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[Non-Recap] Quick Notes - Game 2 Round 2: Toronto Raptors (1-1) 89 - 94 (1-1) Philadelphia 76ers

First published April 30th 2019
Just some quick stuff:
  • Putting Embiid on Siakam worked wonders. They had no one that could bother him the previous game, but since Pascal is the most reliant player on his interior game, just get Joel on him. Siakam was held to 6-17 by Embiid.
  • This obviously meant that now Gasol can't stretch Embiid out of the paint and it becomes much harder to score inside for Toronto. And i'm curious to see how can Nurse counter this. Marc himself was guarded now by Tobias Harris, who is more comfortable staying with him in the perimeter, not allowing open jumpers.
  • All of Toronto's starters were positive in +/- this game. I thought Powell was really poor defensively. How Nurse must wish he could get some minutes to OG. They ended up not needing the bench the previous game but they needed them here and are getting nothing: 26-5 in bench points.
  • Simmons was the only player in game 1 that got remotely close to bothering Kawhi Leonard and he became the primary matchup for game 2. He didn't shut him down but it's clear he made it more difficult.
  • If Monroe is going to become a big part of their bench maybe they should match his minutes with Ibaka and Gasol with Embiid. Ibaka defending Embiid resulted in him going to the line 6 times of his 8 - That's Embiid's game and you can't give him that.

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