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The Philadelphia 76ers (0-2) and Toronto Raptors (1-1) squared off at Scotiabank Arena fighting to secure their respective first wins of the 2024-25 season. After falling to a mostly healthy playoff team, the Sixers faced an injury-riddled fringe playoff contender and…got beat handily. The 115-107 final score doesn’t do it justice.
The Sixers were once again without Joel Embiid and Paul George, who have made progress in their respective knee recovery plans but will not play until Wednesday at the earliest. Both stars did travel with the team, though. Nick Nurse reshuffled the starting group with Kyle Lowry and Caleb Martin joining Tyrese Maxey, Kelly Oubre Jr. and Andre Drummond.
The Raptors, meanwhile, were without Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, Bruce Brown, Kelly Olynyk and Ja'Kobe Walter. This was an easy chance for the Sixers to pick up a win — but they did NOT treat it like one. The Raptors played with way more energy all night long, leading for much of the game. This was a punking from the middle of the second quarter to the middle of the fourth, where the Sixers sat up for a little bit and showed a little heart.
Here are the three biggest takeaways from Philly's loss to Toronto.
Tyrese Maxey lights up the first half, gets extinguished in the second half
Maxey's first game of the season was a major uphill battle that he nonetheless stumbled on. Every game where he's without Embiid and George to lean on is a test but this one in Toronto was much easier. He indeed did better, though wasn’t able to overcome the adjustments the Raptors made at halftime.
Toronto certainly tried its best to make Maxey work, starting the game with whichever one of Davion Mitchell and Ochai Agbaji was closest to him as his primary defender. Mitchell is particularly tough — a nickname like Off-Night has to be earned. Even rookie guard Jamal Shead is tough. Maxey's field-goal percentage wasn’t great but his process on offense was a staunch improvement from what he did in the season-opener.
The Raptors showed Maxey a lot of defenders in the hopes of keeping him in check. Milwaukee put a lot of pressure on him, too. What Maxey did better to start this game was feeling that gravity and using it against the defense. It also helped that he managed to get to the foul line, eclipsing his total of four free-throw attempts from last game in just the opening period.
Maxey hit a pair of threes off the dribble on consecutive possessions in the first quarter, using sound screens from Guerschon Yabusele to free himself up. He let the defense show itself before he made his move. His playmaking shined, too. Maxey assisted Lowry by forcing a switch, getting a help defender to commit to him and kicking it to the corner. He set up Yabusele on a roll by staying patient and firing a bounce pass and dimed up Oubre with a behind-the-back pass for a corner three.
Tyrese Maxey finding the range early 🎯pic.twitter.com/aChzRe8rfL
— Sixers Nation (@SixersNationCP) October 25, 2024
As the game went on, the Raptors managed to put the squeeze on Maxey. He fired away from deep as the deficit grew but couldn’t make a dent in it. His performance in the first half was very promising, even if he dropped a dud in the second. The 76ers must figure out how to replicate that and overcome defensive adjustments.
Foul trouble makes Nick Nurse go deeeep into his bench
Nurse is someone who prefers to keep his rotations short. He often doesn’t deploy 10 players as regular rotation options in any given game. This game was a major exception. The fact that some of the lineups he went to were mainly the cause of abundant foul trouble hardly makes it any less shocking.
In less than 15 minutes of game time, the Sixers had 12 players see game action. Everyone but the two-way-contract players and the inactive stars made an appearance on the court — even for as briefly as half a minute — in less than a third of the game.
Drummond gave way to Yabusele after picking up two fouls, KJ Martin came in after Yabu did the same and even Adem Bona played in the first quarter, albeit just 51 seconds. Reggie Jackson made his Philly debut to start the second quarter and eventually played in a lineup with Lowry and Jared McCain. Maxey took his spot in this lineup, keeping the three-guard look intact. Lowry and Caleb Martin had three fouls before the halfway point of the second quarter.
Amid all of Nurse's lineup flipping, the Raptors went to 11 players by the same point in the game. They pushed the pace hard, stalled the Sixers offense and went on a 14-2 run. Jakob Poeltl and rookie forward Jonathan Mogbo provided strong interior defense and did a lot of the scoring in that run. Philly went almost two minutes of game time without any points, committing just one turnover in that stretch while missing all its shot attempts.
The Sixers got bullied on the boards, nearly getting doubled up, and kept the game competitive with some aggressive defense starting in the backcourt. But it was far too little, far too late.
Offense outside of Maxey…anyone? Bueller?
Maxey will obviously take the lion's share of the offense when Embiid and George sit. But the degree to which the Sixers have no juice outside of him is concerning. Their field-goal percentage hovered in the 30s for much of this game, ending at 38.2 percent. Their offensive rating was something out of the early 2000s.
Drummond and Maxey have a two-man game going, where the big man sometimes helps his guard get free, but he also develops tunnel vision way too often. He also shot immensely poorly for someone who only attempted shots in the paint (4-11). Oubre often tries to get the offense going and, to his credit, scored 28 points on 9-17 shooting. But his decision-making is so erratic that he can’t be trusted to consistently create offense.
One of Philly's most reliable role payers, Caleb Martin, didn’t have a great game in his first foray with the starters, which created a domino effect. When he's better, it will really help. Nonetheless, they have to figure out how to operate on offense when their veteran stars sit out. Although Philly will try to stagger Embiid and PG's rest days, this group is going to be the one they have on a lot of nights — and their competition will be better than these spunky, inexperienced Raptors.
Nurse is culpable for these shortcomings, too. Maxey is left to do his own thing with teammates standing around too frequently. The Sixers' off-ball movement too often becomes window dressing, giving the illusion of openings more than actual ones. In all facets of this game, Philly lacked sharpness and urgency. This squad lacks the size to be physical but has not yet shown the skill and/or finesse to be a handful.
The Sixers pretty much have to be powerful on offense to get by without Embiid reliably. They don't have the defensive personnel outside of their big man to be great on that end. They do, however, have a bunch of shooters and athletes on the wing. Nurse and his staff have to figure out a way to piece together the puzzle when their two best pieces aren’t in play.
It's early in the season. But the start of it, save for any situation involving a catastrophic injury, is as ugly as it could have reasonably been.
The 76ers will wrap up their brief road trip at 3:30 P.M. EST on Sunday against the Indiana Pacers.
