The Toronto Raptors are on the verge of getting their teeth kicked in by Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers. The combination of Embiid’s dominance and Tyrese Maxey’s development into a star has made it almost impossible for Toronto to mount a comeback in any of their three losses so far.
On top of the fact that Embiid has averaged just under 28 points and 13 rebounds per game in all three of Philadelphia’s wins here, he has come through in the clutch by way of his game-winner in Game 3. Without Scottie Barnes, it’s been hard to mount a comeback in his series.
Embiid is not just limiting his domination Toronto to players on the Raptors. He’s even going after Canada’s favorite song by getting into it with Drake. Embiid seems to feel that a sweep is in the air after having his way with Toronto earlier in the series.
Embiid told Drake that he was gunning for a sweep after Philadelphia’s Game 3 win. Time will tell if his intuition was proven correct of the Raptors can live to fight another day. Based on what we’ve seen so far, the 76ers are in a much better position to advance.
Joel Embiid is eyeing a sweep of the Toronto Raptors.
While the Raptors were giving Embiid free passes to the foul line in Game 3, he showed that he can be a game-changing force in this series without living at the line. Try as he may, Nick Nurse has no answers for him. Toronto’s switchable defense has not bothered Embiid like it did in the regular season.
The Raptors are responsible for making Embiid one of the most infamously memed players in recent league history after Kawhi Leonard’s shot sent him crying down the locker room tunnel. It seems like he’s taken that loss to heart and become hellbent on destroying the Raptors as a result.
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To win Game 4, Raptors need to make sure that a defense led by Pascal Siakam and Precious Achiuwa can limit Embiid as much as possible while OG Anunoby is able to keep the offense performing well by hitting some timely 3-pointers.
If they fail to do that, Embiid can waltz into the second round knowing that his physical dominance was too much for a hated rival to overcome. Getting a shot in at Drake while blowing his favorite team to smithereens is just adding insult to injury for Toronto at this point.