Leonard leads charge as Toronto fights back in Philly to even series
Through three quarters on Sunday afternoon, the Toronto Raptors had done a lot of things right, and some much less so. Kawhi Leonard was a force, Kyle Lowry had finally made some buckets, and the whole team had been effective defensively.
Some awful Toronto shooting had conspired to keep the Philadelphia 76ers in the game, but with the final frame about to begin, the score was tied at 75-75.
This was it. This was a veteran team that was talking about the importance of peaking in the playoffs way back in training camp, a team with experienced veterans who had been through these kinds of battles before. A team that had mortgaged a good chunk of its identity so that it could perform better in the moments where it had failed before. Moments like these.
And then, the Raptors rose to the occasion. After two days in which the fan base alternated between anguish and dread, these Raptors reminded everyone why they have dared to hope that this time might be different.
The play that will be immediately entered into the Toronto Raptors Hall of Fame came with less than two minutes left and the visiting team holding a onepoint lead. Leonard drove into a double team, hunted around for a shot, and with the shotclock about to expire, launched a fading three-pointer over Philly’s Joel Embiid, human skyscraper.
Bang. Four-point game, tied playoff series.
“I just took a shot and believed it would go in, and it did,” Leonard said, as spectacularly understated off the court as he is good on it.
There are precious few of those moments in Raptors lore, despite all of their recent visits to the playoffs, and it was fitting that the guy they got to take them to the next level delivered it, the coup de grace on a night when he scored an efficient 39 points, with 14 rebounds and five assists, in Toronto’s 101-96 victory.
“(Of ) the shots he took tonight, that was one of the tougher ones,” said Raptors coach Nick Nurse. “And he just made a big shot.”
The biggest of shots, really. But it wasn’t just Leonard who played well in a game that Toronto needed desperately.
Down three with fewer than nine minutes left and the Wells Fargo Center ready to burst, Marc Gasol hit a three-pointer to tie the game at 84. Serge Ibaka hit a baseline jumper. Kyle Lowry hit one, too. It’s that kind of help that Leonard hasn’t received at times this series, and as he proved on Sunday, he only needs just a little bit of it.
“We’ve got to continue to play better,” Lowry said. “He’s carried us offensively, and when he makes those passes, we’ve got to make those guys pay. And we did it tonight, we made some big shots.”
Before Game 4, which was arguably the biggest contest in franchise history, given the daunting implications of a quick playoff exit, both coaches stressed that they didn’t think the series was anything close to decided.
76ers coach Brett Brown said he wasn’t thinking about the game like it was a chance to put away the series, even though a 3-1 lead is a tremendous advantage with a home game still to come.
Nurse said his team needed to hit open shots, and play better defence.
“We just weren’t good enough defensively. After putting out six straight solid defensive performances, we didn’t do it in the last game,” Nurse said. “I’m hoping our defence is there, right, I hope we’re into people, I hope we’re connected, and if we are, then we’ll be batting the ball around a little bit and heading in the other direction. That will help our offence.”
At least half of that would prove true. The Raptors came out aggressively in the early going, and kept up that defensive pressure. They held the Sixers to under 40 per cent shooting in the first half, and were particularly effective at providing help in the paint. But the whole defence-leading-to-offence thing didn’t pan out at all. The Raptors shot just below 40 per cent themselves, and they were only five of 21 from three-point range, which meant they went into the halftime break with a lead of only 47-45. So many of those shots were wide open, too.
Pascal Siakam, a late addition to the lineup after he was listed on Saturday as doubtful with a calf bruise, missed all seven of his shot attempts in the first half, including four open corner threes. The Raptors were constructed for big games like this, but trying to win basketball games while missing so many open shots is like trying to pick up water with your fingers.
When the game was over, and the ongoing crisis that tends to be Raptors playoff runs was back to normal levels of concern, Nurse said his team must do a better job of improving the possessions that don’t result in Leonard doing something outrageous.
“I think we need to find our rhythm,” he said. “At least we stepped up and took shots tonight. I think I watched a whole bunch that we have to keep taking. There was a lot of naked threes out there that we didn’t hit and one of these days we just might.”
Tuesday, for Game 5, would be a good time to start. sstinson@postmedia.com Twitter.com/ Scott_Stinson