Canadian basketball is rising and continuously taking over the game. In a recent playoff, Toronto Raptors won over Philadelphia 76ers. We are going to discuss the playoff between the two teams and win of Toronto Raptors. Want to know about each and every detail? Just read on ahead.
Undoubtedly, all the players of the team contributed to the thrilling win of the team. But one just can’t forget the last shot from Kawhi Leonard. Leonard’s last jump shot from the corner at the buzzer helped Toronto Raptors. The team lifted up to Eastern Conference finals with 92-90.
It is for the second time in the franchise history that Toronto Raptors are making into finals.
Both coaches talked pre-game about the magnitude of a Game 7.
Toronto’s Nick Nurse said, “I think you would tend to think that in a long coaching career this is really, really, really big, biggest moment ever, but I think back to when I was getting ready to coach the Manchester Giants versus the Birmingham Bullets back in 2000, it meant a lot to me at the moment. I can’t imagine it meaning any more. I’ve had a lot of those times in my career and it feels similar.”
Sixers Coach Brett Brown said his staff of 14 had spent the previous night dining at swish Yorkville restaurant Sotto.
“I will be on a mission personally to help our players get through this, to have a demeanour of solid. That’s my role in a game like today. To help our guys, to tell them the truth when things aren’t going the way that we want, and to steady the ship. Keep the boys in the boat, ” Brown said.
In the fourth quarter, Leonard had 15 of his 41 points. He corralled the ball and launched the winning basket within 4 seconds.
On Wednesday, Toronto Raptors will have to face Bucks in the Eastern Conference final in Milwaukee. Notably, Bucks dispatched Boston in five games.
The recent series was full of nail-biting moments and seemed like a passing the parcel game. Both the teams were in a neck to neck competition. But still, the game wasn’t at the level of postseason standards.
Pascal Siakam finished with 11 points and 11 boards and Kyle Lowry had 10 points. Whereas Serge Ibaka had 17 points and 8 rebounds. Marc Gasol had 11 rebounds to go with seven points. Kyle played most of the night with a taped left thumb. He sprained early in the second quarter.
Talking about the opponent team, all five Philadelphia starters finished in double digits. Joel Embiid led his team with 21 points. JJ Redick had 17 points and Jimmy Butler grabbed 16.
The Toronto Raptors shot 21 per cent in the first quarter and the No. 1 three-point shooting team in the league since the Gasol trade in February. They missed their first eight three-point attempts before Ibaka finally connected a minute into the second.
In the postseason, Toronto Raptors set the franchise record in victory by 125-89 Game 5 rout. However, in Thursday’s Game 6 the team dropped 112-101at Wells Fargo Centre.
Each team leads the game three times in the first half. However, none of them reached double digits. Toronto took its biggest lead of the game with nine points when Gasol scored on a floater at 9:28 in the third quarter.
Ibaka’s layup in the third quarter helped Toronto to regain the lead of 67-64 when the Sixers tried to go up by 7 with 16-0 score.
Leonard scored five straight points to put Toronto up by five with 4:48 to play in the last 12 minutes.
Meanwhile, in the last some minutes Toronto’s defence locked down. Leonard shed his long two-pointer & Lowry stole the ball off Tobias Harris. While Siakam finished with a layup. His layup ended with the ear-splitting noise of the crowd. Also, it put Toronto up by four heading into the final minute.
Leonard was fouled and missed his one free throw. A free throw by Butler and two from Embiid with 12.1 seconds made it a one-point game. Then, Butler sprinted downcourt for the tying layup with 4.2 seconds to play.
The last minutes of the game took the audience to edges of their seats. Leonard took an inbound from Gasol and shot from just in front of the Raptors bench. The arena exploded by his hilarious shot.
If the team would have lost the game then it would prove a big disappointment for the squad. The squad was rebuilt by team president Masai Ujiri seeking a berth in the NBA finals. It’s a short term but a big goal of the president. Thus he acquired Leonard and Danny Green for much-loved DeMar DeRozan. He also acquired Gasol for Jonas Valanciunas at the trade deadline.
Harris’s three-pointers capped a 14-2 Philly run in the second that gave the visitors a four-point lead. But the Raptors fired back with an 11-3 run punctuated by a Lowry three-point play. Toronto saw head into the locker-room at halftime up 44-40.
In 2001, Toronto Raptors lost to Philadelphia by 88-87 in conference semifinals. That time Vince Carter jump shot at the buzzer bounced off the rim. The Sixers went on to play Milwaukee in the conference final.
Toronto Raptors played in five previous Game 7s. the most recent Game 7 played by the Raptors was in 2016.
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