76ers at Raptors
The Toronto Raptors imposed their will on the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals as Kawhi Leonard dominated. The 76ers will try to come up with a better defensive plan and even the series at one win apiece when they visit the Raptors for Game 2 on Monday.
Leonard poured in a postseason career-high 45 points on 16-of-23 shooting and added 11 rebounds, two steals and a block to lead Toronto to a 108-95 victory in Saturday's series opener. "This individual stuff, it's not big for me," Leonard told reporters. "To reach these goals, it's great when you do it and you could win. But our focus is every game trying to win the ballgame. That's why we're playing this game. We're not playing so I could score 50 or get 40 points, we're all on this team trying to say, 'Raptors win' at the end of the day." Philadelphia allowed the Raptors to shoot 51.9 percent from the floor and trailed by as many as 20 points in the second half. "I think they are a tough team to go up against our defensive set," 76ers star swingman Jimmy Butler, who shared the defensive assignment on Leonard with Ben Simmons, told reporters. "We talked about it. ... We talked about what we were going to do. I don't think we did a good job of doing what we said we were going to do."
TV: 8 p.m. ET, TNT, TSN (Toronto)
ABOUT THE 76ERS: Philadelphia All-Star center Joel Embiid averaged 24.8 points in four games while battling a knee injury in the first round but had trouble getting started against the Raptors and finished with 16 points on 5-of-18 shooting in 30 minutes. "I've got to help him more," 76ers coach Brett Brown told reporters of Embiid. "I think getting him into the post in different ways and bringing him out a little bit more than we did is something that I have to look at. But I give Toronto credit for their defensive effort tonight." Embiid was not the only Philadelphia star getting off to a rough start in the series as Butler was held to 10 points on 4-of-12 from the floor in 38 minutes.
ABOUT THE RAPTORS: Toronto's solid performance in the frontcourt on Saturday started with Leonard and continued with power forward Pascal Siakam, who scored 29 points on 12-of-15 shooting and knocked down 3-of-4 from beyond the arc. "It's unbelievable," All-Star point guard Kyle Lowry told reporters of Siakam. "He's just growing, man. The talent is there. He's fantastically just understanding how to play, and his confidence level just keeps getting bigger and bigger." Center Marc Gasol managed eight points and was a team-best plus-29 in 26 minutes of action while serving as the main defender against Embiid.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. 76ers SF Tobias Harris collected 14 points, 15 rebounds and six assists in Game 1.
2. Philadelphia SG JJ Redick led the team with 17 points on Saturday and scored in double figures in four of the last five contests.
3. Toronto is enjoying a franchise-best five-game postseason winning streak.