14-12, guess what data is this?
This is the second game of the 76ers' series with the Raptors, embiid and the Raptors' entire free throw count. The "Emperor" himself made 12 of 14 free throws in the whole game, and the Raptors made 10 of 12 free throws, and the free throw battle single-handedly suppressed the opponent's entire team. Led by Embiid, the 76ers made 30 free throws, more than twice as many as the Raptors.
Of the 76ers' 30 free throws, the 76ers scored 16 more points than the Raptors, and the final score of this game was 112-97, and the 76ers won 15 points.
Is Embiid "touching porcelain", is there a problem with the referee's blowing punishment scale, and is the Raptor unjust?
Before the 76ers' series with the Raptors began, there was a lot of discussion, focusing on whether the Raptors could play the game, on the grounds that the team was in good shape, and the 76ers two big players Embiid and Harden both had a black history of crotch pulling in the playoffs.
The advantage of competitive sports is that most of the verbal battles can be used to distinguish the truth from the game, and the 76ers turned the Raptors into a husky with a 20-point advantage in the first game of the series, which annoyed Raptors coach Nas, especially dissatisfied with the 76ers' only 3 mistakes in the whole game, and zero mistakes in the first half.
"I told our players that during my nine years at the helm of this team (including five years as an assistant coach), I don't remember another game where the opponent had zero turnovers at half-time," Nas said, "We didn't put enough pressure on the ball carriers, we didn't actively interfere, we didn't physically fight enough, and that's what we needed to improve in the second game." ”
In the first quarter of the second game, the 76ers had 3 turnovers, and the Raptors did give a stronger body stranglehold, but this did not affect the outcome of the game, and the 76ers successfully accepted the victory and went to Toronto with a 2-0 overall score.
Seven of the Raptors' regular-season nine-man rotations are 6'7 inches (2.01 m) or more, but none of the seven players are taller than 6 ft 9 inches (2.06 m), which creates a positive and negative effect, the front is that the Raptors have good physical condition in both the front and the backcourt, and the reverse is that they do not have tall centers. Specific to the 76ers, the Raptors can't find a player who can match Embiid.
Therefore, the Raptors must pinch Embiid, the first game is the "Emperor" dribbling time clip, the second game is upgraded to him with the ball to block. The Raptors hope to force the ball out of embiid's hands, this move has some effect in the first game, but the second game is not working, "The Emperor" adapted to the strength given by the Raptors, take the ball and chisel it inside, an inch high and an inch strong This basketball iron law is vividly reflected in the "Emperor", the Raptors can not be clamped, and finally can only take fouls.
Embiid scored 19 points in the first quarter, 12 penalties 11, such a burst of "penalty" power and the so-called "cheating" foul has nothing to do with it, purely the Raptors No. 5 position body is not matched, the bag clip is not working, do not foul can not be prevented, can not watch Embiid send the ball into the basket, right? Moreover, even if you don't look at the free throws, the "Emperor" has a sports combat efficiency of 6-on-4 in the first quarter, how can the first center scorer after 2000 be a waste of time?
Embiid gave the team a base in the first quarter, and the 76ers pulled away the point difference in the second quarter. Embiid sat off the court in the first half of the quarter, and the 76ers lineup was Harden, Maxi, Harris, Danny Green and Paul Reid, a five-man group with no one taller than 6 feet 9 inches who won the Raptors by 12 points before the "Emperor" came back on the field, trailing by one point to leading by 11 points at the end of the first quarter.
If the Raptors have a tall center, facing the small lineup of the 76ers, maybe they can suppress it, or let Rivers not dare to put it small, but the Raptors are a team that has lowered its height in the fifth position, they can't play big in the center position, but they are pinched by the 76ers small lineup.
The Raptors pinch Harden, while the defense line shrinks to the basket to prevent air defense, Harden starts high, Harris's strong and weak side shifts, and Danny Green receives three points to directly penetrate the Raptors' defensive deployment.
When the Raptors extended the defense line outward, Maxi and Harden blocked, and Maxi quickly rushed to the box, forcing the Raptors to shrink again, and Maxi and Green connected to score another three points.
Nas is a coach with a defensive preference to extremes, who is extremely interested in blocking opposing stars, and dares to use any move, once a four-game pair against Curry is in front of him, and now embiid and Harden are also willing to go on three or four together, challenging the response ability of the other players of the 76ers.
During Harden's single-core lead in the second quarter, teammates gave an excellent bag-breaking clip response ball, and when the Raptors concentrated all their defensive forces on the middle to block Harden's breakthrough, Harris's bottom corner three-pointer was quite "thirst-quenching".
The 76ers faced the Raptors' targeted defense, gave a counterattack with teamwork, and if coupled with the player's personal ability, then the game will naturally go to the side that is not conducive to the Raptors, such as Maxi's strong burst in the air, and Philadelphia also has a good waist in the NBA.
Looking at Harden's three-pointer after retreating from this single, the 76ers played a supporting role to respond, the protagonist had a game-breaking game, and the Raptors really couldn't stop it.
Embiid had 31 points and 11 rebounds, Maxi 23 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists, Harris 20 points and 10 rebounds, Green 11 points, Harden Wasle leisure only shot the least of 9 starts in five, 14 points, 6 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks.
The 76ers traveled two cities in a row to Toronto, where they would face a challenge. First, the 76ers' defensive champion Sable was unable to travel to Toronto, where the vaccine restriction was not fully vaccinated, and the 76ers' rotation lineup was one less player to defend.
Secondly, the game comes to the Raptors home, the referee's blowing penalty will be more or less affected, such as the first quarter of the second game, which played less than half of Siakam and Anunoby on the two fouls, the probability of occurrence is relatively low, whether there is a difference in the home whistle, but the home advantage can not always have no effect at all, right?
Embiid led the league with an average of 11.8 free throws per game in the regular season, O'Neal averaged 10.4 free throws per game when he was the leading scorer in 1999-00, and the "Emperor" burst "penalty" was worse than the dominant "Big Shark".
The number of free throws is a barometer of Embiid's regular season scores, scoring 35+ in 22 games, only one of which did not have a double-double, and in 10 games with less than 20 points, 6 of them were in single digits.
If the Raptors return to Toronto and can get some home advantage in the referee's blowing scale, such as fouls that can be blown or not blown, they will have a better effect against Embiid. However, Embiid is stronger than the ability to indiscriminately shoot at home and away, averaging 12 free throws away from home in the regular season this season, 11.5 times per game at home, and slightly better away than at home.
In the final analysis, a player can get a lot of free throws, although there are factors that use the rules, but the most important thing is the level of personal ability, especially a player like Embiid who has both body shape and technical advantages, which is really difficult to defend, otherwise how can he be the scoring king and the top three candidates for MVP?
The free throw thing, as Rivers said, has the ability not to foul.