Toronto Raptors vs. Philadelphia 76ers: Matchup Breakdown

The Toronto Raptors and the Philadelphia 76ers begin their conference semi-final series on Saturday in Toronto. How do these two teams stack up against each other?

The Toronto Raptors and the Philadelphia 76ers have had identical starts to the 2019 postseason. They both lost game one of the opening round at home, sparking doubt and uncertainty when it came to how ready they were to win at a high level.

They then both went on to win four straight games and advance to the next round.

Parallels can also be drawn between the two teams when you evaluate their rosters.

Both the Raptors and 76ers made big moves at the trade deadline – the Raptors traded for Marc Gasol, and the 76ers traded for Tobias Harris. Both teams were juggling handfuls of moving parts even before the trade deadline.

Down the stretch of the regular season, they each were rushing to build as much team cohesion as possible before the playoffs arrived.

Both Toronto and Philadelphia have pushed all of their chips to the middle of the table, and expect big things this postseason.

In the offseason, the Raptors made a franchise-altering decision to trade away their cornerstone DeMar DeRozan in exchange for Kawhi Leonard. The 76ers stood pat this summer but decided a change was needed in November when they traded for Jimmy Butler.

Until this point, we’ve only been able to speculate as to how these newly put together teams would fare against elite playoff competition.

The wait is finally over.

The second round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs is here, and it features the four teams that everyone expected. The Raptors, 76ers, Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks are the conference’s four powerhouses, and whoever is left standing at the end of this mêlée will have something to truly be proud of.

On the Raptors/Sixers side of the bracket, there are two squads with tons of talent, but how do they stack up against each other, and who has the edge?