THE SIXER AND THE FIXER
RAPTORS129, 76ERS112
Philly’s Ben Simmons runs into resistance from Kawhi Leonard in the second half of Tuesday night’s 129-112 victory by the Raptors at Scotiabank Arena. Leonard was the home side’s high scorer with 31 points.
They were at times dominant and at times sloppy — something of a microcosm of the NBA season so far — but the Toronto Raptors remained unbeaten at home with a 129-112 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday night.
Seeing a 26-point lead cut down to six with about three minutes to go in the game, the Raptors turned themselves around for their fifth straight home win and seventh overall in eight games to start the season.
There were many stars on the night — Kawhi Leonard returned from a night off to score 31 points, and Jonas Valanciunas pitched in 23 off the bench — as Toronto’s depth was just too much for Philadelphia.
Kyle Lowry had 12 assists to go with 20 points, the sixth straight game the all-star point guard has registered more than 10 assists. The franchise record is seven, set by Damon Stoudamire.
Philadelphia, 4-4 and winless on the road this season, got 31 points for Joel Embiid, but Ben Simmons was held mostly in check and forced into 11 of Philadelphia’s 23 turnovers.
á A welcome return: With Fred VanVleet missing his fourth game with a sprained toe, the Raptors needed some production from Delon Wright in a backup role. Looking far more comfortable than he did in his only two short stints this year, Wright had all seven of his points in the first. “I think health-wise he’s good. It’s just rhythm-wise he’s gotta get back in there,” said coach Nick Nurse.
á Back in there: Leonard was back in the lineup Tuesday after sitting out Monday’s game for “load management,” which is NBA-speak for rest these days. And coach Nick Nurse couldn’t have been more clear on what the future holds. “We are trying to be really smart with what we’re doing. If somebody were to knock on the door and tell me he’s not playing tonight, I’m going to go put somebody else in there and we’re going to go fight to win,” the coach said. “It’s where we are. It’s a longterm type of thing. Probably the biggest thing is, it’s fluid. It’s not like we can sit here and say ‘OK, let’s do the next three months.’ We just aren’t going do it that way. So that’s kind of where we are.”
á Decision time: The Raptors have until Wednesday night to take care of some contractual matters. They will most assuredly pick up the options on OG Anunoby (third year) and Pascal Siakam (fourth year), but a decision also has to be made on the fourth year of Malachi Richardson’s deal. That is far from a certainty and he’d become an unrestricted free agent next summer. á Dot, dot, dot: The Sixers stayed with their usual practice of using Markelle Fultz in the starting lineup but leaving him on the bench in favour of J.J. Redick to start the third quarter … The Raptors were once again without Anunoby, excused for personal reasons … A day after taking a franchise-record 45 three-pointers in Milwaukee, Toronto took 27 on Tuesday night … Siakam had a careerhigh 22 points Monday in Milwaukee, and a career-high 14 rebounds at home Tuesday.
á Welcome back, always: Amir Johnson hasn’t played for the Raptors since 2015, yet he still was greeted as warmly as ever by Toronto fans. Johnson averages about 12 minutes a game for the Sixers.
á Up next: Finally, the first legit road trip of the season commences. After two easy in-andout jaunts to Washington and Milwaukee, the Raptors begin a four-game trip west in Phoenix on Friday. They’ll get close-up look at first-overall draft pick DeAndre Ayton of the Suns.