Lowry Tears Apart Sixers in 104-95 Raptors Win

By Sean Kennedy

Early on, it looked like one of those nights when the game would be over by the second quarter as Toronto raced out to a 13-2 lead before my Red Baron pizza even had a chance to cool out of the oven. However, much to the Sixers’ credit, they gamely fought their way back into things with a 17-3 run later in the quarter helping them to a lead at the end of 12 minutes of play. That sequence set off an exciting back-and-forth affair that Toronto finally put out of reach with a 9-0 surge midway through the fourth quarter. The Philadelphia starters (minus Evan Turner, plus Hollis Thompson) tried to make one final push, but the deficit was too great, and the Sixers fell to 0-3 against their neighbors from the north this season.

The Sixers had no answer for the starting backcourt of the Raptors as Kyle Lowry recorded his 4th-career triple-double and DeMar DeRozan dropped 34 points, improving his scoring average against the Sixers this season to over 31 per game. Lowry was 1 rebound shy of the triple-double through 3 quarters, finishing with 18 points, 10 rebounds, and 13 assists. The former Villanova guard was able to get into the teeth of the Sixers defense at will, to finish himself or find open teammates on the perimeter. He also took and sank some long-range bombs from about where Ethan Wragge and Creighton were lighting it up on the Wells Fargo court earlier this week. As for DeRozan, the man just has a very polished mid-range game, harkening back to an earlier era and bucking the current analytics trend of nothing but threes and lay-ups.

Some players stepped up and had some nice games to keep the Sixers in things, most surprisingly Hollis Thompson off the bench (more on him below). Of the starters, Michael Carter-Williams finished with a team-high 20 points and Thad Young recorded 16 points, 7 boards, and the best two highlights of the night. In the second quarter, off a shovel pass from Spencer Hawes, Young had a sick, Norse-god hammer of a throwdown over and amongst the Toronto trees that nearly got me out my seat. Also while leading the fast break in the first quarter, Thad went coast to coast with a behind the back dribble thrown in for a lay-in. Watching he and Spencer Hawes grab a defensive rebound and start the break themselves on multiple occasions was one of the more entertaining aspects of the game despite the loss. Got to love that Brett Brown, push the pace mentality.

The Sixers will be back in action tonight at home against the Thunder. Kevin Durant sat out last night’s game with a shoulder injury so if he’s out gain, it would obviously greatly improve Philadelphia’s chance of earning a ‘W’. But from a neutral perspective, I hope to have the opportunity to watch the best pure scorer in the world tonight.

Box Score

Notable Observations:

• Coming off a career-high night, you could tell Evan Turner was pressing to have a repeat performance. The first two times he had the rock, Turner forced a drive each time, with the two results being an ugly contested shot and a thunderous rejection. Turner shot just 5-17 on the night and had a team-worst -16 plus/minus; Hollis Thompson received his spot with the starters when the Sixers were trying to make a game of things in the closing minutes.
• As you might expect then, it was an excellent night for Hollis Thompson. The rookie was very aggressive attacking the offensive boards and getting easy put-backs, made sharp cuts to the hoop for lay-ins, and even made both his 3-point attempts on the night. The major mistake he made was fouling Kyle Lowry in the final minute with 5 seconds left on the shot clock and Lowry’s back to the basket when Philadelphia had just about climbed back into things. However, that was a simple rookie error and the Sixers will take 15 points and 9 boards from Thompson any time they can get it.
• Couple great lines from Malik Rose on the evening including his admission that he tends to clutch his wallet tighter around quiet people. He also scoffed at Blake Griffin jumping over the hood of a Kia because he talked about a guy he played high school ball with jumping over the length of a car. I generally agree with this, people make much more out of Griffin’s car jump than was basically warranted; he’s had much more impressive dunks than that cheesy prop throwdown.
• Molly Sullivan and the broadcast team brought up a cool stat that MCW was averaging nearly 18 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 steals through 41 games. The last guy to actually have those marks through half a season was Michael Jordan in the ’88-’89 season, just to put what the Sixers rookie is doing in perspective.

Tanking Implications: 

Not one of Carter-Williams’ best nights but the 3-5 performance from behind the arc was especially encouraging. The huge performance from Hollis Thompson basically covered the hope for the future portion of this equation and overall, it was a great night for draft stock with the Sixers losing and the Pelicans winning (need to make sure they don’t fall into the bottom 5). 4/5 tanks