April 29, 2019
TORONTO — Preserving your identity against a great opponent may be the toughest challenge a team faces in a playoff series. A novice can figure out what a team's Plan A is just from knowing who the best player is on each team, and we saw that play out quite clearly in Game 1 of Sixers-Raptors. Joel Embiid could not get up to his usual tricks, and Kawhi Leonard made a mockery of Philadelphia's attempts to contain him.
The responsibility is on Philadelphia to reverse the outcome of both of those matchups in Game 2. That's easier said than done, of course — the Raptors' plan against Embiid is in many ways months in the making, following their acquisition of Marc Gasol at the deadline. Toronto did not have as far to go this season as the Sixers did, and they had an entire year to absorb Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green into the framework of a two-way juggernaut, which has made them a more dangerous team than ever before.
But no one, this writer included, wants to hear the excuses from Philadelphia's end. There would be no shame in losing a series to these Raptors, who have a leg up on Philly in several key ways. But with the talent they have on hand, everyone should expect a proper response on Monday night.
What does that look like?
Almost across the board, the Sixers lamented their effort against Leonard on Saturday night. When a guy drops 40+ on your head, that's somewhat natural, but the stakes are different in a playoff series and players respond with a little more fire when they feel you're dropping meaningful games because of a gameplan.
Over the last few days, the Sixers have invoked the name of Giannis Antetokounmpo — who has had some monster performances against the Sixers himself — and claimed they need to show Leonard more of a crowd when he begins his attack. They have also had to listen to Nick Nurse describe Toronto's gameplan against Philadelphia, which has featured some of the same characteristics the Sixers' players seem to be after.
"We've got something we like to do prior to a guy like Embiid getting the ball," Nurse said over the weekend. "Marc does those well, and so do the other guys. There's a lot of little things that are going on out there before Embiid gets it. And then after he gets it, we try to provide a little less space maybe than he would like to have...the team defense is still kind of what it's all about."
Though the numbers were not very good when anyone aside from Ben Simmons guarded Leonard, the stats mislead you a little bit in this instance. It's not as though Saturday night was a 48-minute reel of Leonard blowing by Sixers defenders for open layups, or killing them with well-timed cuts. He isolated and killed the Sixers from the mid-range, knocking down contested midrange jumper after contested midrange jumper.
(When Leonard did get to the rim Saturday, it was most often because there were silly gambles from guys like Jimmy Butler, not because of a schematic failure.)
So what is the answer to a problem when a guy can be so dominant making the shots you'd want someone to take? Forcing the ball out of his hands. It will pain the Sixers to do so at the cost of giving space to Toronto's shooters, but if you're going to pick a poison, it should not be, "Allowing the best player in the series to go one-on-one whenever he wants."
Leonard is a capable playmaker, but not necessarily a great one. Forcing him to be a passer, or at least to get him where you wanted him on the floor, is where the Sixers have to start. Even some token shows on pick-and-rolls can help guide Leonard toward space the Sixers want to send him to, especially on sets where perimeter players are the screeners, allowing Embiid to hang back in case of disaster.
One smaller piece of information to keep in mind in the non-Leonard department: Pascal Siakam is a tremendous player, but the Sixers should be selling out big time to prevent the corner three. He was very good from both the left (43.8 percent) and right (39.1 percent) corners in the regular season, but pretty bad (27 percent) above the break.
Butler absolutely can't afford to do this in Game 2, in other words:
Personnel is the other half of solving Leonard, and we did see the Sixers make an adjustment here as the game wore on Saturday night. Ben Simmons didn't spend a lot of time on Kyle Lowry after checking him early, and he admitted at Sunday's practice that he expected to guard Leonard more in Game 2. That's a place to start.
It's Simmons' workload and the general rotation for Philadelphia that might need to be inspected heading into Game 2. Simmons has been Philadelphia's iron man for most of the last two seasons, rarely missing games and playing heavy minutes in many of them without ever batting an eye. But he only ended up playing 34 minutes for the Sixers in Game 1, four less than each of Butler and Harris.
It is hard to pull a thread in a basketball rotation and not unravel the whole thing. There is merit to the idea of having Simmons shadow Leonard's minutes to preserve your best possible matchup on him at all times. Can you do that without breaking up the smaller combinations (Embiid/Simmons, Butler/Harris) that have worked for Philly over the last month, and with a bench behind those players short on competence and flexibility?
If you're not going to have Simmons shadow Leonard the entire game, at the very least Brown needs to try some different lineup configurations that take advantage of his versatility and increase the team's athleticism. We saw a brief glimpse of small-ball in the fourth quarter of Game 1, and there were some signs of life from the group on defense.
Redick is still the weak link in the chain, but Philadelphia's ability to switch and rotate with pace elsewhere made it difficult for the Raptors to get up looks without a strong contest. Compare a possession like this to most of those when Boban Marjanovic was on the floor, and it doesn't even look like they're playing the same sport.
Whether they ask Simmons to be Hercules or put some faith in Jonah Bolden, the Sixers simply can't afford to put themselves at an athleticism disadvantage against Toronto. They will bury you if you let them.
Philadelphia's centerpiece missed Monday's shootaround with what the team is calling gastroenteritis, though he remains probable for Monday night's game. Regardless of the shape he's in, the Sixers need Embiid to be at his sharpest to have a chance against Toronto.
A lot was made of the job Gasol did against the big man on Saturday night, and he deserves plenty of credit for Embiid being out of sorts for another meeting between the two. That said, the big man has to help himself and play stronger as most of us know he can, because he didn't exactly brutalize the smaller Serge Ibaka, either.
When Embiid has had to answer questions in the past about why a guy like Al Horford has given him problems, Embiid often deflects by saying it's more about his own mistakes than anything special an opponent does. The tape from Saturday would support that to a degree. He did not get the benefit of the whistle against Toronto, but there were times where he played for whistles instead of going up strong. Embiid is already falling forward on the follow on this play before any contact is made by a Toronto player, for example:
And if Toronto is going to show a crowd to Embiid in the paint, it is his responsibility to find teammates that are open as a consequence of that strategy. He is not the best passer on the move, but if Toronto's entire defense is converging on him the paint and Tobias Harris is wide open in the weakside corner, he has to find him.
Game 1 was a shock to the system for Embiid and the rest of his teammates after playing a Nets team that didn't challenge them defensively for five straight games. No one is stripping his superstar status because of a poor game on the road to open a series.
But it is on him to take what the game gives him and make the most of it. If that means he has to rack up double-digit assists and become a playmaker, it is on him as the franchise player to recognize it. If it means taking advantage of any time Gasol is not on the floor, so be it. It is often enough to be an overwhelming physical presence in the regular season, but the playoffs test your mental fortitude, too.
Better performances are within him, and it's time to prove it.
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