Bruce Arthur: Short-handed Raptors put up a fight, but can’t hold back 76ers’ stars - Toronto Star

Just like they did on Wednesday, Toronto roared out to a big lead early, but couldn't find answers for Tyrese Maxey and the Philadelphia 76ers.

Philadelphia 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey, centre, goes up for a shot against, from right, Ja’kobe Walter, Collin Murray-Boyles and Jamison Battle on Thursday night. Maxey finished with 27 points on an efficient 13 shots.

Bruce Arthur is a columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @bruce_arthur.

PHILADELPHIA—The dog days aren’t supposed to arrive in November, but the Toronto Raptors are in survival mode, nonetheless. Half the NBA seems like it’s sick or hurt, but without Scottie Barnes (adductor) and Kawhi Leonard (mystery left knee swelling), and with a defence that is no longer a nightly menace, these are slogging times.

There aren’t a lot of teams that are built to win without their two best players, and Barnes and Leonard are Toronto’s best two offensive and defensive players. But Thursday night’s 123-112 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on the second night of a back-to-back was Toronto’s fourth loss in five games, and sixth in eight. The gladiatorial Philly crowd had a pretty fun night.

“I mean, not enough right now,” said point guard Immanuel Quickley, who had 26 points on 16 shots, six assists, four rebounds and no turnovers in 28 minutes. “We need more. It’s not just on one person. It’s on our whole team. Even when Scottie and Kawhi come back, we got to do it as a team. We can’t win as individuals. It’s not an individual sport. It’s not swimming, not boxing. So you need everybody.”

Right now, there is not enough of everybody. Against Boston Wednesday in Toronto, the Raptors had built a 22-point lead and then devolved from ball-sharing to inefficient isolation, primarily from R.J. Barrett and Quickley, and lost. In Philly, with 41-year-old LeBron James out for injury management, they started hot again. The ball moved, and threes dropped. Quickley vivisected Joel Embiid in early pick-and-rolls with Jakob Poeltl; Barrett took good shots and made them; Ja’Kobe Walter and Collin Murray-Boyles both played sticky-rice defence, and Walter ran into Embiid’s knee, sending the giant Cameroonian to the locker room for a bit. The lead hit 17.

But the Sixers are coached by former Raptors coach Nick Nurse, who ideally wouldn’t play his ninth guy unless he had lost a bet, and Philly just kept coming. Philly uncorked a 19-1 run bridging the first and second quarters, but the Raptors hung around. Late in the half they had a lineup of Jamal Shead, Alijah Martin, Jamison Battle, Kyle Anderson and Poeltl against Philly’s starters, and you wondered who would score. But they hung in, possession by possession, until Quickley and Barrett could return. It was not the RJ-and-IQ isolation show, either, which was an improvement over Wednesday. At halftime, it was tied at 60.

But Philly closed the third quarter on an 11-2 run, and never lost the lead in the fourth. Tyrese Maxey is a human Maserati, and finished with 27 on 13 shots; five other Sixers scored in double figures. Even with an exceptional Barrett game (a season-high 31 points, 13-of-20 shooting, four threes, 14 rebounds, five assists) and extremely effective Quickley minutes, Toronto could not guard enough of Philly’s stars, and gave up 24 points on their 12 turnovers. Right now this team does not have quite enough dependable elements to weather a good team on a decent night.

“It’s been tough,” said Barrett. “We just got to figure it out. I think we’re starting the games off better, we’re putting ourselves in a good position. We’re actually getting out to big leads. We just have to sustain those, and figure out how to win.”

“I feel like how we ended the year last year, we got to get we got to find a way to get back to what we were doing then, which is which is guarding, getting stops when we needed them, and getting a big bucket when we needed it. You know, just stepping up to the plate,” said Shead. “I think last year we made the star players on every other team work really hard for what they got.

“I think we’re giving them a lot of easy layups, just a lot of blown coverages that we can easily, easily overcome and we can easily fix. We just got to start talking to each other a little more. We got to come together a little more.”

It’s all how you look at it, maybe: glass half-full, glass shattering-on-the-floor, whichever. There are some tough Eastern games coming, and a Denver-Texas-OKC trip after that. Head coach Darko Rajakovic, for his part, was enthusiastic about the effort.

“I’m really very satisfied with the effort that our team put together,” Rajakovic said. “A lot of young guys getting a lot of opportunities, lot of minutes playing against elite players out there. I think this was a really good game for us ... I think it’s very important, especially when you put it in perspective when key players come back, when Scottie and Kawhi are back.

“I think in all of those games we are so, so close. I think all of this is going to make us just better and stronger.”

Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request.

There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again.

You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply.

Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events. More details

Bruce Arthur is a columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @bruce_arthur.