76ers: Raptors Noticed Growth in Joel Embiid, James Harden Duo

Last season, when the Philadelphia 76ers met with the Toronto Raptors in the first round of the playoffs, James Harden had played in just 21 games played for Philadelphia.

Harden, Joel Embiid, Doc Rivers, and the Sixers noted they were lacking time to master the on-court chemistry between the star duo and the rest of the team ahead of the 2022 playoff run.

The Sixers took the Raptors down in six games before going out in the second round with a 4-2 loss to the Miami Heat. Heading into the offseason, Harden and Embiid looked forward to having more time to perfect their pairing on the floor.

With the 2022-2023 regular season winding down and playoffs quickly approaching, Raptors head coach Nick Nurse acknowledged the difference between last year’s version of the Harden-Embiid duo and this year’s edition.

“I think that it just seems to have just solidified much more,” he said. “I just think that the combinations, numbers-wise, and just trying to figure out how to guard it and stuff is difficult when you’re an opposing coach, but it just seems like they’re just… They’re playing more solid. I think they know what, really, each one of them is going to do, and they just kind of do very similar output a lot of nights, so there’s a consistency there. I think it just didn’t seem as solidified last year, but it does now.”

During Nurse’s earlier days as the Raptors' head coach, he found a lot of success against Embiid and the Sixers. Since taking over as the Raptors’ head coach in 2018, Nurse achieved a 10-5 regular season record over the Sixers before this year.

In the first playoff series Nurse’s Raptors faced the Sixers, Toronto won in seven games and went on to win an NBA title. Last season, the Harden-Embiid duo managed to put the Raptors away in the first round of the playoffs. Then during the 2022-2023 NBA season, the Sixers defeated Toronto in three of four games.

Suddenly, a team that used to find tons of success against the Sixers struggles to compete against their Atlantic Division foe. While some of that has to do with the current state of the Raptors, which is a team that looks to be headed for a rebuild — the improved duo of Embiid and Harden deserves a lot of credit as well — as Nurse and the Raptors have had a hard time slowing them down.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.