Pascal Siakam and Toronto Raptors managed to stay alive against the Philadelphia 76ers, winning Game 5 in Philadelphia by shutting down Joel Embiid and James Harden. Precious Achiuwa’s fine day at the office and Toronto’s crunching defense limited Philly to just 88 points.
Toronto will still need to win two straight games, one of which will be in Philadelphia, to become the first team to advance to the second round of the postseason after being in a 3-0 hole. While it will be difficult, Toronto did manage to accomplish half of this task already.
The Raptors were able to overcome the loss of Fred VanVleet in the starting lineup and craft a game plan that was centered on their length and switchability. The results speak for themselves, as Toronto appears to have hit its stride at the perfect time.
Fans and observers need to take away these three facts after watching Toronto mount such a furious comeback in this series. The 76ers are still the favorites in this series, but Toronto has a nonzero chance of somehow doing the impossible and coming out with an improbable win.
3 takeaways from Toronto Raptors Game 5 win vs. Philadelphia 76ers
3. Game 3 was an outlier for Pascal Siakam.
Siakam was rightly roasted on social media for a pathetic Game 3 showing in which he and VanVleet looked like they were shooting the ball with their eyes closed. Siakam responded with 57 points and 18 rebounds during the last two games, showing that his All-NBA candidacy is as valid as ever.
Siakam has scored at least 20 points in four of the five games in this series with six blocks and four steals. Siakam has at least eight rebounds in three of these five games despite the presence of Embiid. That Game 3 nightmare appears to have been firmly put in the past.
Pascal Siakam is leading the Toronto Raptors against the 76ers.
Siakam’s playoff numbers are slightly below what he was averaging in the second half, but they can be excused as a result of having to go right at a player of Embiid’s size and strength. Toronto is still running their offense through Siakam and feeding off of his energy.
Siakam is going to be trusted to take and make all of the big shots in clutch situations over the next few days. After his Game 3 performance raised alarms in Toronto, his Game 5 showing was the type of standout showing this Raptors franchise needs from one of their stars.
2. Scottie Barnes defends Tyrese Maxey better than Fred VanVleet
While VanVleet is far from being a Ewing Theory candidate at this juncture, the Raptors did have much better results when it came to keeping Harden and Maxey in check when Barnes started at point guard. That length and strength is a genuine issue for Philadelphia’s guards.
On top of the fact Maxey scored just 12 points in 39 minutes in Game 4, Maxey followed up that show with 12 points on 5-14 shooting. Harden has been outscored by OG Anunoby in this series, which speaks to the quality of Philly’s defensive gameplans so far in this series.
Scottie Barnes is helping the Toronto Raptors defend well.
VanVleet should get some All-Defensive consideration this season, but the 76ers just are not a good matchup for him given their speed. Clearly hampered by the attrition brought on by a long NBA season and his hip injury, VanVleet is just not his usual self in this series.
When VanVleet returns, the Raptors may need to figure out some way to make sure that Barnes can run point and defend Maxey. This will be somewhat challenging for Nick Nurse, but he’s made crazier adjustments when the need has arisen. Scottie at point has been too successful to just scrap.
1. Precious Achiuwa is playing his best basketball lately.
Achiuwa has averaged 11.6 points and 5.4 rebounds per game during his first five playoff games. In two of the last three games, Achiuwa has been so lethal as a key secondary scorer that it proves he is evolving into the team’s unquestioned Sixth Man.
Achiuwa has had games of 20 points and 17 points over the last few days. Even though he is making just 34% of his 3-pointers, Achiuwa has been the high-energy bench presence the Raptors have needed to succeed when Embiid is taken out of the game. His development this year has been fun to watch.
Precious Achiuwa has been very impressive for the Toronto Raptors.
Even without their injury problems, Toronto needed someone to step up and take some of the pressure off of their stars. Achiuwa has done that while making life tough on Embiid and making his long-term outlook appear to be even rosier than it was heading into the series.
Achiuwa started the year as a major question mark, but this series is starting to show that his sudden uptick in production is not a fluke. No matter what happens in this series, Achiuwa has shown that he is someone that should be considered a part of Toronto’s future for the next half-decade.