PHILADELPHIA — As the leading scorers of their two respective teams, Joel Embiid and Pascal Siakam will have a significant impact on the outcome of the 76ers-Raptors playoff series.
Among the other important factors will be the coaching decisions of Philadelphia’s Doc Rivers and Toronto’s Nick Nurse.
Both have won NBA championships — Rivers with the Celtics in 2007-08 and Nurse with the Raptors in 2018-19 after edging the Sixers in the Eastern Conference semifinals — so they know what it takes to be the last team standing.
The Sixers and Raptors have to win three best-of-seven series to reach the Finals, so that’d probably getting a little ahead of ourselves. But the chess match has begun.
“I mean, I enjoy it,” said Rivers before the Sixers’ 131-111 Game 1 victory Saturday night at the Wells Fargo Center. “It’s a game of adjustments all of the time, but it’s also a game of play. I’ve had games where I felt like I adjusted well and we didn’t make a shot, so it still doesn’t matter.
“At the end of the day, it’s about trying to win the game and figuring out how to do that — and trying to make sure you have the right guys in the right place at the right time.”
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Rivers opted to have Embiid defend fellow Cameroonian Siakam more in Game 1 than he did when Siakam put up 37 points on the Sixers’ in an April 7 home win over the Sixers. Siakam was too much for Tobias Harris and backup Georges Niang on that night. Siakam finished with a team-high 24 points in Game 1.
Rivers also paired starters Embiid and Tyrese Maxey with three reserves when he went to the bench toward the end of the first quarter, then had James Harden replace Maxey, followed by Tobias Harris joining Harden when Embiid took a rest in favor of Paul Reed to start the second quarter. The Sixers increased the lead from eight to nine during Reed’s 5 1/2 second-period minutes.
Maxey made Rivers look good with a monstrous outing. He scored 36 of his 38 points in the first three quarters, causing the sellout crowd to chant “Max-ey” at ear-splitting volume late in the third period.
Meanwhile, Nurse continued his double-teaming of Embiid, the league’s leading scorer in the regular season. Whereas three years ago Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka were the primary defenders on Embiid in the entertaining seven-game series, Nurse used a bunch of the Raptors’ long, lean frontcourt players on Embiid and double-teamed him, though not has hard as he typically did in the regular season. Embiid ended up with 19 points, but three teammates had at least 20.
“Yeah, I guess I enjoy (the coaching adjustments),” said Nurse with a smile prior to tipoff. “It’s part of the gig. That’s what we’re here for. That’s an important of the job this time of the year. These series are interesting and take so many turns. Each game kind of has its own identity and those games take lots of turns.”
Rivers also had the Sixers making a concerted effort to hit the offensive boards and get bodies on the Raptors at the other end after Toronto held a 33-12 advantage on the offensive glass in the last two regular-season meetings.
It was a different story Saturday as the Sixers secured eight of the 10 offensive rebounds in a first half in which four Philly players scored in double figures, as well as handed out 15 assists to no turnovers to lead by 18 at intermission. It later grew to 24 points.
The result was the Sixers maintained home-court advantage heading into Game 2 on Monday night in South Philadelphia. That Raptors rookie standout Scott Barnes injured his left foot when Embiid stepped on it during a fourth-quarter drive and had to be helped off the court would be a huge loss if he has to miss any time.
Regardless of Barnes’ status, the ball, as they say, is in Nurse’s court. He has to figure out how to even the series heading to Toronto for Games 3 (Thursday) and 4 (next Saturday).
Tom Moore: tmoore@couriertimes; @TomMoorePhilly
