Embiid becomes latest victim of Raptors’ star-stopping defence

Josh Lewenberg

TSN Raptors Reporter

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TORONTO – Although they insisted they were over it, they swore it was no longer on their minds, Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers had to be feeling a sense of déjà vu on their way out of the building Monday night.

They were back in Toronto for the first time since Kawhi Leonard’s iconic Game 7 buzzer-beater broke their hearts and ended their season last May.

However, even with Leonard on the opposite end of the continent, the result was the same. The Sixers left disappointed, having lost 101-96 to the shorthanded Raptors, and Embiid, who was devastated after coming up short in that series over six months ago, found himself searching for the words to explain another low point in his otherwise outstanding professional career.

“It starts with me, I can't have this type of production,” said the superstar centre after being held scoreless for the first time in 190 NBA games. “I would have never thought that I would be here, talking about zero points in an NBA game, but here's what it is.”

Perhaps he can take some solace in knowing that he’s not alone. The Raptors have neutralized many of the league’s best players this season.

So far, they’ve faced 11 players that made last year’s All-Star Game. If you include Dallas’ Luka Doncic, an early-season MVP candidate and sure-fire all-star this year, that makes 12. Of those 12 stars, only three have scored more than their season average against Toronto. Only two have shot better than their season field goal percentage.

Here’s how those star players have fared versus the Raptors this season:

Embiid is just the latest victim. The Raptors have held the 12 all-stars they’ve seen this season to a total of 174 points – nearly 100 fewer than their combined season averaged – on just 34 per cent shooting, down from their season mark of 47 per cent.

In the span of four days over their Western Conference road trip earlier this month, the Raptors limited LeBron James (13 points on 5-of-15 shooting), Leonard (12 points on 2-of-11) and Damian Lillard (9 points on 2-of-12) to 34 total points on 24 per cent shooting.

In two games against Orlando, they’ve held Magic centre Nikola Vucevic to eight points on 2-of-20 shooting, though he left the second meeting early with an ankle injury.

Even Doncic, who managed to score 26 points in the Mavs’ mid-November win over Toronto, did most of his damage from the line and shot 5-for-14, well below his season mark of 49 per cent.

The only established star to really go off against them to this point is the reigning NBA MVP, Giannis Antetokounmpo, who had 36 points on 14-of-20 shooting when the Bucks defeated Toronto in Milwaukee at the start of the month.

With the exception of Antetokounmpo, the Raptors have managed something that every team goes into every game trying to do, but few are able to execute successfully.

There’s a select group of players that – as the old adage goes – are too talented to stop, that you can only hope to contain. The goal is generally to make life as difficult as possible on those players, challenge them, and hope to limit the damage they cause. But, more often than not, Toronto has actually shut those players down.

That’s a credit to Nick Nurse and the coaching staff for the game plan and preparation, as well as the personnel for going out and executing it.

During last year’s playoff run, the Raptors developed a well-earned reputation for their work on the defensive end, particularly for the way in which they guarded the other team’s stars. In Round 1 they neutralized Vucevic. In the Sixers series they got under Embiid’s skin. After falling behind 0-2 to Milwaukee, they managed to take Antetokounmpo out of his comfort zone. In The Finals, they stifled Steph Curry with their “janky” box-and-1 defence.

They played extremely hard, designed creative schemes, and took advantage of the length, versatility and defensive savvy on their roster to win the championship.

However, when they lost Leonard and Danny Green – a couple of all-NBA calibre defenders – many expected them to take a big step back on that end of the floor. Instead, they’re arguably further along. Through 16 games last season, the Raptors ranked 13th in defensive efficiency. This year, they’re sixth.

“Our menu of the things we can do at this point, compared to this point a year ago, has quadrupled, if not more,” Nurse said after Monday’s win. “Last year, we were playing fundamental, foundation-building defence, and we had no schemes in. Now we've got too many. We have so many we don't know what to do with half of them.”

The championship run has a lot to do with that. The returning players have that experience and are better for it. They’re familiar with Nurse’s system and know the schemes. Even the new guys are benefiting from last season’s success.

Nurse and his staff have been using game tape from last spring to show the players – both new and old – what’s expected on the defensive end. There are film sessions where they’ll play it for the whole team. The assistants also use it in one-on-one sessions to get the newcomers or younger guys up to speed. For instance, they’ll show Rondae Hollis-Jefferson their coverage against a certain player or team from the playoffs and have him emulate the role of Leonard or Green in those clips.

“I think that is what we are trying to do here,” Nurse said. “Our job is to look at what is coming at us, talk about the many variations of what could possibly work defensively, simplify that a little bit, get some type of order in which you may kind of want to use this one and then this one and then this one, and then try to relay that to the team and then tell them why.”

It’s rare for teams to spend that much time on – or put that much detail into – designing a game plan for one particular opponent during the regular season, when you’re facing somebody new every couple of days. That level of game preparation is generally something you associate with the playoffs.

It’s no secret that Nurse and the Raptors have focused their defensive approach on taking out opposing stars and daring everybody else to beat them. There’s an inherent risk to playing that way, which Nurse is well aware of and accepts. By sending extra defenders at or locking in on one guy you become vulnerable to cutters and spot up three-point shooters. Those are things that have burnt them to varying degrees at points in most games, but they’ve stayed disciplined in their approach and it’s been paying off.

Mostly, it works because they’ve got the personnel to make it work. You can draw up and emphasize whatever you want but at the end of the day it’s on the players to execute it. Even without Leonard and Green, the Raptors have elite defensive talent at every position.

OG Anunoby and Hollis-Jefferson have more than filled the void on the wing.

Their guards, Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet, are generously listed at 6-feet but both play bigger than their height. VanVleet has been fantastic defensively, especially when you factor in his substantial offensive workload with Lowry out of the lineup. Post him up at your own peril. Of the 108 players that have defended at least 200 shots in the restricted area this season, he ranks 10th in opponent field goal percentage (54.8 per cent) and third among guards.

Marc Gasol and Pascal Siakam are tied for fifth in that category, holding opponents to 53.6 per cent in the restricted area.

At 34, Gasol’s not what he was when he won a Defensive Player of the Year award with Memphis. However, he was never the quickest or most athletic player. The things that have always made him a great defender – his physicality, IQ and positioning – allow his game to age gracefully on that end of the floor.

Although Gasol has struggled with his shooting to begin the season, he’s been the Raptors’ most important defensive player and the primary reason why they’ve had so much success against opposing bigs like Vucevic or Embiid.

“They're a good team,” Embiid said of the Raptors following Philadelphia’s upset loss in Toronto on Monday. “They've got guys that can do a lot of things on the basketball court. They're well coached and they do their jobs and they made sure that they stuck with the plan they had, especially taking me out of the game.”