The NBA reserves Christmas Day, when the league airs roughly 13 straight hours of basketball, to showcase its biggest stars and feature franchises to a global audience.
The Toronto Raptors haven’t appeared on that stage in 17 years, since Vince Carter was the face of the franchise, despite meeting the criteria.
DeMar DeRozan has already spoken out about the perceived disrespect for not being included in the league’s holiday plans, and on Saturday night made another case for why he might just have a point.
Facing the Philadelphia 76ers for the second straight game, DeRozan followed up a career-high 45-point performance on Thursday night with 29 in Saturday’s 102-86 win at the Air Canada Centre.
The Sixers, who will be playing on Christmas, had no answer for the Raptors all-star, nor his supporting cast. DeRozan helped remind everyone of the sizeable gap between an up-and-coming team like Philly and the perennial East contender the Raps have become over the last few seasons.
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DeRozan remained hot from behind the three-point line, going 4-for-7 from deep. He’s now 13-for-20 over his last three games. For context, he sunk 17 threes total in the 28 previous games this season.
“He has been doing an excellent job of shooting the basketball, playing with confidence, and we need him,” said Raptors head coach Dwane Casey. “We need that spark.”
Sixers coach Brett Brown sang DeRozan’s praises after the game. “The evolution of DeMar is amazing to me,” Brown said. “He’s always sort of been … an analytic nightmare where the math world doesn’t think it’s an efficient shot, then he makes them. Then he makes more … Then he starts adding the three-point shot and it’s like wow, it’s a complete package.”
Hot shooting aside, DeRozan’s reliability as a go-to scorer has become one of his biggest traits and is obviously a major asset to the Raptors. But the team has also been getting consistent contributions from other leaders heading into the holidays, particularly Serge Ibaka, who continued to shoot the ball well.
He finished with 17 points — 13 in the first quarter alone — in just under 25 minutes of action, while starters Kyle Lowry and Jonas Valanciunas also scored in double figures with 12 points apiece.
Joel Embiid, the Sixers star centre who is still trying to prove he can remain on the court long enough to lead Philadelphia back to the playoffs for the first time in six seasons, made his return to the starting lineup after sitting out three straight games due to back soreness.
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He didn’t miss a beat to start the game as Philadelphia looked to exploit his matchup with Valanciunas. On the first play of the game, the Sixers posted him up and he got Valanciunas to bite on a head fake before getting an easy two points at the rim. A few possessions later, he drilled a three from the top of the arc and sunk a driving hook shot near the free-throw line shortly after that. Barely five minutes into the game, Embiid had eight points, three boards, and an assist.
His presence obviously adds an entirely different dynamic to the Sixers that the Raptors didn’t have to deal with when these two teams faced off on Thursday night. But credit to Jakob Poeltl, who did a good job defending Embiid, staying disciplined — and on his feet — while guarding him, particularly in the second half.
Embiid finished with 14 points on 5-for-13 from the field in 23 minutes of action, but his minus-17 was the worst on his team. Embiid’s back soreness seemed to be lingering, as he squeezed his seven-foot-two frame onto the sidelines and lay down to treat his back between appearances, sort of like Steve Nash.
Philadelphia’s future clearly remains bright thanks to Embiid and Ben Simmons, last year’s first overall pick. Simmons got to the basket almost literally whenever he wanted to throughout the night, but failed to make a serious impact, scoring just 10 points (mostly, it seemed, by getting behind the Raps defence on the run and effortlessly finishing lobs at the rim) to go with five boards and six assists — though that number could have been higher.
With three-point gunner Robert Covington having an off-night (six points, 1-for-4 from deep), the Sixers really missed J.J. Redick, who was out with a hamstring injury. While the Simmons and the Sixers backcourt were able to create plenty of drive-and-kick opportunities against the Raptors for clean looks from deep, they only converted 26 per cent of their three-point shots.
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Simmons’ quiet scoring night had more than a little to do with Delon Wright, who was a second-unit standout in 25 minutes off the bench, much of it spent matched up with the Sixers star. Like Embiid, Simmons too shot just 5-for-13 from the floor. Wright registered three steals on Saturday night.
“Delon did a good job of spacing Simmons,” Casey said, “and lord knows that kid is going to be a handful once he gets his jump shot falling.”
Wright got to the basket with ease, twisting and maneuvering himself through the Sixers defence to create opportunities at the hoop. He finished with 14 points on 6-for-12 shooting, his shoulder issues seemingly behind him.
The Raptors improved their record to 23-8 and are now an NBA-best 12-1 at home.
The Raps of the past made a habit of playing down to their opponents, and any longtime fan can surely reel off a laundry list of disappointing losses against beatable opponents in seasons’ past. It’s a habit this year’s Raptors seem to have kicked.
“To be a good team you have to be able to take care of business whenever you go out there and play teams, especially the teams with lesser records,” said DeRozan, who can reel off a lengthy list of his own. “Not to overlook — or under-look — anybody, and that’s the mentality we have to go out with every single night, and that’s because we were once in that position and know what it feels like.”
They’ll continue to put that mindset to practice when they hit the road to play the Dallas Mavericks, currently the West’s worst team at 9-24, before the schedule gets tougher with games against the Thunder and Bucks to ring in the New Year.
