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Sixers swingman Jimmy Butler didn't sugarcoat his answer when asked about his team's performance in Tuesday night's Game 5 loss to the Toronto Raptors:
“Laying an egg, there's no other way to put it,” Butler said, per Rich Hofmann of The Athletic.
The Raptors beat the Sixers by a surprisingly wide margin in Game 5 to take a 3-2 lead in their series. When the final horn blew, Toronto had carried the day, 125-89.
According to ESPN, the 36-point gap was the largest in Toronto's postseason history. And on the other hand, it was Philadelphia's worst playoff defeat since 1982, when they suffered a 40-point loss to the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Butler logged 30 minutes in Game 5, recording 22 points on 6-of-16 shooting from the field (0-of-2 from beyond the arc), seven assists, five rebounds, one block and one steal. 22 points is a fairly solid outing, but 10 of them came at the free-throw line:
“The spirit, I thought, went away a little bit quicker than I'd wished,” Sixers head coach Brett Brown told ESPN during his postgame availability.
Sixers big man Joel Embiid managed to start in Game 5, despite the fact that he missed Tuesday morning's shootaround with the illness that continues to bother him.
In 31 minutes of action, Embiid racked up 13 points, eight turnovers and a plus-minus score of minus-15. Tobias Harris, who finished with 15 points, had a plus-minus of minus-34:
“Offensively, there was a rhythm to his game that was clearly out of sync,” Brown said of Embiid. “He's been in bed for two days.”
The Sixers and Raptors will meet for Game 6 on Thursday night. Tip-off inside the Wells Fargo Center is set for 8:00 p.m. ET, with ESPN having live broadcast coverage.
