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The 76ers have misplaced two straight of their first-round collection with the Raptors however nonetheless maintain a 3-2 lead going into Recreation 6 on Thursday.
With Joel Embiid considerably hampered by a torn thumb on his taking pictures hand, his former MVP teammate, James Harden, had an opportunity to hold the Sixers to a Recreation 5 win to shut out the collection.
It regarded that Harden had each intention to take action, scoring the primary 4 factors and giving the Sixers their solely lead of the day when he sank a midrange jumper 18 seconds into the sport and slammed residence a fast-break dunk. Harden went 2-for-9 over the ultimate 46 minutes, ending Recreation 6 with 15 factors (4-11 taking pictures, 2-6 from three-point territory), seven assists in opposition to 5 turnovers on 36 p.c taking pictures from the sector.
Freshly minted Rookie of the 12 months Scottie Barnes led a stingy defensive effort as he stepped in at level guard whereas Fred VanVleet sat Recreation 5 out resulting from a strained hip flexor. In opposition to the Raptors’ athletic, prolonged protection headlined by Barnes, Philly shot simply 38 p.c taking pictures from the sector and shot 10-37 from lengthy distance. Toronto additionally pressured the 76ers into 16 turnovers; the Raptors scored 20 factors off these turnovers.
Postgame, Embiid put the onus on Harden and Coach Doc Rivers to create a sport plan the place Harden may be extra aggressive with the ball in his fingers.
“I’ve been saying all season since he bought right here, he must be aggressive, and he must be himself,” Embiid stated. “That’s not likely my job. That’s in all probability on Coach to speak to him and inform him to take extra photographs, particularly in the event that they’re going to protect me the way in which they’ve been guarding. However that’s actually not my job.”
Embiid additionally took accountability for the powerful loss to the Raptors because the Sixers confronted mounting strain to shut out their first-round matchup. Whoever wins the 76ers-Raptors collection will tackle the winner of the Warmth-Hawks collection within the second spherical.
“However all of us should be higher offensively. We missed a bunch of wide-open photographs. At instances, I simply felt like we simply invited; after I was getting doubled, we weren’t aggressive attacking the ball. We simply saved transferring the ball across the perimeter, and that gave them time to get well, and that’s why we’re not in a position to get something out of it.”
“So if that’s what they wish to maintain doing, we’ve bought to reap the benefits of it.”
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