Three reasons the Sixers lost to Toronto

The Sixers saw their modest two-game winning streak snapped with Sunday’s 110-103 loss to Toronto in the Raptors’ temporary home, Tampa, Fla.

The Raptors, without injured guard Kyle Lowry, won their fourth in a row. Here are three reasons for the Sixers’ loss:

Toronto was double-teaming Joel Embiid almost every time he touched the ball. Embiid, for the most part, made good decisions and had just two turnovers in 36 minutes and 16 seconds.

What hurt the Sixers was poor shooting on open shots, especially from beyond the arc. Tobias Harris was 1-for-9 from beyond the arc, and Seth Curry was 2-for-7. Harris and Curry received open-shots opportunities, not only from Toronto’s double-teaming Embiid but also from Ben Simmons’ driving and drawing an extra defender.

For the game, the Sixers shot 11-for-37 from three-point range (29.7%).

The Sixers’ reserves were outscored by Toronto’s Chris Boucher, 17-16. In all, the Toronto reserves outscored the Sixers, 35-16.

Speaking of Boucher, he hurt the Sixers with his stand-still three-pointer, making 5 of 6. This should not have been a surprise because Boucher entered the game shooting 43% from beyond the arc.

Here is an example of the Sixers giving Boucher too much time. You’ll see that Shake Milton was late closing out on the play.

In looking at Boucher’s five threes, all five of them were on open looks, even the last one when Tobias Harris fought off a Pascal Siakam screen, but didn’t put his hands up, giving Boucher a direct look at the basket.

Sixers reserves shot 5-for-19 from the field, including 4-for-12 from three-point range. The Raptors reserves were 14-for-27, including 7-for-16 from three-point range. Surprisingly, the Raptors reserves didn’t attempt a free throw.

Both Boucher and Terence Davis had a game-high plus-32 rating.

Toronto outscored the Sixers, 27-19, in the fourth quarter and held the Sixers to 1-for-11 shooting from beyond the arc in the final period. Embiid was 1-for-7 in the fourth quarter.

The Raptors were able to double-team Embiid, but were quick enough to get over to defend shooters on three-point attempts. Toronto’s quickness on defense gave the Sixers trouble.

The other thing that was effective about Toronto in the fourth quarter was its transition defense. The Sixers failed to score a single fast-break point over the final 12 minutes.

In addition, Simmons, who was effective driving and drawing fouls, took and made one shot from the field in the fourth quarter and was 2-for-4 from the line. He stopped being aggressive in the final period.