever forced a Game 7 and none have been able to win four straight and complete the comeback.
But just because something hasn’t been done doesn’t mean it can’t be done. Somebody’s got to be the first, and that’s how Nurse is looking at it. He spoke to his players after that Game 3 loss and the message should have resonated with everybody in the room: “If somebody could do it, it’d be us.”
The Raptors haven’t seen anything in this series that they haven’t already faced and overcome over the course of an impressive regular season. They’ve had to navigate injuries and illness, defy odds and expectations, but through it all they’ve shown their resilience. They don’t quit, and they’re not going to start now.
Under Nurse, they’ve found themselves in similar holes before; never 3-0, but they trailed 2-1 in that epic seven-game second round series win over Philadelphia in 2019. They also lost the first two games to Milwaukee in the Conference Finals of that championship season before winning four straight, and fell behind 0-2 to Boston in the bubble the following year, before ultimately losing the series in Game 7.
Each experience was different, but there were a few common denominators. For one, they never panicked. They kept their composure, made the requisite adjustments on the fly, and got stronger and more confident as it went on. You could also point to a moment or two that shifted the momentum of the series. It’s not like Nurse reinvented the wheel by using Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol together to match Philly’s size, or by putting Kawhi Leonard on Giannis Antetokounmpo earlier in games, but those tweaks turned the series.
In this case, the most notable adjustment was made out of necessity. When Fred VanVleet went down with a hip strain, Nurse decided that instead of turning to Malachi Flynn or Dalano Banton, both downgrades at the point guard spot, he would eschew the position altogether, at least in the traditional sense.
Since VanVleet left in the first half of Game 4, Nurse has stuck with an eight-man rotation made up primarily of forwards between the listed height of 6-foot-7 and 6-foot-9. The lone exception is the 6-foot-5 Gary Trent Jr., who told us this is the first time in his life that he’s been the smallest player on the floor.
The five-man unit of Pascal Siakam, Trent, Scottie Barnes, OG Anunoby and Precious Achiuwa – which wasn’t used at all over the first three contests of the series – has outscored Philadelphia by 27.2 points per 100 possessions in a 20-minute sample these past couple games. That lineup with Khem Birch in place of Achiuwa is outscoring Philly by 8.7 points per 100 possessions in 11 minutes. The rest of Toronto’s five most-used units this series, all of which include VanVleet, are net negatives.
Not that this needs to be said, but the Raptors aren’t a better team without their all-star point guard. However, VanVleet hasn’t been close to full strength for a while. Nine times out of 10, they’re also not a better team without a hobbled VanVleet – even at less than 100 per cent, he still does so much to impact winning on both ends of the floor – but in this series, in this particular matchup, they might be.
Having to contend with the speed of Tyrese Maxey, or rotating out to shooters after coming over to double Embiid in the post, proved challenging for a player dealing with knee, groin and hip ailments, and probably a myriad of others we don’t even know about.
“To be in this situation with this team, being hobbled already, you know it’s coming at some point and you’re just trying to go until you can’t run no more,” said VanVleet, who’s listed as doubtful for Thursday’s Game 6, but didn’t sound optimistic that he’ll be able to return in this series.
With all of that length, quickness and versatility on the floor, the Raptors have unlocked something defensively and they’re finding ways to disrupt the Sixers’ offence. They’ve frustrated Embiid, who was dominant earlier in the series, by swarming him with multiple defenders and forcing him to be a playmaker. They’ve also been quicker in their close outs on guys like Maxey, James Harden, Tobias Harris and Georges Niang, who have all cooled down since their hot starts.
If these lineups are unconventional, they don’t feel that way to the Raptors, who have spent all season getting comfortable with them. Getting Siakam and Barnes plenty of reps handling the ball and initiating the offence, having to play games without VanVleet throughout the campaign, getting accustomed to playing without a traditional centre on the floor – all of it has helped prepare them for this time of year.
“It’s done a lot,” Trent said. “Putting length out there helps with the fight, helps with rebounding, helps with defence. It’s been working for us so far, so we’re going to stay with it, compete and stay ready.”
It’s not just that the Raptors fit the bill, but if any team were going to be on the other side of a historic comeback, it would be the Sixers. This is an organization that hasn’t made it past the second round of the playoffs since Allen Iverson led them to the Finals in 2001. Doc Rivers is the only coach in league history that’s been part of more than one 3-1 series collapse – and his teams have experienced three of them. And before joining forces earlier this season, Embiid and Harden each had their own set of playoff misadventures.
You can bet that they don’t want this series coming down to a seventh and deciding game in an environment that could end up being as hostile towards them as it would be for the visiting team. The pressure is squarely on them heading into Game 6.
“I think in basketball, the momentum shifts so much in one single game,” Nurse said. We ought to feel good going into [Thursday] but it’s not gonna mean anything because as soon as the ball goes up we gotta play [well], we gotta make plays. I think getting off to a good start, especially defensively, would be a big key to continuing the play we’ve been on.”
“We got nothing to lose,” said Boucher. “If we lose, it’s over, so we just go in there and play… I don’t think we really think a lot about [being down] 3-0 anymore.”
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