Sixers overcome slow start, Joel Embiid’s injury scare in 123-112 win over Raptors
Embiid briefly left the game in the first quarter after knocking knees with Toronto's Ja’Kobe Walter, but returned and scored 20 points. The Sixers are now 3-0 without LeBron James in the lineup.
So far this season, the 76ers haven’t made LeBron James regret the days he takes off to rest.
The Sixers beat the Raptors 123-112 to move to 3-0 on the season when James rests to manage a lower back/sciatica condition.
This was the first game James sat that wasn’t part of a back-to-back set of games, giving him four days rest before the Sixers play again Sunday. But the Sixers handled a shorthanded Raptors team, who was without Kawhi Leonard and Scottie Barnes, without him.
» READ MORE: Joel Embiid takes blame for Sixers’ sluggish offense and acknowledges his shooting struggles
It was rocky at first; the Sixers overcame a 17-point first quarter deficit. But the remaining three quarters featured sound basketball on both ends.
Tyrese Maxey led the Sixers with 27 points while Joel Embiid survived an early injury scare with 20 points. Jaylen Brown added 18 while RJ Barrett had 31 for the Raptors.
Embiid injury scare part of first half swings
The Sixers had a nervous start to the game, as Embiid went down in pain after Toronto’s Ja’Kobe Walter knocked knees with him on a screen. Embiid left for the locker room for a few minutes but was back on the floor before the first quarter was over. There was some nervous energy in the building with Embiid away from the floor, and it felt like an exhale among the crowd when he checked back into the game.
But whether he was on or off the floor didn’t make much of a difference as the Sixers fell behind 33-16. The defense was a step slow and the offense couldn’t generate easy shots against a Toronto team down two good defenders in Leonard and Barnes while playing on a back-to-back. The Raptors shot 12-for-24 in the first quarter and had 11 fastbreak points, a sign they had more energy than the languid Sixers.
But the Sixers woke up from there after the crowd booed them following a Nick Nurse timeout.
The Sixers held the Raptors to no points over a stretch of 4 minutes, 24 seconds from the end of the first to the beginning of the second quarter.
After starting the game 1-for-8 from three-point range, the Sixers hit four of their next five to erase all of that 17-point deficit in a 19-1 run. The teams finished the first half tied at 60, with Maxey scoring 14 while Brown had 12.
After he came back in, Embiid looked as if he hadn’t suffered an injury scare. He even had two dunks and looked as quick as he did the first week of the season, even as he came into the game questionable because of right foot plantar fascia management.
» READ MORE: Jabari Walker keeping Sixers’ backup center group afloat and making ‘impactful plays’ for star-studded roster
Bench production
Scoring from the bench tends to vacillate on most teams, and that has been true of the Sixers so far. But Thursday was a night when the bench was a real strength.
Nurse went eight deep in the rotation with Dean Wade getting the start for James and Jabari Walker, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Anfernee Simons coming off the bench.
Simons led that unit with 17 points on 5-for-6 shooting from three-point range. That marked two straight games scoring in double figures for Simons after not scoring more than six in his previous four.
Caldwell-Pope has been solid on both ends of the floor so far this season and he pitched in 11 points on offense while Walker was again solid in backup center minutes with nine points, eight rebounds.
Both Simons and Caldwell-Pope had threes in the final five minutes that put distance on the scoreboard between the Sixers and Raptors late in the game.
Edgecombe’s efficient night
This season has been an adjustment up and down the Sixers starting lineup, and that includes second-year guard VJ Edgecombe, who said he was fine doing whatever the team needed him to do in order to win. On Thursday, that included doing a little bit of everything with James out.
Edgecombe filled up the stat sheet in a big way: 15 points on 7-for-12 shooting, eight assists, eight rebounds and three steals.
Whenever James is out of the lineup, the Sixers miss his ability to connect the offense with his playmaking and passing. As Edgecombe showed, he is capable of helping fill in that gap.
