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Raptors' historic playoff comeback bid falls short with blowout loss to 76ers in Game 6 – CBC Sports

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In the span of 12 minutes, the Raptors’ dreams of an historic playoff comeback turned into a nightmare.

The Philadelphia 76ers ran roughshod over disorganized Toronto with a massive third quarter Thursday, en route to a 132-97 rout that ended both the Raptors’ roller-coaster season and lofty hopes of becoming the first team in NBA history to win a series after trailing 3-0.

Chris Boucher had 25 points and 10 rebounds as one bright light on an otherwise awful night, and Pascal Siakam added 24 points for the Raptors, who lost the best-of-seven opening round series 4-2.

“Listen, they’re disappointed, for sure, pretty heavy air in [the locker room],” coach Nick Nurse said. “They’re disappointed. My message was that, as a whole, I thought we went through a tremendous amount this year with a number of things and we just kept fighting and kept playing and kept getting better and kept figuring things out. And it was never really smooth, right. There was always a big ol’ bump in the road.”

Gary Trent Jr. finished with 19 points, while rookie Scottie Barnes had 18 points for the Raptors, who were playing without all-star guard Fred VanVleet.

Joel Embiid, the seven-foot centre Raptors fans love to hate, had 33 points and 10 rebounds for the Sixers, who won the series 4-2. They’ll face the Miami Heat in the second round.

“We weren’t going back to Philly for a Game 7,” said James Harden, who had 22 points and 15 assists.

WATCH l Raptors meet end of playoff run in blowout Game 6 loss to 76ers:

76ers eliminate Raptors in 6 games as Embiid, Harden lead the way

7 hours ago

Duration 0:48

Philadelphia beats Toronto 132-97 and takes the first round series 4-2. Joel Embiid scores game-high 33 points while James Harden adds 22 points and a game-high 15 assists. 0:48

The Raptors looked all but cooked after losing the series’ first three games, but won back-to-back elimination games, fuelling hope among fans of an historic series comeback victory.

Coming off a dominant 103-88 win on Monday, the Raptors kept it within seven points for the first half despite horrible shooting. But they never looked in synch on either end of the floor all night, and the Sixers blew the game wide open with a 30-9 run in the third quarter.

“Listen, congratulations to them, first of all. I thought they were certainly great in three of these games in this series, they were really great,” Nurse said of Philly. “They shot it, they passed it really well in three of the games and tonight was one of them.

“Obviously, we don’t guard at all in the second half, we can’t stop `em.”

The Sixers hit six threes in the third quarter, to the groans of the Scotiabank Arena crowd of 19,800 fans, and a Harden long bomb put Philly up by 22 points with 3:52 left in the frame. The visitors outscored Toronto 37-17 in the quarter, and led 99-78 to start the fourth.

A Barnes jumper less than a minute into the fourth slashed the difference to 18, but Embiid almost singlehandedly snuffed out any hopes of an improbable comeback, scoring 10 points in less than four minutes. And when Tobias Harris threw down a dunk with 4:34 to play, the basket put Philly up by 27 points.

“You’ve just got to be truly resilient through the process. Tonight you saw that,” said Harris. “A full effort pretty much the whole game of how we wanted to play and just sticking through.”

Embiid celebrated Harris’s dunk by running up the court with his arms outstretched like an airplane — reminiscent of the 2019 Eastern Conference semifinals against Toronto. Boos rained down on the seven-foot centre.

Harris’s three with 3:38 to play saw the Sixers go up by 32 points, and sent numerous fans heading for the exits.

Raptors fans gathered in Jurassic Park, the fan zone outside Scotiabank Arena, react to Toronto’s elimination from the NBA playoffs on Thursday. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

Siakam fouled out of the game with 2:14 to play, and received a standing ovation as he left the game. The Scotiabank Arena crowd chanted “Let’s go Raptors!” as Nurse subbed off his starters at that point.

The Raptors shot just 7-for-35 — 20 per cent — from three-point range, and 39.3 per cent from the field. Philly shot 40 per cent from long distance and a whopping 58 per cent from the field.

Nurse praised Boucher, who had 11 of his points in the second quarter.

“When he gives that relentless energy like that, he can make a lot of good things happen,” Nurse said. “He was cutting and flying around and rebounding, I think he had six offensive rebounds by himself in the first half. He had a block shot on the three, just using his gifts like that and doing it.

“So at least we got a huge night from him off the bench. Didn’t get much else off the bench tonight.”

Numerous Toronto athletes were on hand to witness the loss, including Maple Leafs Auston Matthews, Morgan Rielly, Mitch Marner, Alexander Kerfoot and Wayne Simmonds, Toronto FC’s Ayo Akinola and Ifunanyachi Achara, and former Raptor Cory Joseph.

Raps miss injured VanVleet

The Raptors sorely missed the steady hand of three-point specialist VanVleet, who sat his second straight game with a strained left hip flexor. The Raptors struggled from long distance all series. Nick Nurse kept saying they were due for a big three-point shooting game.

“They’re going to start going in, I keep saying that,” Nurse said after Wednesday’s practice. “Next game will be as good as any for them to start going in.”

It wasn’t to be.

The Raptors’ loss ended a season that began with low expectations, saw them play for several weeks in Toronto in a virtually empty arena due to COVID-19 restrictions, but picked up momentum after the all-star break when the Raptors won 14 of their final 18 games.

With their win in Philly on Monday, the Raptors became the 14th team — and first since Milwaukee in 2015 — to force a Game 6 after trailing 3-0. The Bucks went on to lose 4-2 to Chicago. In the league’s 75-year history, 146 teams have faced 3-0 deficits in seven-game series.

The Raptors were looking to become the fourth NBA team to force a Game 7 after trailing 3-0.

The Raptors hit seven of their first eight shots, then went more than five minutes without a field goal, missing 10 straight shots. Harden, who had just 15 points in Game 5, had 10 in the quarter, and the Sixers led by seven a couple of times. Philly was up 34-29 to start the second.

A Boucher three-pointer highlighted a 15-5 run to start the second that saw the Raptors go up by five. Green had four three-pointers and 12 points in the quarter as the Sixers battled back, and led 62-61 at halftime.

The Raptors shot just 3-for-15 from long distance in the first half.

The Sixers were without Matisse Thybulle, who isn’t eligible to travel to Toronto because he’s not fully vaccinated for COVID-19.

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Washington Capitals 3-2 win ends Dallas Stars’ winning streak

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Tom Wilson, Dylan Strome and Taylor Raddysh scored to help the Washington Capitals end the Dallas Stars’ season-opening winning streak at four with a 3-2 victory Thursday night.

Wilson’s goal was his third in three games, Strome his second of the season and Raddysh his first since joining the team in free agency last summer. Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves as the Capitals wrapped up this early homestand with back-to-back wins.

The Stars fell from the ranks of the league’s unbeaten teams despite a short-handed goal by Colin Blackwell and one at even strength from Jason Robertson. Rookie Oskar Bäck set up Blackwell for his first NHL point.

Casey DeSmith was screened on two of the three goals he allowed on 26 shots.

LIGHTNING 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored the winning goal with less than a minute to play just 1:27 after Brandon Hagel had tied it and Tampa Bay rallied to beat Vegas.

Kucherov’s second goal of the game with 55 seconds left was his sixth of the season.

Janis Moser had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who remain unbeaten. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.

Brayden McNabb, Pavel Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev had goals for Vegas. Adin Hill turned aside 21 shots.

Jack Eichel, with two assists on Thursday, now has 10 points this season in five games and reached reached double-digit points faster than any other player in Vegas history. He is the 10th U.S.-born player to accomplish the feat.

After Barbashev put Vegas up 3-2 early in the second, Hagel pulled Tampa Bay even at 3 with 2:22 remaining in the third.

BLUE JACKETS 6, SABRES 4

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Kirill Marchenko and Mathieu Olivier each had a goal and an assist and Daniil Tarasov made 21 saves to help Columbus to a win over Buffalo.

Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli, Zachary Aston-Reese and Damon Severson also scored for Columbus, and Zach Werenski added two assists.

Ryan McLeod, Owen Power and JJ Peterka scored for Buffalo, and Jiri Kulich added his first NHL goal. Devon Lev stopped 19 shots for the Sabres (1-5-1), who have lost two straight road games and five of their first six overall.

CANUCKS 3, FLORIDA 2, OT

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — J.T. Miller scored 2:09 into overtime and Vancouver got their first win of the season, beating Florida.

Teddy Blueger and Quinn Hughes had goals for Vancouver, with Kevin Lankinen stopping 26 shots.

Anton Lundell got his fourth goal in the last three games for Florida and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.

Florida remained without forwards Aleksander Barkov (lower body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness).

DEVILS 3, SENATORS 1

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots and lost his shutout bid in the final minutes as New Jersey beat Ottawa.

Erik Haula, Nathan Bastian and Paul Cotter scored for the Devils, who won for the third time in four games and improved to 5-2-0.

The Senators, who were coming off an 8-7 overtime victory against Los Angeles on Monday, struggled to beat Markstrom.

Brady Tkachuk was the only scorer for the Senators, beating Markstrom, with a power-play goal with 65 seconds remaining in the third period.

Anton Forsberg, making his second straight start and hoping to rebound after getting pulled Monday, made 32 saves in the loss.

Haula opened the scoring early in the second period and Bastian added a short-handed goal, giving New Jersey a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes. Cotter scored midway through the third.

RANGERS 5, RED WING 2

DETROIT (AP) — Artemi Panarin had his eighth career hat trick and New York rolled to a victory over Detroit.

Panarin became the first Rangers player to have multiple points in the first four games of a season. He scored twice on the power play. Vincent Trocheck also had a power- play goal and assisted on all of Panarin’s goals.

Jonathan Quick made 29 saves in his season debut. Victor Mancini also scored.

The Rangers have won the last five meetings, including twice this week. New York had a 4-1 home victory over Detroit on Monday night.

Moritz Seider and J.T. Compher scored for Detroit. Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot was pulled in the second period after allowing five goals.

KINGS 4, CANADIENS 1

MONTREAL (AP) — David Rittich made 26 saves a night after being benched in the second period in Toronto, helping road-weary Los Angeles snap a three-game losing streak with a victory over Montreal.

Los Angeles improved to 2-1-2 on a season-opening, seven-game trip necessitated by arena renovations.

Rittich rebounded after allowing four goals on 14 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. Alex Laferriere, Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Adrian Kempe scored.

Justin Barron scored for Montreal (2-3-0). Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots. He made a save on Kevin Fiala on a penalty shot.

BLUES 1, ISLANDERS 0, OT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Joel Hofer made 34 saves and assisted on Jake Neighbours’ goal at 2:04 of overtime in St. Louis victory over New York.

Hofer had his second career shutout in his and the team’s second overtime victory of the season.

Philip Broberg carried the puck into the New York zone and made a centering pass to Neighbours for the winner.

Islanders goalie Ilya Sorkin made 29 saves.

Blues defenseman Nick Leddy sat out because of a lower-body injury, the first game he has missed this season. Leddy played in all 82 games last season.

OILERS 4, PREDATORS 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Brett Kulak scored twice and Connor McDavid added his first goal of the season to lead Edmonton to a victory over reeling Nashville.

Jeff Skinner also scored and Calvin Pickard made 25 saves for the defending Western Conference champion Oilers, who have won consecutive games after beginning the season with a three-game skid.

Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault scored and Juuse Saros made 32 saves for Nashville (0-4).

Forsberg’s goal midway through the first period gave Nashville its first lead of the season. That lasted less than six minutes before Kulak tied it.

Kulak sealed it with an empty-netter in the final minute for the defenseman’s first career two-goal game.

BLACKHAWKS 4, SHARKS 2

CHICAGO (AP) — Tyler Bertuzzi and Nick Foligno each scored a power-play goal, and Chicago beat San Jose.

Taylor Hall and Jason Dickinson also scored for Chicago. Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen each had two assists.

Hall, who missed most of last season because of right knee surgery, put the Blackhawks in front 4:20 into the first period. It was Hall’s first goal since Nov. 5 and No. 267 for his career.

Tyler Toffoli and Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose, which trailed 3-0 early in the second. William Eklund and Mikael Granlund had two assists each.

The Sharks dropped to 0-2-2 under Ryan Warsofsky, who was promoted to head coach in June.

Petr Mrazek had 20 saves for Chicago, and Vitek Vanecek made 23 stops for San Jose.

KRAKEN 6, FLYERS 4

SEATTLE (AP) — Eeli Tolvanen, Jordan Eberle, and Shane Wright scored three goals in less than three minutes in the second period and Seattle held off a Philadelphia rally in a victory.

Tolvanen’s goal broke a 2-2 tie at the 14:57 mark. Eberle made it a two-goal game with a goal at 17:44. Eight seconds later, Wright scored to give Seattle a three-goal lead.

Jared McCann tied the game at 2-2 with the first of Seattle’s four second-period goals.

Cam York and Jamie Drysdale scored to pull Philadelphia within 5-4 in the third period, but Oliver Bjorkstrand responded with a goal to push Seattle’s lead to two with just over five minutes left in the game.

Scott Laughton scored twice for the Flyers in the first period, while Brandon Montour scored one in for the Kraken.

Chandler Stephenson had an assist in his 500th NHL game. Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer had 21 saves.

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Canada’s Dabrowski, New Zealand’s Routliffe out of Japan Women’s Open after walkover

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OSAKA, Japan – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe are out of the Japan Women’s Open tennis tournament.

Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Romania’s Monica Niculescu advanced to the final on Thursday by way of walkover.

The fourth seeds were supposed to play the top-seeded Dabrowski and Routliffe in the semifinals.

Bucsa and Niculescu will next face third-seeded Ena Shibahara of Japan and Laura Siegemund of Germany in the final.

Dabrowski and Routliffe defeated Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi in the quarterfinals 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday to advance.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Mountain West commissioner says she’s heartbroken over turmoil surrounding San Jose State volleyball

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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said Thursday the forfeitures that volleyball teams are willing to take to avoid playing San Jose State is “not what we celebrate in college athletics” and that she is heartbroken over what has transpired this season surrounding the Spartans and their opponents.

Four teams have canceled games against San Jose State: Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming, with none of the schools explicitly saying why they were forfeiting.

A group of Nevada players issued a statement saying they will not take the floor when the Wolf Pack are scheduled to host the Spartans on Oct. 26. They cited their “right to safety and fair competition,” though their school reaffirmed Thursday that the match is still planned and that state law bars forfeiture “for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”

All those schools, except Southern Utah, are in the Mountain West. New Mexico, also in the MWC, went ahead with its home match on Thursday night, which was won by the Spartans, 3-1, the team’s first victory since Sept. 24.

“It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention,” Nevarez said in an interview with The Associated Press at Mountain West basketball media days. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”

Republican governors of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have made public statements in support of the cancellations, citing a need for fairness in women’s sports. Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee in this year’s presidential race, this week referenced an unidentified volleyball match when he was asked during a Fox News town hall about transgender athletes in women’s sports.

“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump replied before he was asked what can be done. “You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”

After Trump’s comment, San Diego State issued a statement that said “it has been incorrectly reported that an San Diego State University student-athlete was hit in the face with a volleyball during match play with San Jose State University. The ball bounced off the shoulder of the student-athlete, and the athlete was uninjured and did not miss a play.”

San Jose State has not made any direct comments about the politicians’ “fairness” references, and Nevarez did not go into details.

“I’m learning a lot about the issue,” Nevarez said. “I don’t know a lot of the language yet or the science or the understanding nationally of how this issue plays out. The external influences are so far on either side. We have an election year. It’s political, so, yeah, it feels like a no-win based on all the external pressure.”

The cancellations could mean some teams will not qualify for the conference tournament Nov. 27-30 in Las Vegas, where the top six schools are slated to compete for the league championship.

“The student-athlete (in question) meets the eligibility standard, so if a team does not play them, it’s a forfeit, meaning they take a loss,” Nevarez said.

Ahead of the Oct. 26 match in Reno. Nevada released a statement acknowledging that “a majority of the Wolf Pack women’s volleyball team” had decided to forfeit against San Jose State. The school said only the university can take that step but any player who decides not to play would face no punishment.

___

AP college sports:

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