2022 Playoffs Round 1, Game 5: Raptors @ 76ers, Mon April 25, 8:00pm EST, SN

[G__Deane]

Birch, for all the legitimate complaining... gave some great minutes in the first Q, and really helped to get us off on the right foot, absorbed 2 early fouls and FOUR total fouls in relatively short minutes... guaranteed some of those land on Precious who was MAGNIFICENT and ready late. If Precious gets into foul trouble -- I fear for our survival. If we can keep him available and ready... I'm getting more and more confident.

Birch was real bad off the top of the third but we weathered it and it put us in a place to succeed.

Before the game:

The pattern has been to give a Raptor 2 soft touch fouls in the first few minutes to set the tone. It's sad when the bball talking heads are saying "you know you're not going to get a fair whistle and you have to play through it"

Freddy out for the series.
Barnes in at PG.

Do you start Khem, Precious or Thad?
I'd prefer Precious but think the refs are going to give out two quick bull*hit fouls to a Raptor so might as well make it Khem or even Thad. If Birch, make those fouls hard fouls. Then sub in Precious and let him go to work.

Game day, let's go!

[Kagemusha]

Sorry but losing Fred actually works for us better.

[A.I]

Sorry but losing Fred actually works for us better.

In this case it does. Not because he isn't a good player, because he has been injured for a while now.

[TrueTorontoFan]

Man what a game! Raptors were just dialed in defensively. Pascal was awesome. Precious had a game. Scottie is so helpful to Pascal when he's healthy and available. OG missed a lot of shots, but hit the ones that mattered. He also had some really bad turnovers, but overall was super solid.

Khem didn't lose his minutes which is ideal.. but he also helped with the 4 fouls. Second half wasn't too kind to him, but he was really good in the opening quarter.

Joel looked so gassed and we just kept blowing by him. Man we have them right where we want them.

Almost there!

just gotta keep it up

[KeonClark]

I'm sure crying to the media will be the first approach on the podium in a few minutes

And right on cue, joel embiid throws another point guard under the bus. I love this game.

Joel Embiid on James Harden: “He just needs to be aggressive, he needs to be himself, that’s not really my job. That’s probably on coach to talk to him.”

https://streamable.com/q3u4fl

[The Great One]

Lol people have such short memories. FVV carried the Raptors in the 1st half of the season. He was a legitimate all star. But he hasn't been the same since the break. Why? because he has a knee injury. Now all of a sudden they're a better team without him? lol. I don't want to hear it. That's just flat out dumb.

[A.I]

And right on cue, joel embiid throws another point guard under the bus. I love this game.



https://streamable.com/q3u4fl

Harden being aggressive helps the Raptors. He isn't a good finisher anymore. Be aggressive, attack the rim and blow some layups.

[bertarapsfan]

And right on cue, joel embiid throws another point guard under the bus. I love this game.



https://streamable.com/q3u4fl

Right on brand. It's never Joel's fault, always someone else

[Dvdvideo]

Makes such a difference not getting jobbed by the refs...

Wonder how much Scottie winning the NBA ROTY helps us to get a fair whistle.

I thought about this more than once this game, it certainly doesn't hurt I bet.

[Kagemusha]

Lol people have such short memories. FVV carried the Raptors in the 1st half of the season. He was a legitimate all star. But he hasn't been the same since the break. Why? because he has a knee injury. Now all of a sudden they're a better team without him? lol. I don't want to hear it. That's just flat out dumb.

I was only taking of this series.
Maxey had been taking advantage of Fred because of his injury.
This thread is about playoffs round 1, right?

[Dvdvideo]

I'm with Dan on Birch too, he definately has his weaknesses but he much better than some here make him out to be. He served his purpose tonight.

Unrelated, I can't help but to bring up just how lame the Philly fans were today. They completely abandoned thier team. Pathetic.

[Primer]

They (the team) stopped using him as the primary screener and just sat him in the corner, so Embiid just ignored him and sat in the paint. Need to use Embiid's guy in all your actions to tire him out and not let him sit at the rim. With Khem the only way to do that is having him set screens on ball.

Yeah, Khem was wide open on the perimeter, got the ball and missed 2 looks in a row, Philly will gladly give him that shot. If Khem is in there we can't be setting him up on offense to take shots.

[Jclaw]

Couldn't watched the game live but just watched the Philly feed. I can't tell you how many times the Philly announcers called our guys "unskilled". Lots of good observations made so far. The natural Raptors fan in me worries that we're no longer the underdog but enjoy this thought. After a few games of watching Pascal hunt down Niang on every offensive possession, this was the game where Precious hunted down Embiid.

[Jclaw]

LE Magnifique!! Chris and thad have a fun chemistry going last couple games

I'm trying to avoid the dog analogy but I've been workshopping here and there has to be some sort of Turner and Hooch connection for Thaddeus and Bouch. Work in progress.

[grindhouse]

I have been watching basketball since Magic, Bird, Isiah and this great generation. Scottie Barnes reminds me alot of Pippen, but if you compare Pippen to Barnes in their first year, Barnes is really better than him. The guy is not playing as a rookie.

taller more athletic smarter anthony mason/jamal mashburn