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The Toronto Raptors sat Kawhi Leonard down due to the second night of a back-to-back, Jonas Valanciunas didn’t play because of a thumb injury, while Serge Ibaka sat with knee soreness. With three of the Raptors' best players out of service, Philadelphia romped the visitors 126-101 in a highly one-sided affair.
"It was a good win, but to me it doesn't mean anything," Joel Embiid said. "They were missing three of their best players. I was kind of bummed that they weren't playing because this game, to me, was marked on my calendar just because of how bad I played over there (in Toronto)."
Toronto had won their last two games coming into this clash against the Sixers but found themselves understaffed to the point that they couldn't even put up a decent fight against the mighty 76ers. The result was a 25-point rout, a sign of how the absence of big names is sabotaging Toronto's dream run in the NBA season so far.
They still hold the top seed in the East with a 25-10 record, having lost five of their last ten games. It would not hurt Philadelphia to steal a win against the leaders while they're bleeding, as they now improve to 22-12 on the season, still stuck at a frustrating third position, 2.5 games behind Toronto.
Let's draw out some key takeaways from this inequitable confrontation between two Eastern Conference giants.
#1 Both Ben Simmons & Joel Embiid ended up with solid double-doubles
Embiid took advantage of Valanciunas' absence and finished with a game-high total of 27 points along with 11 rebounds, shooting 10-of-15 from the floor.
After posting a triple-double against the Knicks in just the previous game, Ben Simmons ended this game with a near-triple-double effort of 26 points, 12 rebounds and 8 assists to his name, all this while committing just one turnover. The sophomore shot a blazing 11-of-13 from the field, as he is averaging an amazing 58 percent from the floor this season.
Embiid scored 23 of his total 27 points in the first half while his team led by 9 points. The collective effort of the home side and the missing players on the Raptors roster resulted in Philly methodically pulling away in the second half.
#2 Three of the five Raptors starters combined for just 20 points
Nick Nurse went with Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby, Greg Monroe, and Danny Green as the starting lineup against Philly, only to realise that this was a combination not to be used ever again.
Monroe, Green, and Anunoby scored 6, 9 and 5 points respectively, failing miserably in dominating the Sixer first hand. For a specialised shooter, Green shot an abysmal 3-of-12 from the field and could convert just one of the five three-pointers he attempted in his 25 minutes of play.
Monroe and Anunoby played 20+ minutes each but finished with less than 10 points to their name. Siakam was the only bright spot, dropping a team-high score of 26 points despite missing all of his six long-range shots.
All-star guard Lowry had a hard time netting jumpers from deep as he could only make 2-of-9 from distance, contributing 20 points to the Raptors sinking cause.
#3 The Sixers outplayed Toronto in almost every aspect of the game
The Sixers took charge of the game in the second half and put an end to all hopes of Toronto pulling off a miracle even without Kawhi.
They outrebounded the visitors 53-41 and dished out 33 assists (almost double of Toronto's assists total) while the Raptors looked helpless. They shot an impressive 46-of-85 from the field as a team, bringing their field-goal conversion rate to a commendable 54 percent, as Raptors could not even manage 40 percent from the field.
Simmons' team had 7 blocks (Raptors had 2) throughout the course of the game while also recording 10 steals. Embiid's mammoth post-up presence and Valanciunas' absence in the paint meant the Sixers outscored the Raptors 60-44 down low.
Also, they made every third three-point attempt (33.3 percent) while at the same time, the Raptors were netting every fourth (25 percent), bearing in mind that the Raptors heaved an outrageous 40 times from beyond the arc, netting only 10 of those attempts.
