The Toronto Raptors are down 2-1 in their series with the Philadelphia 76ers. But do not panic, all is not lost with this team.
Okay, here it goes. Toronto Raptors fans; please stop panicking.
Right, it’s fine to panic. It’s understandable. The Raptors are down in a series that many fans and experts predicted they would win, and win comfortably, including myself for that matter.
While the Philadelphia 76ers are the more talented unit, the Raptors were meant to be the perfect matchup for them. Marc Gasol would be able to shut down Joel Embiid just like he did Nikola Vucevic in the first round. This is why the Raptors traded for him after all.
The first game of the series was promising. The Raptors ran over the Sixers in a blowout with Pascal Siakam and Kawhi Leonard outscoring the entire 76ers starting lineup en route to victory. The signs were good, and maybe Toronto had finally lifted their Game 1 curse in the process.
They did, but the next two games were far from the script.
Game 2 saw both teams actively try to lose the game, shooting below 40-percent from the field and from three-point range. It was the performance of Jimmy Butler that tipped the game over the edge for the Sixers and splitting homecourt put the momentum firmly in their corner.
Which brings us to Thursday night.
It was a massacre. The Raptors were outplayed, outrebounded, and outshot all night, and the result was a beatdown of epic proportions. Once again, the three-point shooting let the team down, with the Raptors hitting on 25-percent of their outside looks.
There was a lot to be worried about in Game 3. Kyle Lowry, Marc Gasol, and the entire bench unit stunk out the joint in various stretches with the former two both proving to be far too passive.
Joel Embiid made his presence felt in the game too, scoring 33 points in an utterly dominant display, which made Gasol’s performance even more confounding. Kawhi Leonard was the only real bright spot in the game.
Thursday night simply wasn’t good enough.
But this series is far from over.
The Raptors are in a hole, yes, but it’s not a situation they can’t dig themselves out of. Thursday night was only Game 3 of the series, and there are still four games to potentially pull themselves out of the hole that they seemed to have dug deeper.
One of the common themes that passed between Games 2 and 3 is the Raptors lack of three-point shooting, something that seems too out of sorts to continue in this vain. The results of the Marc Gasol trade boosted the Raptors three-point shooting to an entirely different level, as they shot 41-percent post-All-Star break. A percentage that represented the best three-point shooting in the league.
To go from that to shooting 26-percent in the past two games, and a lot of the attempts are clean looks, is surely nothing more than a brief aberration. The Raptors have a plethora of three-point shooters, whether you want to admit it or not.
Danny Green finished the season with the second highest three-point percentage in the league, his poor shooting performance can’t last forever either, and he showed signs of improvement in Game 3. Kyle Lowry has had his struggles but even he turned his shooting struggles around after his poor performance in Game 1 against the Orlando Magic.
If the Raptors win Game 4 then the momentum swings back around almost immediately, and with the series tied two apiece Toronto would be walking back into the Scotiabank Arena with the crowd on their side.
A lot of the issues stem from the rotations, and if Nick Nurse can avoid using three bench players on the court at once (which apparently is quite the task) then suddenly your best players are on the court more often and it then becomes more likely players like Fred VanVleet and Serge Ibaka are more likely to produce.
This team proved to be one o the best teams in the NBA for 82-games in the regular season, and yes, the playoffs are a different monster and we have seen countless Raptors teams shine in the regular season to only flame out in the postseason.
This isn’t the Raptors we once knew though, this is a team that is more than capable of overcoming its shortcomings. Last season, there was a clear ceiling on the trajectory of the team. Their star player had a penchant for flailing in the playoffs, way more so than the current narrative of Kyle Lowry.
With Kawhi Leonard at the helm, and Pascal Siakam progressing into an absolute stud, the team has two legitimate top 25 players who can mesh with a team that can serve their games in the best way.
The goal for this team was the NBA Finals. A one-game deficit doesn’t change that. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Just keep believing in this team.