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

[bertarapsfan]

Nick's already got 2 head coaching jobs in the big league from his coaching tree. Both d league guys. I mean chris finch was already established but didnt hear him for head coaching jobs this offseason. Surprised Griffin hasnt got a shot but, we offically have one of the best programs in the league of our guys are getting poached left and right

[slaw]

Poaching our coaching staff mid-season? That’s BS.

It is weird all around. Like they only fired Saunders knowing Finch was hired (Finch and Rosas go way back). Rosas wanted Finch this off-season but Minny owner didn’t want to fire Flip’s kid. But why now? Why not wait until at least the break?

For the Raps, they are currently without two assistants cause Scariolo is with the Spanish team. Not the end of the world but that’s two very experienced voices that are unavailable.

[RandomGuy]

It is weird all around. Like they only fired Saunders knowing Finch was hired (Finch and Rosas go way back). Rosas wanted Finch this off-season but Minny owner didn’t want to fire Flip’s kid. But why now? Why not wait until at least the break?

For the Raps, they are currently without two assistants cause Scariolo is with the Spanish team. Not the end of the world but that’s two very experienced voices that are unavailable.

Well that's why we got Lowry on the sidelines

[MixxAOR]

It is weird all around. Like they only fired Saunders knowing Finch was hired (Finch and Rosas go way back). Rosas wanted Finch this off-season but Minny owner didn’t want to fire Flip’s kid. But why now? Why not wait until at least the break?

For the Raps, they are currently without two assistants cause Scariolo is with the Spanish team. Not the end of the world but that’s two very experienced voices that are unavailable.

I guess they are getting desperate and they don't have their pick.

[GOLDBLUM]

[Kagemusha]

What kind of anomaly is this?
they're supposed to be tanking eh?

[Dvdvideo]

Looking foreward to Tuesdays game, would something if they beat them again......
Raps from 19th in power rankings to 12th? Maybe.......

[planetmars]

Awesome win. Unexpected, and awesome. Defense again was crazy good. Long stretches where Philly couldn't get anything going. Raptors still struggled scoring, especially in the 3rd but they prevailed. Boucher especially got us this game for us.. scored 5 threes and a critical block on Embiid late in the game. Baynes played some solid defense, and help fix a lot of the issues we had in the first.

Siakam continued to play within himself despite being covered by Simmons. The 8 assists were really great. Fred got going.. hit 4 threes in the first quarter. Was expecting him to have one of those nights again. Cooled off, but still ended up scoring 23. Norm and OG were not so good. Norm was pretty bad. First really bad game from him since being a starter. Was a team low -26 in a 7 point win. That's ugly. Too many turnovers as well. Danny Green did a great job on him, but he could was playing too hard like he wanted to prove something. OG continues to struggle from 3. His defense could have been a bit better at times, but he had some tough match ups. Some nice dunks / layups in the paint though.

Our bench was great. Terrence Davis has turned around a lot since his case got thrown out. +32 off the bench. Essentially helped erase Norm's awful play. That's the kid we saw last year. Hope he keeps playing solid like that. Bembry continues to be a good surprise.

4-1 (should have been 5-0 if Siakam didn't blow that layup against Minny) is rock solid against the gauntlet schedule we had. Can make it 5-1, but even 4-2 is pretty good. Finally took over Boston. Tied with Indiana and have a better point differential than Philly too now. Pretty awesome considering our early terrible start.

This team just finds a way to win without our groat.

[golden]

Sooooo.... we get Minny’s 1st rounder?

....

Unprotected?

lol. Yeah, we need to sign all of our top assistants to long-term deals and request compensation when they get poached.

[slaw]

Siakam continued to play within himself despite being covered by Simmons. The 8 assists were really great. Fred got going.. hit 4 threes in the first quarter. Was expecting him to have one of those nights again. Cooled off, but still ended up scoring 23. Norm and OG were not so good. Norm was pretty bad. First really bad game from him since being a starter. Was a team low -26 in a 7 point win. That's ugly. Too many turnovers as well. Danny Green did a great job on him, but he could was playing too hard like he wanted to prove something. OG continues to struggle from 3. His defense could have been a bit better at times, but he had some tough match ups. Some nice dunks / layups in the paint though.

Sixers were focused on stopping Powell and he typically doesn't get that kind of attention, which is usually reserved for Pascal, Kyle and Fred. It threw him off for sure. They'll be ready for it next game but it was a double-edged sword for Philly cause it took the attention of Pascal who had a great game.

Also, Philly can be very good defensively when they want but what I liked was that the Raps kept prodding and probing and eventually exposed the Sixers rotations and weaknesses, especially the unwillingness of their bigs to leave the paint (e.g. Dwight Howard might want to read the scouting reporting on Boucher at some point).

On the flip side, Simmons was terrific and I thought Embiid was good in the first half but the Raps really wore him down over 48 and he reverted to bad habits by the end of the game. If I'm a Sixers fan I'm watching that game knowing that is what is coming in the playoffs and Embiid still doesn't trust his supporting cast to make shots.... cause they don't make shots!

Harris is such a matchup guy. He can look so good at the PF spot where he has a quickness advantage but against the Raptors he doesn't get those favourable pairings and he looks really mediocre. It was really noticeable to me last night where you can see Pascal has adjusted to being guarded by smaller, quicker players but Harris can't.

[inthepaint]

.. Dwight Howard might want to read the scouting reporting on Boucher at some point..

[G__Deane]

After doing the same to the Bucks, can this team really beat the Sixers back to back before moving on to winnable games against the Heats, Rockets, Bulls, Pistons and Celtics?

Let's go Raptors!

If the team wants him, at the very least they're showing Drummond that this would be a good team to land on.

[S.R.]

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.

[GOLDBLUM]

[G__Deane]

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