TORONTO – It was worth the wait.
Draw game, season online, crowd on foot, chanting, voice sharing, passion and energy.
It was like the old days.
Or rather, as in the old days, when a young Toronto Raptors team didn’t get breaks or breaks, didn’t bounce, and didn’t win.
Returning to this glory will be a process and will inevitably involve some heartbeat.
A concrete example: the missing three with less than a second on the clock from The Process itself, Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid, who snatched victory and there was no shortage of souls like the decisive blow in a dirty, dirty and stubborn fight with 104-101, which needed sequels to decide.
Kamata gave the Sixers a 3-0 lead in their first-round run with the Raptors. It was a small measure of revenge for Embid, who left the floor of Scotiabank Arena in tears after Cowie Leonard’s buzzer ended the Sixers’ season in Game 7 of the second round in 2019.
“I felt great, obviously, with what happened here a few years ago,” said Embiid, who was booed every time he touched the ball. “It’s obviously a difficult place to play, especially in the playoffs, they have great fans, they’re noisy, I knew I was going to come in, I was going to be the bad guy, so I just went out and let the game come to me. ”
The two teams meet again on Saturday afternoon, but the Raptors will try to make history, returning after three defeats in a series of the top seven.
If things had gone a little differently in Game 3, you might have liked their chances of coming back from a 0-2 draw, while Toronto rode the hosts to their best performance in the series, pushing the Sixers all the way to the border and beyond.
They will complain about some unforced errors for some time to come, suggesting that their season ended on Saturday – Embid promised Drake that he would come to clean up after the game – or maybe Monday in Game 5.
Precious Achiuva missed a pair of free throws with 27.5 seconds left in the regulation, which could have led Toronto by two, and OG Anunoby missed another free throw with 26 seconds until the end of overtime, which could have given Toronto the lead. The Raptors could have defended the game differently before Embide’s big shot – Toronto didn’t put up a defender for Danny Green as he scored 0.9 seconds to the end of the strike clock, giving him a clear look to hit Embed with a pass. .
Can this change? We’ll never know, but the little things come together in critical games. For the second consecutive match, the main scorers of Raptors Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleight fought, combining 6 of 29 of the floor, and Siakam was left without a result after halftime.
The Raptors answered the bell in many delightful ways at 0-2 in the series, but remain on the verge of being knocked out.
“I thought we were fighting. We fought really hard, we showed the level of the race that was needed – it only took a few games to get there – but I’m proud of the boys and the way we fought and increased our intensity, “said Van Vleit. . “Our attention to detail was a little better. We made a few plays in attack … and I thought our defense was much better tonight.
“But yes, in terms of the end of the game and the performance of this section, it’s probably as bad as it gets.”
The Raptors had some bold performances. Anunobi continued his good play form with 26 points to lead Toronto, while Gary Trent Jr. – seriously ill in the first two games – shook off to present a brilliant two-point duel with 24 points and many great defensive games. VanVleet struggled to shoot (3 of 13) but had nine assists and three steals as Achiuwa came off the bench for 20 points and one big defensive position after another, including a flawless defense on Embiid’s first attempt to decide the game at the end of the game. overtime.
Shutting down Siakam in the second half was a problem – your best player can’t make five shots, miss all of them and fail to reach the free throw line in the last 29 minutes of what was virtually an elimination match – but even with that, the Raptors almost won and probably should.
But the Sixers had Embiid. After the Raptors forced Embid on the half of the court, deflecting the ball from his hands, he seemed to strike a desperate blow, but Sixers head coach Doc Rivers went down to the floor to get the referees’ attention to impose a time-out. was given one with a remaining 2.6 seconds and just under a second on the shot clock. They pushed Embiid around the line for three points, hit a seven-foot, 300-pounder with a pass in motion, and he made a turnaround with 0.8 seconds to go.
Anunnobi missed an attempt at despair at the buzzer.
Embid scored 28 of his highest 33 points in the second half and overtime. He defended Siakam for most of the second half. He was the best player in the series by a huge margin and the Sixers are ready to advance as a result.
Still, the Raptors season may be hesitant, but at least the game was recognizable as a Raptors game. They left their mark on him, forcing the Sixers to make 24 turns, six from Embiid. Toronto turned those turnovers into 27 points and led to 13-4 quick break points and 16-9 second chance points. There were thefts, many efforts and opponents, irritated to the maximum. The bodies were on the floor. The Raptors controlled the pace of the game and perhaps more importantly, its feel. I just didn’t get the result.
It’s hard. I have to think about it, but it’s a heavy loss that I remember here about my time, “said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse. really, really deep hole to dig in. But at least I thought we brought it in and they played with a lot of intensity and they played really hard and we put ourselves in a position to win and tonight just didn’t work out our way. “
The stakes were high. No team in NBA history has returned from a 3-0 loss, and even if this edition of the Raptors – an incomplete puzzle with young pieces of corners – was not a champion team, the experience they could gain from a competitive post-season team would it was a fair reward for a surprisingly good regular season and more data to draw on the future when ambitions are much higher.
The excitement and energy that came with playing their first playoff game at Scotiabank Arena in 1045 days was a big part of the Raptors’ game plan as they planned on how to return to the series. The Raptors needed help wherever they could find her.
The hope was that facing some inconvenient time in their hands, the nature of the group would reappear.
For the most part, this has happened. Nurse changed his approach with Embiid, bringing in a double later and trying to entice him to play more face-up play, and that worked in the first half – Embiid shot only five times in the first half. This allowed them to pay close attention to such as Tyris Maxi and Tobias Harris, the third and fourth starters of the Sixers, who combined 107 points in 57 shots in the first two games. They combined just 30 in Game 3, while James Harden, who the Raptors covered more with one defender, finished with just 19 points and 10 assists. He also fouled, committing his last four fouls in seven minutes in the fourth quarter.
Both adjustments paid off brilliantly, as the Raptors led 29-19 after the first and 56-54 at halftime.
But the Raptors were almost certain to be tested, and that came in the third quarter when the Sixers decided to put Embiid’s ball in dangerous places deep in the paint. There was a fierce dunk over Siakam and then another game to make Embiid move the ball, go to the edge, and Embiid felt enough to come out and also hit a three. His 12-point break at the start of the half pulled the Sixers to one with five minutes to go.
At this point, it was obvious that the players of Raptors lowered the tempo and became more defensively oriented. Embiid kept finding his way to the edge and the fault line, no matter what the Raptors did. The Sixers’ big player finished with 18 points and seven rebounds to the free throw line in the fourth, while Toronto headed to the fourth, trying to defend a one-point lead, 75-74.
They couldn’t do it, but not because of a lack of effort. It was a memory game, if not for all feelings.
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