The 76ers faced off with the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday evening with all the starters returning to the lineup. I wasn’t expecting Joel Embiid to play again before the playoffs, but it looked like they wanted to get another game to help bring cohesion to the starting unit.

The game started with Tobias Harris being the focal point of the offense. The Sixers went to Embiid a handful of times in the post against Marc Gasol, but Joel had trouble with the match up. Two of the early post ups, JoJo was fouled by Gasol, but the refs’ whistles were silent. One of those uncalled fouls was a hard slap on Embiid’s wrist that he seemed to favor the rest of the quarter.  With Tobias leading the way and the Sixers out hustling the Raptors, they led by as much as 15 points in the first period. The team ended the first quarter leading 32-25.

Early in the second period the Raptors started cutting more into the lead, but Al Horford was able to settle the team down and keep the lead intacted. Vanfleet and Lowry were able to keep their team within striking distance with Pascal Siakam struggling. The Sixers also tried their hardest to keep the “away” team in the game by committing 11 first half turnovers. Tobias continued his first half dominance going for 17 first half points pacing the Sixers to a 62-55 lead. Kyle Lowry managed to score 18 points in the second quarter alone, brining his first half total to 19.

As the second half began, I noticed that Mike Scott started in the place of Joel Embiid. As the Raptors eventually went on an  8-0 run to take the lead 63-62, we learned Embiid would not return to the game with a wrist injury. The Sixers say its precautionary, but I know every Philadelphia fan is holding their breath as usual. Siakam started to heat up in third, getting buckets in transition and putbacks. The play of Raptors C Chris Boucher ignited the team and they fed off his energy. He hit timely 3-pointers from double teams on Siakam and blocked everything in sight. Midway through the quarter, Tobias Harris and Al Horford exited the ball game and we didn’t see them for the rest of the evening. The Raptors outscored the Sixers 35-26 in the third to lead 90-88.

The fourth quarter began with almost all bench players in for each team. Mike Scott and Furkan Korkmaz lead the Sixers in the fourth with timely threes and free throws. On more than one occasion, Korkmaz was able to create contact to get foul beyond the 3-point line. As the quarter progressed the reserves traded buckets until eventually the Raptors hit the knockout punch to win 125-121.

Quick Observations from the game:

• Tobias Harris was very aggressive in the first half. He was getting to the rim and finishing despite contact from the defense. That is the Tobias the team needs to see if they are going to have any success in the playoffs.
• Kyle Lowry has innate ability to drawl contact from players to get the refs to blow the whistle. It is unreal! It’s very annoying from the opponent’s perspective but if he was on the Sixers, I would probably love it.
• Norvelle “I foul everyone” Pelle played a ton of second half mins for the Sixers tonight with the team sitting its regulars. He had a few bad fouls in the fourth that I believed swayed the game in the Raptors’ favor.
• In most games, Joel Embiid has a bad game when being guarded by Marc Gasol. At this point there has to be something mental about facing the former Defensive Player of the year.
• The 20^th overall pick (formerly OKC’s pick), in this year’s NBA draft conveys to the Sixers due to their loss and Oklahoma City win vs. the Miami Heat. The Sixers got this pick from the Orlando Magic when they traded Markelle Fultz, but the Thunder’s record had to be within the top 10 in the league or it would turn into two second round picks. Former Sixer Mike Muscala hit a game winning 3-pointer to win the game for the Thunder and send the first- round pick to Philly. At least something positive came out of tonight’s game.