The Toronto Raptors snatched defeat from the jaws of victory against the Philadelphia 76ers, as they ruined an excellent night from players like OG Anunoby and Gary Trent Jr. by choking away a double-digit lead at home. A Joel Embiid game-winning dagger was the latest in a series of playoff heartbreakers that are tough to swallow.
The Raptors have been bailing water trying to make sure that they can survive without Scottie Barnes. Unfortunately, when Embiid is good for 30 automatic points per night and stars like Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet go silent in the second half, winning becomes much harder.
No NBA team has ever won a best-of-seven series after losing the first three games, and Toronto’s performance in their first trio of contests might help some prognosticators be understandably skeptical about their viability in the remainder of this series. Simply put, this was a gut punch.
There are several important takeaways that fans need to absorb after watching Toronto wilt under the pressure. The Raptors just revealed several important truths about this team, though many of those facts are not going to be positive.
1. OG Anunoby is an untradeable star.
The Raptors have made Siakam and VanVleet the stars of the present with Barnes eventually in line to take over as the maypole everything else revolves around. Anunmoby can often seem like an afterthought to this team, but his performance last night showed that he can be an elite player when called upon.
Anunoby recorded 26 points on 8-18 shooting and 4-9 from 3-point range. In a second half where most of Toronto’s stars were petrified of going to the rim and attacking the basket, it was Anunoby who actually managed to step up and hit some really big shots late. No matter what anyone says, he isn’t going anywhere.
OG Anunoby is a cornerstone of the Toronto Raptors.
Leave him out of all of your hypothetical trade packages, he isn’t going anywhere. It takes a special kind of player to make those kinds of shots in those moments, and Anunoby answered the call. If Barnes is supposed to be the star of the future in Toronto, Anunoby might need to be his deputy.
It might be thanks to his game not being the flashiest or his less than exuberant personality, but the Raptors have helped OG become one of the most consistently underrated players in the league. This performance shows that his internal clock does not get sped up in the playoffs.
2. Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet were awful in the second half.
We love Siakam and VanVleet as much as anyone. One of them is a no-doubt All-NBA player and the other was a deserving All-Star. However, losing in such an embarrassing fashion should be grounds for some discussion about their ability to lead this team when the chips are down.
Siakam’s second half was one of the worst halves of basketball he played in years, as memories of his performance against the Celtics came rushing back. VanVleet didn’t do the Raptors any favors, alternating between missing some open 3-pointers and getting roasted by Tyrese Maxey.
In total, the two went 9-29 from the field while allowing the 76ers to mount a comeback in the most painful way possible.
Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam hurt the Toronto Raptors.
While the Raptors can lean on the fact that they are punching above their weight class and playing without Barnes in the lineup, these are the situations where either an All-Star point guard or max contract power forward should be expected to step up.
Unfortunately, not only did they fail to take Toronto over the top, but both of them saw the clutch gene that brought them so much regular season success disappear.
The Siakam-VanVleet pairing is not going to be broken up anytime soon, but Ujiri and the Raptors should feel slightly less confident in their ability to take this team to the promised land after they squandered a chance at victory.
3. Toronto has no answers for Joel Embiid.
While Embiid is in the middle of an MVP-type season, many analysts and fans (myself included) seem to believe that the Cameroonian star’s skill could be limited if he wasn’t getting fouled on every play. Luckily for Philly, Embiid proved those theories to be insufficient after he obliterated Toronto’s defense.
Even though they managed to keep Embiid away from the free-throw line, he recorded 33 points and 13 rebounds to go along with his game-winner. While it’s easy to point to flaws with the roster, the bottom line is that Embiid is a Hall of Famer at his peak. That level of greatness can overcome whatever technical quirks Nurse throws at him.
The Toronto Raptors can’t stop Joel Embiid.
We can parse through any sort of advanced numbers you want, but it’s really hard to beat a team with a 7-1 center who can shoot from anywhere and handle the ball at 300 pounds. Even if he doesn’t go to the foul line, Embiid is capable of singlehandedly winning this series.
In order for the Raptors to win this series, all they have to do is make sure that one of the five most physically dominant forces in the league during the last 20 years is unable to get hot on offense while somehow trying to get to the rack against him. Simple, right?