April 14, 2022
The most haunting Sixers memory of the last half-decade, at least if you set aside No Dunk in Game 7 last season, is the title opportunity the Sixers watched Kawhi Leonard bounce in off of the rim three years ago this spring. That Philadelphia team had impressive top-end talent, a mean defensive identity, and challenged the eventual champions more than anyone else could.
As a matter of general principle, those Raptors have been one of Embiid's toughest challenges throughout his career, swarming him with bodies and limbs as he tries to operate out of the post. Their approach, he says now, is something that has helped mold him into the player he is today.
"It forces me to be a playmaker, and I think this year I did a really good job just beating guys and finding my teammates, making the right plays," Embiid said at practice Thursday. "Going into the series, I've played against them enough that I kind of know how they play. If that's what they want to do, I already know the adjustment, and I'm just going to trust my teammates."
That has been easier said than done for Embiid at times. No doubt, Embiid has been a better and more willing playmaker at times this season, assisting more Sixers players than ever while keeping his turnover numbers flat year-over-year. His playmaking was especially noticeable pre-Harden trade, when the offense ran through the big man constantly and the Sixers' center faced double-team after double-team that he was able to take advantage of.
Coverage of the big man has been anyone's guess from game to game since James Harden joined the lineup in late February, mostly because the Sixers' offense has changed with another high-usage player on the roster. It has been to Embiid's benefit, frankly. His scoring volume and efficiency are both up, and with teams put in a bind by Harden's playmaking, Embiid is getting to the free-throw line at an increased rate to boot.
(Fouling has come up quite a bit lately, and Doc Rivers offered his own retort to complaints about how his stars are officiated on Thursday: "I've heard a lot of complaining about Joel and James, and my counter to all of that is don't foul them and see if you can guard them.")
The good news for the Sixers is that despite Toronto's defensive strengths, they have some soft spots to attack. They're ever so slightly below average in opponent free throw rate, an area where the Sixers obviously excel, and at defending the three-point line, where Embiid's decisionmaking out of pressure will be massive in this series.
Toronto's roster has changed considerably in the years since that 2019 playoff battle — heck, the Sixers have a guy on their roster who switched sides in the interim — but Embiid says Nick Nurse's outfit hasn't altered a whole lot with how they approach defending him.
"The way they defend me has never changed," Embiid said. "They just play recklessly, sending three guys on me as soon as the ball is in the air. Which, that made me better, honestly, over the years. Just playing against them and watching them, they definitely made me a better playmaker. I enjoy playing them. But there's still a lot of ways I can attack them, it doesn't have to be iso. I can just get deep position on them, use my size and my weight to try to take advantage of them. I think I know what I have to do, I just got to execute."
Each matchup with the Raptors has been a slightly different story for Embiid this season. He was dominant in a December meeting in Toronto, shooting nearly 69 percent from the field while marching to the line 14 times en route to a Sixers victory. The other games were more of a mixed bag — a 6-for-20 night in a mid-March loss, a 30-point effort with five turnovers last week — and the Sixers ended up on the losing side of both of those last two games as a result.
The calculus for Philadelphia seems rather simple, viewed through that lens. In the three games where he suited up vs. Toronto, they won the game where he was effortlessly dominant. When they didn't get that Embiid, the Sixers ended up losing dogfights.
How Toronto sets up for these games will be an interesting test of how much faith Nurse has that their smaller, sleeker identity can hold up. Toronto's most common starting lineup of Van Vleet/Trent Jr./Barnes/Anunoby/Siakam has no true big within it, necessitating a committee to defend the big man on the block. Injuries have made it tough to tell what Nurse will choose to do in this specific matchup — Khem Birch has started each of the last two meetings to deal with Embiid, but Anunoby missed both of those games, leaving the door open for a more unorthodox lineup the Sixers (and the big fella) would have to cope with.
Saturday night's Game 1 will be our first opportunity to get a glance of a lot of things, but regardless of how Toronto sets up, Embiid's approach will rank high atop the priority list. Will trust for his teammates persist through tough stretches and missed jumpers, or will Embiid put his head down and attempt to power through, for better or for worse? For now, he's saying the right things.
"I'm not going into the series hoping to average 40. They're going to get the ball out of my hands, so it's all about me really not getting frustrated, keep trusting my teammates over and over, making the right plays. Doesn't matter if it's 10, 20 points or whatever, as long as we score, that's my mentality," Embiid said. "All the attention they're going to throw on me, I just got to make my teammates better."
It doesn't count, of course, until he shows that between the lines.
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