Know Your Enemy: Sixers-Raptors With Toronto's Blake Murphy
A look at the Sixers first-round playoff opponent from the Great White North.
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I'm not ruling out the possibility of there still being some new tiebreaker rule that hasn't been announced yet -- hey, I've tied a fantasy basketball week on Sunday and then come back to find I actually won it on Tuesday, because some steal or block or something got discounted at the last second -- but it certainly appears for now at least like our Philadelphia 76ers will be playing the Toronto Raptors in the first round of the playoffs, starting this Saturday. In terms of potentially apocalyptic first-round matchups for the 76ers, it ranks up there with the Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics, and maybe slightly above an Atlanta Hawks team featuring a starting lineup of five Kevin Huerters. For those of us lucky enough to have survived the Quadruple-Doink in 2019, it might be just enough to finish the job.
Or not. The Sixers technically enter the series as the higher seed and odds-on betting favorite -- even if the Raptors' fanbase seems to be entering the series strutting like [hyper-specific Billions-y reference to an '80s wrestler I don't actually know anything about] while the Process Trusters are just looking for a nice quiet corner to lay low in until the whole thing blows over. To get a more precise reading of the current temperature in the 905 and break down some of the matchup specifics as Nick Nurse might see them from behind those unnecessary glasses, I called up my old friend Blake Murphy -- currently of Sportsnet 590 The FAN, formerly of Raptors Republic and The Athletic, among other T-dot publications. Here's our conversation about Joel Embiid plus-minuses, Tyrese Maxey trades that weren't, Precious Achiuwa pull-up transition threes and so much more, condensed for length and clarity.
So how much are Raptor fans feeling themselves going into this series? Y’all have pretty good reason to be confident, obviously, and the last two games went much more your way than ours – but is it just total chest-puffery from the Raptors fans now?
Yeah, I think so. And it’s a combination of things, really. Like first of all, you see the Embiid crying meme from 2019 getting shared around a lot. I don’t know if that’s particularly fair to Embiid given how that series went, and how the matchups have gone – where, I think, over those last two Raptors wins Embiid was like +15, and the non-Embiid minutes are -25 or whatever. That’s gonna be the story again.
But yeah, the combination of: It does seem like they have the 76ers’ number, these two teams are at the polar opposite ends in terms of what the vibes feel like right now, and then there’s the element too of the Raptors are kind of playing with house money here. And obviously, if you over-perform in the season, then the goal posts move on you. But if you go back to preseason stuff, a lot of it was, “Well, they’ll be a play-in team, and maybe they’ll get to the sixth seed, and hey, if they’re in a playoff series, it’s a good year, considering where they are developmentally..." Obviously the goal posts moved. But I think yeah, [this being] laid out as the upside for this season… anything on top of that is house money. And that kind of makes it easier to just be silly with the optimism I guess.
Nice luxury to have. Would Raptor fans be feeling this way… is it only because they’re facing the Sixers? If you take the five teams that are being taken seriously right now, between us, the Celtics, the Heat, the Nets and the Bucks, is this the prime matchup for you that everyone would have wanted?
I think so. At least over the last couple weeks of the season. We never really got clarity on Jaylen Brown and Al Horford’s status [for the Celtics] – the prevailing theory was Brown wouldn’t be eligible but Horford would be, but we didn’t get confirmation on that. So the combination of that, the Raptors’ track record against the Celtics not being as strong, that recent Celtics series [the Eastern Conference Semifinals in 2020], and also Celtics fans’ relationship with… like, I feel that Raptors fans and 76ers fans on Twitter are more friendly than Raptors and Celtics fans are.
Really?
Yeah! I know it might seem like it’s not the case as a Philly fan. I think there would’ve been a lot more anxiety with a Celtics series. And yeah, the Thybulle thing, the recent track record against Philly… this fanbase is pretty confident in Nick Nurse, and y’know, we’ve kinda got unquestionably a coaching edge in this series. Maybe you would’ve had that with a Boston series too, but Doc kinda has the book as not a great micro-coach in the playoffs.
Not if you ask him about it, but yeah, sure.
Yeah, he’ll yell at you, apparently.
So do Raptors fans kinda take glee in the misery that they’ve inflicted on the Sixers over the last few years?
Uhh… maybe some. I would warn those people that hubris comes for you pretty quickly with that kind of stuff, and it’s not that long ago that the Raptors were the team on the climb that couldn’t get over the hump. I don’t know, I feel with Raptors fans the schadenfreude is a little stronger with a team like the Celtics. Y’know, Miami’s the only team really immune from it because of the Kyle Lowry love and respect. [Philly is] a weird one, because they beat Philly and Milwaukee in their finals run, too. That is sort of settled for Raptors fans, I guess? It feels a little lower-stakes maybe [now] if you lose to those teams.
You talk about the Raptors having the Sixers’ number over the last few years – when you’re playing the Sixers, does it kinda feel like you have gravity on your side?
Yeah, I dunno if I’m that confident, but I do think they have some things that they do strategically and tactically -- especially on defense -- that make the Sixers uncomfortable. Like Joel Embiid, even if the 76ers win this series -- the Raptors are going to take a chunk out of him moving forward.
I know that Embiid gets a ton of foul calls, and Raptors fans will be griping about the free throw disparity in this series, but Nick Nurse’s strategy against the Sixers appears to be, “Well, they can’t call everything.” And they’re going to beat up Embiid, and he’s going to average 30-12 or whatever, but they’re gonna be a really tough 30-12. And I think the hope is that wears on him over seven. We know that Harden doesn’t exactly thrive over the course of a playoff series all the time – especially a more physical one. So I think they like their strategic advantages there.
I think they would believe they have a depth advantage, when you look at, “Hey, who does Philly really trust in a series?” The Raptors’ depth is awkward, because they have infinite power forwards coming off the bench and nothing really fits, and they have no guards off the bench – but they have guys they trust, and they have a style that they trust defensively and in transition. So I think the goal is probably, “Make life hell enough for Embiid so that you can play the starter minutes close to even, and then beat the brakes off the Sixers when Embiid sits.” Which, historically... not without fail. But that formula has worked for them OK.
I found the final game against the Raptors this year particularly discouraging – because, like you said, the Raptors have traditionally made things very difficult for Embiid and some of the other guys on that team. But in that one, I thought we maybe gave you our best punch since 2019, and the Raptors just played out of their minds.
And that was a game with no O.G. [Anunoby] and no Fred [Van Vleet], also.
Also great! But was that game was actually representative of how the Raptors have played, to you, for the last month or so? Or was that them playing over their heads because they knew it was a game they sorta had to win?
No, I think it’s pretty representative. And there’s a couple stats – I mean, you track them as the season goes, but you dig in a little more this time of year. And one thing is that the Raptors’ defense has trended in the upward direction all year. And that’s not surprising, given that they’re a younger team, given that Nick Nurse’s schemes are pretty complicated and require guys to be on a string and stuff like that.
And what they’ve done about it that’s been impressive is they’ve shored up the weaknesses a little without losing their strengths. So, still the best team at forcing opponent turnovers. But they’ve come up from a disaster on the defensive glass to they can survive. And they’ve gone from being the most foul-prone team in the league to, “Hey, we’re going to lose the free throw battle probably, but it’s worth it to get this level of turnover and make the opponents uncomfortable.”
The other thing that stands out is – the Raptors were the No. 2 defense in basketball against the top 10 teams. Only Boston was a better defense against top teams. So that’s something that, to me… you know, there’s a little bit of doubt at some points in the season of, “Well, are the Raptors just out-efforting other teams? Are they just – they try too hard to lose bad games, and sometimes they play against opponents who are sleepy or whatever?” And I think once you get into the record and you have a large sample like that, they’re the No. 3 rating against top 10 teams and the No. 2 defense. That suggests that what they’re doing, to me, can scale to tougher competition.
Again, it’s the 76ers. Them at their best, their offense is deadly, with Embiid and Harden. So maybe it doesn’t work. But there’s certainly reason to think that what made them succeed in the season, and especially late, can carry over.
The main thing for me in the last game was – obviously, Pascal Siakam’s gotten a lot better year-over-year, but I have never seen him play as well as he played against the Sixers in that game…
And yeah, that’s honestly – if you’re a Sixers fan, and you haven’t watched a ton of regular-season Raptors, that’s probably the biggest difference from the last playoff series. Or if you watched Raptors-Celtics in the Bubble, and you grew negative about Siakam [from that]. There’s been a ton of growth. And I think the most important growth has been him as a playmaker – averages five assists a game now, has reached that level of y’know, you’re not just reacting to the defense but anticipating what they’re gonna do. I don’t know that he’s quite to the level of… like, I would think that one level up from that was manipulating the defense, and being like “OK, well if I do this, the defense will do this, and then I can do this…” I think he’s in the kind of anticipation stage right now. Which is really good. To average over five assists a game, a 2:1 assist to turnover ratio, as a forward, is really impressive.
The other thing is, he’s really emerged in that floater range. So that kind of 4-10-foot area. I think he’s become 100th percentile volume for a forward, 80th percentile effectiveness, per Cleaning the Glass. So if you’re thinking the strategy of 2019, of “Well, why don’t we just sit Embiid back here, and arms up in the air, and [Siakam] can’t use the spin move against a stationary defender with length” – well, he has that counter package now, in a way that he didn’t really have until this season. So that’s where you look for growth from Siakam, too. And I think – y’know, I don’t really know what you do defensively if you’re Philadelphia, because he’s kind of eating against Tobias Harris, Matisse Thybulle is uh… not around… for some of these games, and I think you’d rather have him on Trent or Van Vleet anyway, and then I don’t think you want to task Embiid with that on top of the offensive load he’s gonna be carrying.
The playmaking was obviously impressive in that game, and whenever he got to the middle of the floor, it seemed like that floater was automatic. But he was also hitting pull-ups from wherever that I’d never seen him make before. Is that actually a part of his game now? I mean… he didn’t average 36 a game this year, there must’ve been something he was doing in that game that was above and beyond his usual capabilities.
Yeah, the pull-up game has been the thing that has kinda gone in and out. I think he’s in the high 30s for percentage on longer mid-range jumpers. His three point shot settled in around 34%, but obviously he’s a lot stronger there if he’s in the corner or he’s spotting up on the wing. So I don’t know that he’s gonna rain pull-ups on you – I just think it’s really important for him that he has it somewhere in his profile, and can go to it if he really needs to.
That game was just about the best attacking Siakam game you can get. And I know he got to the free-throw line a bunch in that game. I mean, that was… it’s hard to extrapolate too much from that game, because that’s probably the best game he’s ever played.
Lucky us.
I mean, 37-10-12? I would love to say, “Yes, that’s the Siakam you’re in for.” I don’t know that Best Game of His Career is the benchmark for his playoffs. But I do think he’s found a real comfort zone with his offensive package, and some of the confidence stuff he dealt with the last two seasons is behind him now.
Talking about unknowns in this series – has OG ever played against the Sixers? I feel like he must have a couple times, I can barely remember it.
Has he ever played, period?
Does he even exist in the first place? These are all great questions. But what do you know about if he’s going to play, is he going to play at 100 percent, what is he against the Sixers? He seems like a total unknown for us.
I think he’s good to go. He played 25 minutes in the finale on Sunday. They’ve got obviously the five days off here that the Sixers have off as well. It was just a thigh bruise that he was dealing with. Honestly, the thing with OG is – it’s rarely a concern that when he comes back his performance will be hindered. He did have that finger thing for a chunk of the season, and his three-point shooting dipped, but generally things O.G. does well – like chipping in on the offensive glass and being a great defender – whenever he’s back, he’s back. The concern on the Raptors side is more like, macro, “How many games are you getting out of this guy season-to-season?”
In terms of what he is… I would just expect OG to be a very high-end role player. I don’t think the Raptors are gonna funnel a lot of offense through him. If that’s where Philly decides to put a James Harden or a Niang or whoever ends up playing the bulk of those extra minutes there and needs to “hide” defensively, he’s probably the guy, because Scottie Barnes is around the rim a little bit more and you probably need a safer option there. So that’s probably where you had the guy. But he can knock down a three, and whether it’s Harden, Harris or Embiid, he’s gonna give somebody fits defensively.
You alluded a little to Joel winning the plus-minus battle, even back in the 2019 series. But he was pretty compromised on the court in that series, and he did not have a particularly great offensive showing – part health, part Marc Gasol, part Raptors game-planning. He’s obviously taken his own game to a couple new levels over the past few years – are you more scared of Embiid as an offensive threat in this series than you were in that 2019 series, or does it mostly still feel like the same guy to you?
No, no, I’m terrified. And I was terrified in that series right until the final buzzer, and whatever he was, +88 or something like that in that series. I will never not be terrified of Joel Embiid. Like, he shot 37% in that series, and there was not a single moment where I wasn’t like, “Please get diarrhea again. Please run to the bathroom and sit another four minutes.” There’s a reason why one of the first things I said to you when I got on was, “Raptors really gotta win the non-Embiid minutes.” Like, he’s gonna be the best player in the series, no question. And as good and fun as the Raptors have been [in terms of] thinking outside the box of “How are you gonna guard Embiid with only 6’9” guys and extra bodies and physicality and changing up the matchups?” and stuff… it’s still Joel Embiid going up against a bunch of 6’7”, 6’8”, 6’9” guys. And this is arguably the best player in the world right now.
And it’s, uh… I don’t want to be too reductive with the series analysis, but if Joel Embiid plays like Joel Embiid, it’s really hard to see the Raptors winning this series, right? You gotta hope then, “Oh, Siakam outplays Harden, and Van Vleet outplays Maxey, and the depth outplays Philly’s depth, and you really win the non-Embiid minutes.” Like, a lot has to go right if Joel Embiid putting up his 30-12 efficiently and is a monster defensively. Yeah, he might be the best player in the world, I’m terrified of him.
Well, that’s comforting to hear, but your answer to this next question will probably be a little less comforting. Are you even slightly scared of James Harden, looking like he’s looked in the past couple Raptors games? Does he even seem like he can be the second-best player in a series against these guys, or is it just, “We have these million switchy forwards, and if he goes up against any one of them they’re just gonna end up blocking his shot at the rim?”
Yeah, and I don’t even think it’s just a Toronto thing. Like, he had those pretty bad games against Charlotte and Indiana recently, too – I think it was Detroit he looked shaky against. And some of that is, you’re shot’s gonna go in or your shot’s not gonna go in. But the Raptors are going to force him right a ton, and they’re going to force him right into a lot of extra bodies, and there’s only so much you can do about that.
Harden’s gotta be a point guard point guard in this series I think, because I don’t know that he finds his way to 30 points very often with how much they’re gonna get the ball out of his hands. There’s a point at which you can’t both double and triple Embiid and Harden all of the time -- you just kinda run out of guys, and even the Raptors’ switchy scrambly stuff isn’t going to work -- but if they turn James Harden into a three-point shooter and playmaker instead of a floater-range and at-the-rim God, I think they’ll be more than happy with that. Like, if Harden’s going out and getting 20 and 10 every game, I think they’d prefer that to like, 30 and 5. Even if mathematically that’s the same thing, y’know, I think they’d just rather have Harden contained that way.
You mentioned Tyrese Maxey, and you gotta give us something here: If the Sixers had been in the situation where the Raptors were last year, where they could’ve traded an expiring contract like Kyle Lowry’s for an up-and-coming young whatever like Tyrese Maxey, they didn’t do it, and Maxey was having the year he’s having this year, you would never hear the end of it. Anytime he did anything, there’d be a million people on Sixers Twitter being like, “Imagine not wanting to trade for Tyrese Maxey when you could’ve had him…” How do you look at it from the Raptors’ side of things, and how do their fans feel about it?
I'm skeptical that the Maxey deal that’s been reported out there as on the table was actually on the table. I don’t think that the Raptors are quite so bold as to have wanted Maxey, Thybulle and two firsts, or whatever the report was. And the sticking point in this was always going to be that, from the Raptors side, that would’ve been “Kyle Lowry for Maxey and whatever draft capital.” But from Philly’s side, Danny Green and Mike Scott probably would’ve had to be in there to have the salaries match up.
It was just never a super-realistic trade framework, unless Philly was like, “We’ll do anything for Kyle Lowry, and the extension will be there at the end.” I think, y’know, [reading] the tea leaves, the hesitance of Philly to give Lowry the extension he was seeking was maybe a factor there. The Raptors have talked pretty openly, too, that they wanted to do right by Kyle and they weren’t going to send him somewhere he wasn’t open to. And maybe the extension talks, back door talks, were maybe a part of that, I’m not really sure.
But yeah, Maxey would be a really nice guy to have! You know what the Raptors need a lot of? Guys who shoot 43% on threes, and are really good at a) event creation and b) taking advantage if someone else creates, and just blowing by scrambling defenders to the rim! Maxey is awesome, and as much as Harden hasn’t been unbelievable as a Sixer, I do think that Maxey’s the guy who’s benefited from him the most. Because like I said, you can only throw so many bodies at Harden and Embiid at once before something’s gotta give somewhere else, right? And as far as knocking down open shots and attacking seams and blowing by bad closeouts, hard to imagine a better couple weeks than Maxey’s had here.
Are you sort of looking at him like, second-year guy, never really proven in the playoffs, where if he’s the guy who kills you you kinda live with it? Or is he a major part of the game planing against us at this point?
No, I don’t want anyone – I won’t live with any of it! Honestly, I think they’d rather – stylistically – if Tobias Harris and to a lesser extent, Danny Green… like, if Tobias Harris is trying to take post mismatches on Gary Trent Jr. or Fred Van Vleet, like, absolutely. Back in 2019, they used to be like, “Tobias Harris, you wanna post up Kyle Lowry? Post up 50 times a game if you want.” I don’t think they’re scared of Tobias Harris. Danny Green can obviously get hot, but Danny Green can get cold too. I think that they will prioritize the guys who can break their defense down a little bit more, rather than the guys who just close out the play, whether that’s a knockdown three or Harris with his kind of short-range, mid-post stuff. And they’re not gonna respect anyone off the bench.
There’s been a lot made of Matisse Thybulle’s lack of availability in the series, and obviously leaving Joel as the team’s only plus defender in the series is not what you want as a Sixers fan. I personally don’t necessarily think this would’ve been a great series for Thybulle anyway, but… I’m curious from your perspective – you’ve talked about being able to quadruple team Embiid when Thybulle is out there in the corner. Are you more worried with Danny Green getting most of those minutes, or are you happy to not have to deal with the Sixers’ most potent perimeter defender?
I think it’s probably a wash from the Raptors’ perspective. Again, Thybulle’s one of their best defensive players – I think the Gary Trent effect would be pretty pronounced. Gary Trent’s gotten pretty good at getting himself open, and doing some secondary scorer stuff off to the side. And he’s a guy who looks to shoot over guys, especially in the mid-range or with that stepback three. And that’s where Matisse Thybulle is elite, right? He’s the best jump-shot blocker and jump-shot contester in the NBA probably. So I think he would’ve gotten the Gary Trent matchup for chunks, and that’s a little easier on Trent now.
But yeah, at the other end – I mean, we’ve seen it… I watched that Bucks game a couple weeks ago where [Thybulle] played 20, 21 minutes, and he had one shot attempt and it was in transition. And the Bucks were just like, “Absolutely, take whatever you want, we don’t even notice you.” So yeah, that’s a real thing, especially when like – you can get away with that on some teams in some team environments, but the whole point of Harden and Embiid together is supposed to be that it’s unguardable, and they force you into these really really tough decisions. And they do, but when you have a complete non-factor out there on offense as well, it kinda neutralizes some of that, right? It kind of undercuts it a bit, where, oh, you can actually send an extra guy there pretty comfortably.
The most common Sixers Twitter meltdowns of late have been reserved for this DeAndre Jordan vs. Paul Reed battle, which I’m sure has got to be the most publicized backup center battle of all-time at this point.
Well, since the last Sixers-Raptors battle…
Sure, but even then I feel like it was still kind of under-the-radar in the sort of national sense. I feel like you could have First Take debates about Paul Reed vs. DeAndre Jordan, which is absurd. Does it feel as consequential on the outside of it? Are Raptors fans watching and actively hoping Doc plays DeAndre, or is it not really a concern at this point?
Uhh… I don’t think so, just because of where the Raptors’ strengths and weaknesses lie. Like, I think Paul Reed is a better player than DeAndre Jordan at this point. But the Raptors, particularly in terms of their second units, can be pretty susceptible on the glass. I can see DeAndre Jordan having competent minutes against this team, because it’s not a team that cleans up their own glass particularly well. So it could be one of those series where both fanbases don’t want to see DeAndre Jordan – because Sixers fans are carrying traumas [from the last] 16 games, and Raptor fans are carrying the trauma of three years of being one of the worst defensive rebounding teams in basketball. So it might just line up that way.
But I don’t know, forced to choose as a Raptors supporter, I would rather see DeAndre Jordan than Paul Reed in those minutes. With the Raptors having nobody big, Paul Reed can handle defensively Thaddeus Young and Chris Boucher and Precious Achiuwa, I think.
It’s weird for me to hear you talk about the Raptors’ rebounding woes, because my primary impression of this team going back to 2019 is that they gobble up everything, and that we lost a couple games to y’all in that series and a couple games to y’all this season because you get 20 offensive rebounds in the first half…
So yeah, it’s actually a pretty big contrast on the two sides of the ball, where in terms of rebound percentage, the Raptors are second on offense and 24th on defense... defensively, why the Raptors aren’t that good beyond not having anyone above 6’9”, is that their defense is so aggressive, and so scrambly and switchy that a lot of possessions end with four guys out around the three-point line, because they’ve been scrambling all over the place. They play a fair amount of zone, which we know can be a little more susceptible to giving up stuff on your own glass. And then at the other end, they have basically made the bet that... with their speed and athleticism, and everyone being a similar size, you can prioritize the offensive glass without sacrificing your transition defense. And that’s something that they can be pretty effective on, because coming back the other way, anyone can guard anyone, is their philosophy.
We’ll see how it turns out. I know that Philly is only an average defensive rebounding team – I don’t know if that’ll be better when they’re locked in and prepped like this, but I do think… how often the Raptors crash the offensive glass, and how well they’re able to push in transition, are the two biggest questions for me on their side. Because they’re not a good half-court, first-possession scoring team, right? They need those second chances, and they need the transition buckets. And Philly’s this interesting team, because they don’t turn the ball over much – but when they do… there’s that meme from earlier in the season of “The 76ers’ transition defense,” and it’s Doc Rivers slowly walking to halfcourt. So those are kind of the two biggest areas that Nick Nurse has to make sure that the Raptors are ready to win. Because again, the Sixers have the two best players in the series, or at least the best player, so you gotta win every other marginal thing.
It’s comforting to hear you even say that the Sixers might have the two best players in this series. At this point, I don’t necessarily rank James Harden above or maybe even all that close to Pascal Siakam…
Yeah, I just don’t wanna slam dunk, “Hey this is guy who was an MVP candidate eight minutes ago…” I think on balance Siakam has been better this year, especially when you factor in the defensive side of the ball. I just don’t wanna be… that’s kind of the big if, right? If Siakam outplays Harden, then this feels like a real series. But if you have the two best players in the series, you’re gonna win almost all the time.
I don’t wanna talk much about Precious Achiuwa, but I do have to ask about that one pull-up three he hit in transition against us in that last game against the Sixers. Like, what the hell was that? Is that a thing that he does?
Tell you what: If he takes that in a clutch moment in this series, you might not see a lot of Precious in there. But this is kind of the Raptors’ developmental philosophy, at least in regular season games. And it’s what they’ve done with Siakam in the past, and what they’ve done with Boucher, and now what they’ve done with Precious… the guiding principle is kinda, “Why not?” Why can’t Precious Achiuwa, at 6’8” and 22 years old, be given some opportunities to grab a defensive rebound and run? And hey, you’ve got your three-point shot to where you’re a 35, 36% shooter? Why can’t you take a pull-up, if the situation calls for it or if you’re feeling it?
Now, the hard part is corralling that back in when the situation calls for it, and that’s hard. But I think that that’s a better developmental philosophy, and an easier change, than a guy who doesn’t try things, and is afraid to try things, and then you gotta be like, “No, we need more…” Matisse Thybulle is a good example. Or Delaware Blue Coats legend Patrick McCaw, when he was in Toronto. Like, “OK, you do the things that you do well, but we need more on your role card..." I think longer term, it’s just a sound developmental philosophy that, you know what, 82 games, each individual possession doesn’t mean a ton, and if it keeps a guy happy and keeps them in the gym and you’re seeing the progress in most areas, why not? I don’t think it’ll be a part of the gameplan against the Sixers.
I just want to be clear – as much as I’ve been pretty optimistic about the Raptors in this series, I do think it’s gonna be a close series. But the Sixers are favored for a reason. It’s just that… I guess the Raptors are kind of fifth with a bullet, but the Sixers would be fifth with whatever the opposite of that is -- a splashed tomato or something like that. Especially like, vibes-wise and pressure-wise. I would still pick Philly if forced to pick in a series. It’s gonna be pretty close, I think… the Raptors being +150 in this series, betting odds-wise, that says it’s about a 40% chance – I think that’s a really sharp line. I think that’s right about where I’d put it.
Give me one thing you’re worried about in this series that’s rational, and one thing that’s totally irrational.
Huh. Rational, Joel Embiid plays like the best player in the world and puts up his 32-12-4, and no amount of 6’8, 6’9” Raptors getting in under his hands on the catch and on his first dribble and stuff can make up for it. So that would be my rational one. I think that’s very rational. I think he’s probably the toughest guy to gameplan for and match up with – maybe Jokic or Giannis, but again, we’re splitting hairs here between the best players. But he’s impossible.
The less-rational one would be Tobias Harris sticking it to the Raptors. Just because I’ve said some negative things about Tobias Harris since 2019. And I don’t mean them in a personal way – by all accounts, he’s a great dude – but that contract, and how disengaged he’s looked at times… I’d have to eat some crow if Tobias comes out and like averages 24, 25 in this series.
Whatever you’ve said, I guarantee Sixers fans have said exponentially worse. And even dating back to that Toronto series in 2019, the miss he had in the corner open in the last minute of Game Four – that was the fulcrum of the series for me.
And I haven’t said anything personal or rude. I just think he has this tendency to be an unserious basketball player for games at a time.
Do you think karmically, the Kawhi shot from 2019 sorta cancels out Vince missing in 2001 and now we’re kind of even?
Yeah, I think we’re clean. We’re even karmically.
So this is the rubber match, then.
I’ll tell you what, if it comes down to one shot again – I’m gonna be a shell of myself by the time this thing’s over. Because the thing is, like, if this thing goes to a Game Seven, that obviously means that a lot of stuff’s been going for the Raptors. Like, each game the series goes, you’re able to have a little more hope, a little more hope… the Raptors have recently been on the right side and the wrong side of this. I mean, that Boston series was decided by… a chest hair. Like, that was crazy close, in that whole series, and then even Game Seven was a five-point game.
I mean look, I’m trying to tell myself that I wouldn’t like it, and that it’s a whole lot of anxiety and stress, and even now just finishing this sentence, I’m like, “Naw, gimme that.”
Nah, see – if the Sixers lose this series in six I’ll be upset, but if they lose this in seven I will be fucking furious. I cannot take another Game Seven, I cannot take another Game Seven against this team, I cannot take another Game Seven at home loss… spare me.
Well the nice thing [for the Sixers] is, that the Game Seven would be in Philly. So the Raptors won’t have the magnets going for them, or whatever that conspiracy theory was.