What's up basketball fans! I am here again @dwin0603 to give you another exciting basketball discussion for another episode of NBA Talk, and today we will have a short recap of the match between the Philadelphia 76ers VS Toronto Raptors in Game 5 of their best of 7 playoff series for the Semi-finals. Let's start!
On Tuesday night, the Toronto Raptors beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 125-89 and the blowout win gave them a 3-2 series lead. They are now 1 win away from the Conference Finals but they have to beat the Sixers on their home court.
Game Recap
The first quarter was a close one as Toronto ended up leading 27-26. After an awful shooting night from Pascal Siakam, he recovered and scored 9 points in the first period while Kawhi Leonard had 5 points and 7 rebounds. Meanwhile, Serge Ibaka was accidentally elbowed by Kawhi Leonard grabbing the rebound and it needed some stitches to close the cut in Ibaka's head. He headed back to the locker room and came back at the start of the second quarter as he scored his first basket with a dunk against Joel Embiid.
Danny Green catches fire draining three triples scoring 9 points and the Raptors got an edge in the second quarter. They shot 12 for 21 compared to Philly's 6 for 20 shooting that puts them down. Leonard's early struggle missing 6 of his first 8 shots ended when he drove through the lane and hammers it home for a huge slam and ended the first half with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
Ben Simmons struggled too much and didn't bring any help throughout the game. He was silent offensively the whole game. Sixers was in foul trouble in the first half committing 16 fouls overall in the first two quarters. And they only made 14 field goals. Toronto outscored the Sixers, 37-17 in the second to extend the lead to 21 points at the half.
The Sixers couldn't come back as the Raptors walk away with a huge lead. They held on to it up to the final period and the poor performances by Philly's star hurt the team a lot. Embiid missed the morning shootaround due to flu and he only scored 13 points unlike his usual production when he was healthy. He also had 8 turnovers in total while Ben Simmons had 5 turnovers and 7 points only.
The lead was 92-70 at the start of the fourth and they extended it to 40 points with 2 and a half minutes left in the clock. Kawhi Leonard sat with more than seven minutes remaining in the game as they felt comfortable with their lead.
My Thoughts
Everybody was talking about Kevin Durant as the best player in the world but this man, Kawhi Leonard has been playing incredible basketball throughout the playoffs. He's been dominant and almost single-handedly carrying the Raptors against the Sixers. The Raptors will have a chance to finish off the series on the road and if the Sixers win one more, they will have the chance to win it at Toronto.
Stats
Kawhi Leonard - 21 pts, 13 reb, 4 ast
Pascal Siakam - 25 pts, 8 reb, 3 ast
Kyle Lowry - 19 pts, 6 reb, 5 ast
Jimmy Butler - 22 pts, 5 reb, 7 ast
Tobias Harris - 15 pts, 6 reb
Joel Embiid - 13 pts, 6 reb
That is all for today folks! I would love to hear your thoughts about this article, so drop your comments now and let's have some basketball talk! 😁
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