Toronto Raptors regain dominant form with Game 5 win over Philadelphia 76ers

The Toronto Raptors finally showed their dominant form without relying solely on Kawhi Leonard to carry the load in their Game 5 win over the Philadelphia 76ers.

The last time the Toronto Raptors were only their home court, they had a less than ideal performance that provided the Philadelphia 76ers with some momentum. On Tuesday night they returned the favour in a big way.

It was a historic playoff win for Toronto who set the largest margin of victor winning by 36, smashing their previous record of 29 they had against the Orlando Magic. The satisfying part had to be how the rest of the team not named Kawhi Leonard played.

Kyle Lowry asserted himself in the way we have come to expect, Danny Green started to hit the open shots that weren’t falling in past games and Marc Gasol continues to be a matchup nightmare for Joel Embiid.

While the Sixers big man was dealing with a respiratory infection, he didn’t get the support from everyone else. Jimmy Butler put up 22 points, five rebounds and seven assists to lead the team but players like Tobias Harris and JJ Redick had lacklustre efforts.

Leonard was still good in this game recording 21 points and 13 rebounds including some posterizing dunks on Embiid.

Even with an injured calf, Pascal Siakam didn’t hesitate when he was left wide open to make a couple of three-pointers.  It was especially crucial when Toronto was trailing in the early part of the first quarter and Kawhi wasn’t hitting all of his shots.

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The Sixers clearly wanted to keep the ball out of Leonard’s hands but fortunately for the Raptors, it meant that other players were given the chance to get back on track. Fred VanVleet managed to make a shot, Marc Gasol made a couple of open looks and Serge Ibaka managed to play better despite getting stitches following an inadvertent elbow from Kawhi.

The Raptors didn’t just win this game with their offensive game, they were locking things down defensively and forced the Sixers to beat them with tough shots. It was the complete opposite for Philadelphia who struggled to make the defensive adjustments.

Lowry was a big part of that by playing with a more uptempo style in transition. but he will need to do more of that in the long run. Considering the Milwaukee Bucks are up 3-1 on the Boston Celtics heading into Game 5, the Raptors will need to find their best form if they end up moving on.

They can end this series on Thursday night if they can pick up the win in Game 6 with an 8:00 p.m. ET tipoff in Philadelphia.