Harden scored just 4 points in the final quarter! The strong team can't beat one! Will Embiid + Harden stop in the first round?

Raptors 119-114 Philadelphia!

Fourth in the East, fifth in the East, playoff previews, everything here in Philadelphia is familiar.

Leading at the start, catching up in the middle, and being suppressed in the final quarter and being overturned miserably, it was Very Rivers.

The Emperor and Harden combined for 2-of-10 in the final quarter, scoring 11 points, seven of which were at the free throw line, which is indeed the style of these two people.

It all adds up to a single word, which is very Philadelphia.

1. Dragon King Sika

Sika shot 14-of-28 and had 37 points, 11 rebounds, 12 assists and 2 steals, scoring eight points in the final quarter. Like Durant yesterday, Sika went from attack to defense and did everything he could.

The Emperor looks good, shooting 10-of-22, with 30 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists and 5 turnovers. But compared with Sika, it is much inferior.

Why compare these two people together, because both are from Cameroon, Africa. The fellow saw the fellow and fired a shot in the back, obviously, this time the emperor was blown up by his cameroon brother.

If the Celtics are the most powerful team after entering 2022, then the Raptors are the second strongest team.

Since February 2022, the Raptors have won 23 wins and 10 losses — 8 wins and 4 losses in February, 5 wins in 12 wins in March, and 3 wins and 1 loss in April, which is obviously a step higher.

All of this is inseparable from Sika's performance, averaging 21.3 points, 8.8 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game in February, rising to around 26+8+5 in March, and shooting nearly 50% of three-point shots, only playing the Magic in April to score 16 points, and the last three hard games were 29 points, 31 points and 37 points, respectively.

Sika has averaged 22.7 points, 8.5 rebounds and 5.3 assists this season, returning to the level he was in the 19-20 All-Star season, and now he is a veritable Dragon King.

In fact, what Sika shows is the overall style of the Raptors: all-round front, long hands and long feet, both offensive and defensive, the defensive end can defend multiple positions, and the offensive end has a misplaced advantage whether it is large or small.

So in the fourth quarter, the Philadelphia side didn't seem to have a good Sika counterpart, the first two and three positions were a little shorter against him, the emperor was a little slower on him, and Harris was a little softer.

Sika had 8 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists in the fourth quarter, including a throw in the last 2 minutes and a 2+1 after stealing the front court, Philadelphia seemed to have little to do for Sika.

Sika's only problem now is that the technology is not sophisticated enough, if he can stabilize the mid-range, and then practice a turnaround jump shot, the Raptors can go further in the playoffs, after all, he is the only point of the Raptors now.

Second, the embarrassing emperor and Harden

Since Harden made his Timberwolves debut with Philadelphia, the team has won 14-8, and the winning percentage looks OK, but the opponents who have lost are the Heat, Nets, Nuggets, Raptors, Suns, Bucks, Pistons and Raptors.

With the exception of the Pistons, none of the remaining teams are weak. And of the teams they won, only the Heat, Mavericks and Bulls were in the top six in the East and West.

But on March 22, harden and Embiid did not play the heat game; the Bulls were typical of bullying, fearing hard, and understood everything; so only playing the Lone Ranger was enough to explain the problem.

Coincidentally, it was in the game of playing the Lone Ranger that Harden broke out from the end of the third quarter to the beginning of the fourth quarter, leading the team alone for 5 minutes to play the Lone Ranger wave 23-7, Harden scored 10 points and 5 assists.

However, in today's game, the two men and Harden's fourth quarter of the athletic battle combined only 10 of 2, thanks to the Emperor rubbed a three-point foul before the final game, otherwise the two people's fourth quarter scores together would be difficult to double-double.

But scoring is not the most important thing, the most important thing is that the two men look unconnected on the field, and they can't even see them playing the simplest blocking and dismantling on the field.

If the two of them can't form a joint force, they will be eaten to death by the Raptors' lineup. Faced with the Raptors' long-handed and long-legged front-line strangleholding, neither of them has the ability to solve problems on their own.

You can see the Raptors' final lineup on the court: Trent at 1.96 meters, Barnes at 2.01 meters, Sika, Achuva and Yang Juxia at 2.03 meters.

Everyone changes defenses in front of Harden, there is a one-on-one single defense ability, even if Harden can break through the first line, the person next to him steps over to help defend, as long as he does not foul him he will be uncomfortable.

The Raptors look low as if no one can do it to the Emperor, but Achuva and Sika can top one, and if the Emperor can't receive the ball and can attack the basket at the first time, he only needs to dribble the ball, and the Raptors' pinch defense will arrive immediately.

At this time, the emperor has two choices, one is to turn over the jump shot, this ball is completely based on the feel, in the fourth quarter he turned over three times to hit all the iron, after all, the Raptors' defense is known for confrontation and fierceness; the second is to wait for the pinch to come to the outside, but the pass is by no means what the emperor is good at, and the fourth quarter wants to pass Niang directly to the audience.

So the Emperor played badly, which is why the fourth quarter played more than 5 minutes and Philadelphia only scored 7 points.

Who helped Philadelphia solve the urgent need on the offensive end?

It was Maxie who took the ball and shot the Raptors 7-0 in a burst that kept Philadelphia from collapsing. But whether Philadelphia will blame its survival on a second-year rookie is debatable.

By the way, Philadelphia has a previous record: After Harden arrived, Maxi never lost a 20-point game. Maxi scored 22 points today, but Philadelphia still lost.

If Coach Rivers can't figure out how to make Harden and Embiid a true duo, Philadelphia may have a hard time in the second round in the playoffs.

Even if it's the first round of the Raptors, I'll sweat for them. The Raptors still have vaccine restrictions at home, And Sable's absence shows that he is not vaccinated, and even if Green is put on the starting line-up in the playoffs, Sebel's defense is still important.

With only the last 2 regular season games left, philadelphia is running out of time.

The Raptors are 47-33 and fifth in the East; Philadelphia are 49-31 and fourth in the East.

Thanks for reading it all!