Game #31 Philadelphia 76ers vs Toronto Raptors Sunday February 21, 7:00 p.m. ET

[S.R.]

The increased number of steals has been noticeable. FVV rips them off bigger dudes regularly

His hand eye coordination + speed on those steals and deflections are amazing. Those are fouls for most guys reaching in like that. He just gets the ball like he's Flash and everyone else is slow mo.

If he had been a top 10 pick and played in LA but everything else about him was the same, he'd be in the ASG and getting DPOY chatter right now. But a slow start for Toronto and undrafted, he's right off the radar.

[DogeLover1234]

That game was a perfect example of why the league has gone small + is raining 3's. Philly was big and the Raptors had no one-on-one answer for Embiid or Simmons with a head of steam. Philly dominated in the paint and at the FT line. And they lost. Throw smart doubles & help at the big & rain 3's on their heads. That 15-0 1st half run with 5 consecutive 3PM, and a similar run in the 2nd half, were so much fun. Happens so fast. You need a lot of minutes, a lot of possessions, and a lot of time to get those points back on FT's and paint buckets, but they come in a flood when transition 3's start dropping.

Yes and no. Small ball can be ruthlessly effective but its such a high degree of difficulty most teams cant make it work. Few teams have the personell and even fewer have the coaching. No team is more efficient from three than around the rim in general, as such if you cant control the paint youre done. Its hard enough with legit bigs, to sustain it when you go small is near impossible. Thats why I dont think more than a couple teams will really commit to small ball as more than a change of pace, matchup tool.

That being said, we’ve now had a game where we shutdown Embiid, Doncic, Giannis, etc. - even with our defensive limitations our highs have been insane.

[A.I]

Yes and no. Small ball can be ruthlessly effective but its such a high degree of difficulty most teams cant make it work. Few teams have the personell and even fewer have the coaching. No team is more efficient from three than around the rim in general, as such if you cant control the paint youre done. Its hard enough with legit bigs, to sustain it when you go small is near impossible. Thats why I dont think more than a couple teams will really commit to small ball as more than a change of pace, matchup tool.

That being said, we’ve now had a game where we shutdown Embiid, Doncic, Giannis, etc. - even with our defensive limitations our highs have been insane.

Shutting down stars has been Nurse's gameplan since he became a head coach. Contain the stars, let the "others" score. Vucevic, Embiid and Giannis were all contained in the Playoffs in 2019, Embiid had 0 points in a game last season. I recall games against Harden and Lillard where they didn't play to their season averages last season as well.

It works fine at its best, but there are those games where the other guys get hot like the Celtics game.