Raptors Beat the 76ers

 Short one today as I am slightly busier at work, but I couldn't resist hopping on to celebrate a win over a Raptors rival, especially when they're down bad to begin with. 

Game Recap

While the 76ers and Raptors actually have similar records on the season, the 76ers had been decimated by injuries to former MVP Joel Embiid and free agent signing Paul George all season. This game featured both of those guys along with rising star Tyrese Maxey going up against a Raptors team that was missing Jakob Poeltl, RJ Barrett and Brandon Ingram. To set the context even further, since the start of last season the Raptors were 4-36 without Jakob Poeltl entering this game, and 0-8 for this season. Simply put, without Jakob Poeltl the Raptors have been a historically terrible team, and they were going up against an MVP center in Joel Embiid. Not only this, the 76ers are fighting for their play-in hopes right now as I mentioned in my article yesterday. Every win they can get is precious and playing at home against a clearly tanking Raptors team missing 3 starters is a great place to start. 

With that stage set, how on earth did the Raptors pull this off? Even though Joel Embiid was scoring, as he should against a center rotation with 3 guys who played in the G-League this season, he is moving like a shell of his former self. There's talks that he's going to need knee surgery at some point and if I'm the 76ers I would just shut him down for surgery right now. He isn't impacting games on the defensive end like he's been capable of doing in the past and at this point the team isn't even winning with him out there, so what's the point? Paul George is having a dreadful season by his standards, shooting just 43% from the floor and averaging just 16ppg. The Sixers were crowned the winners of the offseason for signing PG, but at this point he's given them prime Tobias Harris production at an even crazier contract. In 2027-2028 PG and Embiid are owed a combined $120m. Embiid is owed another $69m in the season after that as well. The more you look into the Sixers, the bigger the disaster looks. One bright spot is young star Tyrese Maxey who is an absolute joy to watch. He's lightning quick, an awesome shooter and has done everything he can to keep the team afloat with all the injuries this season. Even he had a terrible game not making his first field goal until the dwindling minutes of the 4th quarter. 

Even with all of this happening, the 76ers still had a chance to win at the end of the game. With 20 seconds left, the 76ers had the ball down 2 points. Maxey drove into the lane and kicked it to the top of the arc to a wide open Joel Embiid. Embiid thought about taking the 3, and when I say wide open I mean nobody was within 10 feet of him, but instead of launching a 3 to potentially take the lead Embiid put the ball on the floor. Embiid in a crowd promptly dribbles the ball off the top of his own head somehow resulting in a steal for Gradey Dick who was fouled. What I found hilarious in this moment was the Philly fans, who were only 2 sleeps removed from seeing their team with a Superbowl, booed their team off the court.  The entire thing brought a tear to my eye. 

I've come this far into the article without even mentioning the great play from some key Raptors! Scottie Barnes was on a mission in this one. I was actually having a debate with my brother after Brandon Ingram signed an extension talking about whether or not they should trade RJ Barrett now. I was of the opinion that RJ is the only player on the team that can get downhill consistently. He told me that Scottie can get downhill and I was adamant that he cannot get past his defender well enough and he's not the answer. Scottie must have heard me because he was an absolute menace getting downhill all game highlighted by 15 FT attempts. These weren't Embiid style flopping free throws too, no these were hard nosed physical basketball fouls and Scottie earned every one of them. Immanuel Quickley was awesome for the second game in a row providing valuable floor spacing and an element of speed to the Raptors offense. Gradey Dick came on strong in the second half. When Gradey gets hot he can really score with anyone and is super exciting to watch. Finally I have to shout out Jamal Shead who is absolutely hooping the the backup PG role. Jamal has a unique ability to use his speed to get all the way to the cup and either playmake or go up with an unconventional shot. Early in the season Shead had issues with playing too fast and hyper leading to mistakes, but now Jamal is using his speed to his advantage and letting the game come to him. I think the Raptors have their bench PG of the future in Jamal and someday maybe even more. 

That's that, shorter one today cause I am busy but holy are the 76ers ever bad! Some (most) fans may want a tank the rest of the season and it probably is the smart thing to do, but I'm sure nobody is mad when the Raptors beat the 76ers no matter what your grand goals are. Go Raptors!