If the Raptors will be successful in the 2nd round, they will have to shut down Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. loung_s looks at how Toronto matches up against the duo in GIFs.
If there’s nerves from Raptors fans coming into this series, this matchup should be the one that alleviates most fears.
The 76ers played the Raptors four times in the regular season and it was only when Simmons didn’t see Leonard that he found any success and managed to help Philadelphia to a win with a 26-point, one-turnover effort. According to NBA.com’s stats, Leonard matched up against Simmons on defence in 180 possessions, the most of any player he saw on that end of the floor in the regular season. In those 180 possessions, Simmons only scored 17 points and turned the ball over nine times.
Simply put, Leonard has owned Simmons this season and it’ll be up to coach Brett Brown and the 76ers to figure out how to get their star going in the series.This particular matchup doesn’t have as much cut-and-dry evidence as our previous comparison and that’s because Gasol has never faced Embiid as a member of the Raptors.
Toronto should feel pretty confident making Gasol the primary defender on Embiid during this series because he has the right tools to make life difficult.His quick feet allows him to stay with Embiid and recover back onto him when he has to defend screen actions: One of the ways the Raptors can do this is by putting Embiid into pick-and-pop situations where he’s more inclined to sag back into the paint, as seen in this example:
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