PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers had a chance to close out the Toronto Raptors at home on Monday in Game 5 and advance to the second round. But for the second straight game, the Sixers were unable to do so. They fell to the Raptors, 103-88.
The Sixers as a whole were not very good on the offensive end. They shot 38.3% from the floor and committed 16 turnovers, which led to 20 Raptors points.
With Joel Embiid ailing with a thumb issue, the Sixers needed more out of James Harden. He was not able to deliver. He took 11 shots and scored 15 points in what was expected to be a big performance for him in a really important situation.
When asked if it was something the Raptors did to bother him, he said: “I took 11 shots. No.”
Embiid was asked about Harden and his lack of shots and the big fella just wanted to offer some encouragement.
“I’ve been saying all season since he got here, he just needs to be aggressive and he needs to be himself,” said Embiid. “That’s not really my job. That’s probably on coach to talk to him and tell him to take more shots especially if they’re gonna guard me the way they’ve been guarding, but that’s really not my job.”
With the way Toronto doubles Embiid, the Sixers need to get aggressive around him and continue to attack the basket and find the open spots. It wasn’t just Harden, it was the entire team.
“We all need to be better,” Embiid added. “Offensively, we missed a bunch of wide-open shots and, at times, I just felt like we just invited when I was getting doubled, we were not aggressive attacking the ball. We just moved around the ball on the perimeter and that gave them time to recover and that’s why we were not able to get anything out of it. If that’s what they’re gonna keep doing, we gotta take advantage of it.”
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