Toronto Raptors: 3 takeaways from Game 2 loss vs. 76ers

2.  Adjustments and shooting woes

One of the takeaways I spoke of in the Game 1 of the series was the preparation and poise the Toronto Raptors showed at the beginning of that game. The start of Game 2 was a different story. The team struggled immensely to get the ball to fall through the bucket.

The team’s shooting was one of the biggest stories coming out of Monday night, only making 10-of-37 shots from beyond the arc. If we were to remove Leonard’s shots from the team (13-for-24), the team’s overall shooting percentage takes a major nose dive from 33-for-91 (36.3 percent) compared to 20-for-67 (29.8 percent). There aren’t many games a team will win when shooting that poorly.

So what was the cause?

After Game 1’s disappointing loss, the Sixers knew they had to try something defensively to keep the game closer. Defensively, they matched Embiid with Siakam to overpower him and take away his post-up game, put a bigger-bodied Simmons on Leonard to do the same, put Butler/Harris on Lowry/Marc Gasol and still hide J.J. Redick on the wing. These adjustments proved to be very effective, especially in the first half, they held Toronto to just 37 points.

As aggravating it was to watch for the Toronto’s fanbase, the second half did provide hope with Lowry finding his shot late, Siakam making great hustle plays on both ends of the floor and both Gasol and Green, who were held scoreless in the first half, hitting 3s of their own in the third quarter. The defensive schemes of Philadelphia didn’t change in the second half, so was it the Raptors who adjusted or was it their shots were finally falling?

One thing you can take away from their offense is they were getting good looks on most of their possessions; this was simply a poor shooting night. Rarely was a shot forced, or majorly contested. Philadelphia had only five blocks on the night, and Toronto’s defense wasn’t the issue for the loss as it held its opponent under 100 points for the sixth time in a row.

It’s not very likely that both Gasol and Green will shoot a combined 2-for-14 again. They are both above-average postseason producers and veteran professionals, and should bounce back in Game 3. Head coach Nick Nurse will have to do a better job preparing his team for the next game, and make sure they stay confident in their abilities. Toronto was a good shooting team and this game was more of an shooting woes outlier than the norm (no Powell-pun intended).

Each of the starters for Toronto had plus production on both ends of the court. Green had a game-high +14. The Raptors’ starters combine for +26 compared to the Sixers’ starters, who were +13. If that was the case, what could have been the problem?