Toronto Raptors supporting cast fails to deliver spark in Game 2

The Toronto Raptors were unable to recover after the Philadelphia 76ers got off to a strong start as the team could not provide support for Kawhi Leonard.

After putting up a career-best 45 points in Game 1, Kawhi Leonard was going to do what he could to give the Toronto Raptors a chance to take a 2-0 series lead.

Unfortunately, the rest of the team failed to show up for a good part of the game and they should have seen it coming considering the desperate situation the Philadelphia 76ers were in.

Jimmy Butler showed up after a lacklustre performance in the series opener finishing with 30 points and 11 rebounds. It was clear the adjustment for Philadelphia was to make the players around Leonard beat them and it didn’t work out that way.

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Despite all that, the Raptors were able to cut the deficit down to three in the final moments then to one point until Joel Embiid put in a dagger. Unfortunately, when the team needed a three-point shot to tie the game, Danny Green missed further emphasizing the team’s struggles.

Toronto finished the game shooting 36.3 per cent from the field and 27 per cent from three while the Sixers outrebounded them 53-36. It also doesn’t help that the bench put up five combined points and at one point went up against Philadelphia’s starters.

Whatever adjustments the Sixers made defensively appeared to have a big impact as Toronto was held to under 90 points for the third time this season.

"“Whenever we let our defence dictate our offence, we’re such a great team, ” Butler after the game. “We can’t let it be the other way around. As long as we don’t turn the ball over and we guard, we give ourselves a chance to win every night.”"

It’s hard to argue with that considering the Raptors were limited to 38 points in the first half and they clearly wanted to take Kawhi Leonard and Pascal Siakam out of the picture.

While Kyle Lowry, Danny Green and Marc Gasol need to be better, it doesn’t help that Serge Ibaka, Fred VanVleet, Norman Powell and Jodie Meeks were a combined 2-for-11 from the field and a combined plus/minus of minus-51. That’s not going to cut it.

Now the Raptors find themselves in a position where they have to respond because if they just lost home-court advantage unless they take one of the games on the road.

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What do you make of the Raptors performance in Game 2? Who needs to improve as the series goes on the road? Let us know in the comments below.

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