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The Sixers need more out of Tobias Harris if they hope to beat the Raptors | David Murphy

It makes plenty of sense to look to Embiid and Simmons first and foremost after a loss like Game 4. But they aren't the only reason the series is now tied going back to Toronto.

Tobias Harris speaks to the media ahead of a practice last week.
Tobias Harris speaks to the media ahead of a practice last week.Read moreTIM TAI / Staff Photographer

One of the local radio stations posted a poll on social media Monday that asked respondents to pick whether Joel Embiid or Ben Simmons was most to blame for the Sixers’ 101-96 loss to the Raptors in Game 4. It was a question that, on its surface, seemed both quintessentially Philly and quintessentially talk radio: overly reactive, errantly reductive, and an inquisition in search of a creed to defend.

Not only did there need to be an individual party who was singularly responsible for the Sixers’ defeat — instead of, say, a confluence of factors up to and including the Hall of Fame performance of the Raptors’ future Hall of Famer — the culprit needed to be one of the two young cornerstones who will serve as the foundation of the team’s future.

While it would be easy to dismiss this sort of binary thinking as an inevitable byproduct of the medium and/or audience, there is a certain degree of logic at its foundation. Given the wattage of the spotlight that has shown on Embiid and Simmons since they both were drafted, and their ready acceptance thereof, as well as the fact that they have spent the bulk of their careers as the two players with the ball most often in their hands, it makes plenty of sense to look to them first and foremost after a loss like the one that the Sixers suffered in Game 4.

The Sixers aren’t going to win a lot of games when Embiid attempts only seven shots, and they aren’t going to win many when Simmons scores only 10 points. And seeing that both of those things happened against the Raptors on Sunday afternoon, neither for the first time this series, it would make sense to conclude that there is no conceivable way for the Sixers to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals if their two young stars continue playing as they do.

Except, there is a conceivable way. In fact, if Tobias Harris had hit just 31 percent of the three-pointers he attempted in Game 4, the Sixers would be one win away from a showdown with the Bucks or the Celtics for the right to represent the East in the NBA Finals. And that’s where the narrative surrounding Embiid and Simmons begins to break down.

There’s no doubt the Sixers would benefit from the version of Simmons that we have occasionally seen, the one where he is at his offensive peak. There was a three-on-one break in Sunday’s loss when he got a little too cute and made an extra pass to Harris instead of attacking the rim. If he goes to the hole there instead of deferring, there’s a decent chance the Sixers come away with two points instead of zero. In the first half, he was one of the many Sixers who struggled to convert quality looks inside the paint.

Likewise, the Sixers would have been runaway victors in Game 4 if they’d had the version of Embiid who dominated the Raptors up and down the court in Game 3. Whatever the reason for his absence, be it the flu or a reversion to his historic Marc Gasol struggles, or some combination of the two, the Sixers are clearly the best version of themselves when they are working off a steady dose of Embiid in the post. As Jimmy Butler said in the wake of the loss, your teammates won’t hate you any less if you go 2-for-7 versus 2-for-20.

Yet that sort of facetiousness does serve to obscure the very real fact that, given the way Butler has picked up their slack on the offensive end, both Embiid and Simmons have played well enough this series for the Sixers to win. Apart from Gasol and influenza, another big reason for Embiid’s re-disappearance in Game 4 was the Raptors’ apparent determination that he would not beat them. There were multiple occasions when Embiid got the ball down low and was swarmed by two or three Raptors. Expecting him to force up a shot in those sorts of circumstances is just as destructive as him not shooting at all.

Same goes for Simmons, who you’d much rather see embracing his current off-ball role in the shadow of Butler than forcing up mid-range clunkers for the sheer sake of volume.

There’s a reason why the Sixers went out and traded for Butler and Harris this season. As physically gifted as Embiid and Simmons are, they both have a variety of limitations that only become more pronounced come the postseason. First and foremost, they are in their second and third years in the league, and if they were to somehow lead the Sixers to the Finals this season, it would border on unprecedented. Durant/Westbrook, Curry/Thompson, James/Irving -- none of them accomplished what a lot of people are expecting out of Simmons and Embiid.

Butler and Harris were brought here to fill in those gaps. Butler has more than done his part thus far. What the Sixers really need is for Harris to start knocking down some of the open looks he keeps getting. In the last three games of the series, he is just 5-for-23 from three-point range. In the Sixers’ six wins this postseason, he is 13-for-28 from long distance. In their three losses, he is 4-for-19.

Embiid or Simmons?

Perhaps the answer is neither.