After getting off to a rousing 1-0 lead at home and being favored by most basketball pundits, the Toronto Raptors now find themselves trailing their Eastern Conference Semifinal series against the Philadelphia 76ers after a 116-95 loss in Game 3 to put the series at 2-1.
Veteran shooting guard Danny Green, who bounced back from two atrocious performances in the first two games against the Sixers, noted the difference maker in this series.
“They’re playing better, we’re not, they’re making shots, we’re not,” said shooting guard Danny Green after Thursday's loss, according to Bruce Arthur of The Toronto Star. “I just think we’re making the game harder on ourselves than we need to be sometimes. Sometimes you make the easy play and go from there: take the first one, the first easy play, the first easy shot. Sometimes we’re over-swinging it and overthinking it, we’re taking too long to swing it … it’s their size, their athleticism, their speed, and us overthinking it sometimes. I think we have more open looks than we think we do.
“We’ll look at the film and see how close they are, the closeouts, see what shot we can take, and live with them.”
The Sixers have found a way to stifle the Raptors' 3-point shooting, which ranked sixth-best in efficiency throughout the regular season. All perimeter players and even Joel Embiid are flying out at shooters to close out and contest shots, closing the door for a Raptors team that has depended in the 3-point ball going in, one way or another.
Toronto made 7-of-27 (25.9%) on Thursday, 10-of-37 (27%) in Game 2, and 9-of-27 in Game 1 (33%) — percentages that won't help them debunk a long and spry Sixers defense with a bull in the middle in Embiid.
The Raptors are shooting a collective 28.6% from three in the series, which has proved their vital letdown through three games.
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