Why 76ers Started Slow vs. Raptors, and How They Turned It Around

The Toronto Raptors paid a visit to the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday night and found themselves in total control of the matchup in the first quarter of action.

Scoring 37 points on nearly 60 percent shooting, the Raptors led by as many as 15 points to start the night. From Nick Nurse’s perspective, the Sixers were dealing with an emotional hangover of some sort.

“The way the season kind of plays out sometimes, that was a fairly, I don’t want to say an emotional win the other night, but it was a bigger game playing the number one team in the West,” Nurse said after the game. “We spent a lot of energy and emotion in that game. Didn’t totally surprise me that we didn’t come out energetic.”

This past Wednesday night, the Sixers faced the Western Conference’s top-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves while coming off their first loss in weeks. Based on the body language, the Sixers wanted Wednesday’s game badly, and they worked hard to acquire the win and send a statement across the league.

Their follow-up showing against the Raptors didn’t look as promising at first, but a late first-half rally gave the Sixers enough comfort to know that Friday’s game was theirs for the taken. A third-quarter masterclass by Joel Embiid further confirmed that an early lead no longer meant anything.

“Joel got going,” Nurse said of his star center. “He just started playing a little sooner, I thought that was another little thing. He was following the flight of the pass a lot more and continuing on rather than looking at everything. He was just going, and sometimes you have to trust that the passer is making that angle of the pass for you because that’s what’s open.”

A hobbled Embiid couldn’t be stopped from the field as he hit on six of his nine attempts. Getting to the line for five free throws, Embiid made all but one of his attempts. He scored 17 points in 12 minutes of action, helping the Sixers enter the fourth quarter with a 93-89 lead.

“He started punching through,” Nurse finished. “He started making some jumpers, he hit a three on an play. He again finally, kind of, got into his rhythm and got the shooting going.”

The Sixers never looked back after Embiid’s highly efficient third quarter. And as the Sixers held the Raptors to under 35 percent from the field in the fourth quarter, they didn’t have a counterattack for Tyrese Maxey’s scoring dominance down the stretch in the fourth quarter, as he produced 17 points of his own in under 12 minutes.

Friday was a slow start for the Sixers, but they finished out in front, which is all that matters to them at the end of the day. With a 121-111 victory, the Sixers collected their third win over the Raptors this year. They advance to 20-8 on the season before heading down South to face the Miami Heat.