In this season's NBA league, the most concerned deal is undoubtedly the Philadelphia 76ers, sending away Ben Simmons, who completely fell out with the team, from the Nets to the absolute core of the rocket team James Harden, after the combination of the emperor Embiid and Harden's Diden was officially formed, the outside world is very optimistic about the 76ers' championship prospects, but harden after coming to Philadelphia, did not play the former dominance in space city, especially the personal offensive threat has declined significantly. In the end, they only won the fourth place in the East, and the opponent in the first round of the playoffs will be the Toronto Raptors led by Siakam and VanVleet, although from the luxury of the lineup, the 76ers have obvious advantages, but many domestic basketball commentators and media are optimistic about the Raptors' winning prospects, then in the first game that affects the trend of the series, whether the Diden combination can play a role in the grass, leading the team to achieve a good start has become the focus of external attention!
Personally, I think that the playoffs and the regular season are completely different types of games, compared to the regular season, the playoffs are more testing of the ability of a team's core players to finish one-on-one, as the recognized first center in the East, Embiid, in this regard, is obviously stronger than Siakam, and Harden, although the state can not be compared with the peak, but the face of VanVleet will not fall into a huge disadvantage, which is why I personally hope that the 76ers can win the first game at home!
A very important reason why the outside world is not optimistic about the more luxurious 76ers in the core lineup is that in the two direct conversations in the regular season, the Raptors have a clear advantage of 3 wins and 1 loss, and in the confrontation with the top four teams in the Eastern Conference standings, the Raptors' record is also very good, which is why many fans regard this Raptors team as a giant killer.
But in competitive sports, the past record can only be used as a reference, the real decision of the game trend is the player's on-the-spot play, in a long series, both sides will make the most targeted deployment on the defensive end, in order not to let the opponent play the overall attack of the clouds, which also allows the individual singles of the star to increase greatly in the playoffs, and the playoffs are the top star stage.
It can be seen that in the playoff showdown between the Raptors and the 76ers, the singles ability of the stars at key moments will largely determine the trend of the series, and this is precisely where the biggest advantage of the 76ers is, even if Harden cannot find his strongest personal offensive state in the playoffs, but his passing ability is still trustworthy, in the regular season decisive moment, Harden and Embiid's high blocking is the 76ers' favorite routine, I believe it will also be their killer skill against the Raptors. If the Raptors choose one-on-one defense, after going down with Embiid's ability, they can directly attack the basket, and if they choose to pack Embiid, Harden, who is in a big position, will make the opponent pay the price.
And for the 76ers, there is also a good news, that is, the Raptors' backcourt core VanVleet, in the last three games of the regular season are high hanging free cards, after the comeback of the playoffs with a sharp increase in the intensity of the confrontation, whether it can find the first time to find the competitive state is an unknown, if he can not play normally, the probability of the 76ers winning will be greatly improved!