The Toronto Raptors went from a feel-good underachiever punching above their weight class all season long to arguably the most disappointing playoff performer in the entire NBA after going down 3-0 against the Philadelphia 76ers. Murphy’s Law is doing a number on Toronto by throwing multiple huge obstacles in their path.
Getting blown out in Game 1 is bad enough, but losing Scottie Barnes to injury while doing so made things even more difficult for Toronto. While the odds have certainly been stacked against them in this series, losing Game 3 at home in overtime despite holding multiple double-digit leads for large chunks of the game is embarrassing.
The Raptors have nobody but themselves to blame after choking away a win in what was their best chance to potentially snag their first triumph of the series. Toronto’s long-term plan might not change as a result of this series, but their short-term prospects are looking increasingly glum after Joel Embiid’s dagger.
Unfortunately, it’s time to play the blame game with Toronto just one loss away from a catastrophic loss against a division rival. Which players deserve to shoulder the lion’s share of the blame for their struggles against Philadelphia? Is it fair to put all of this on their shoulders given the injuries?
Which Toronto Raptors deserve blame after losing to the 76ers?
3. Pascal Siakam
Siakam is an All-NBA player. He’s been one of the 15 or 20 best players in the league this season. He’s a Raptors legend who has proven he can be a valuable piece of a championship team and a featured option on a playoff team. Now that all of those qualifications are out of the way, time for blunt analysis. He was terrible in Game 3.
Siakam barely did anything of value on offense in the second half as he appeared to be complete; out of energy and lethargic. Toronto was still giving him the chance to make some plays late in the fourth quarter and overtime, but Pascal chose to let OG Anunoby take over in that stretch. That’s not ideal for a max player who might make All-NBA.
The Toronto Raptors need more from Pascal Siakam.
Siakam might have helped in Toronto’s defensive turnaround, but h sacrificed his efficiency and playmaking ability on offense to do so. While asking him to slow down Embiid and score 25 points might sound too harsh, this is what he’s supposed to do as the marquee player on this team.
Not a soul on this earth would argue that Siakam is a bad player or someone that doesn’t contribute to winning. the debate over his validity as a top option on a contender, however, is raging on. These last few games are certainly swinging the pendulum in one direction.
2. Fred VanVleet
When VanVleet is on from 3-point range, he can pair his usual blend of quality defense and expert marksmanship to reach a level no one thought he would during his career. However, when his shot is not falling, VanVleet can be as detrimental on the floor as he was during Wednesday night’s heartbreak. `
VanVleet has attempted 26 3-pointers over the last two games and connected on just seven of them. Even his usually sharp defense has started to fail him, as Tyrese Maxey has had success. Like Siakam, VanVleet is simply not allowed to be that poor in the second half of a must-win.
Fred VanVleet needs to be more efficient for the Toronto Raptors.
For all of VanVleet’s positive traits, he’s never been someone that was an A+ finisher at the rim due to his size. When the 3-point shot isn’t falling, VanVleet value on offense goes down the drain. The 76ers have been daring him to shoot over the last two games, and he hasn’t made him pay.
VanVleet looks gassed from his heavy workload, nagging knee injury, and general frustration with scoring against Philly’s defense. He’s still an All-Star player with the capacity to be the leader of this Raptors team, but his usual brilliance shouldn’t excuse some substandard performances of late.
1. Nick Nurse
On one hand, it’s easy to absolve Nurse of blame considering that one of his key starters in Barnes, veteran glue guy off the bench in Thad Young, and premier sniper Gary Trent Jr. have all been less than 100%. However, the master schemer’s inability to make adjustments should be questioned.
Why was the second-half offense nothing but isolations and pull-up threes? How is it that Doc Rivers devised a plan to easily circumvent Toronto’s much-hyped perimeter defense in the first two games? Why is Khem Birch still seeing rotation time? Why was Trent playing in Game 2 when he didn’t look healthy enough to get out of bed?
Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse has underwhelmed.
Nurse has won a championship and been to the playoffs in every non-Tampa season. His status as a quality coach in this league is established. It’s still fair to question why a playoff choker like Rivers has been coaching circles around him in the postseason despite Nurse dominating this fight in the regular season.
This roster is not ideal to defend players like Embiid and Maxey given the lack of size to slow down the former and the average perimeter speed to corral the latter, but that doesn’t mean that Nurse needs to respond by keeping the defense as is while chucking up 3s blindly on offense. For as good a coach as he is, this series was a disappointment.