But the reason many are at least considering the possibility of a Raptors upset is because they are tailor-made to punish Philadelphia for their most glaring issues. Being an elite transition and offensive rebounding team will be less impactful if the Sixers reach something close to their offensive ceiling, where they simply have better high-end talent and firepower than the Raptors do.
#Bump of chicken ray cover series
There is a path to winning this series even if the Raptors are able to maintain their gaudy areas of strength from the regular season. If he only reclaims his elite catch-and-shoot numbers from the first part of the season, it makes a difference for Toronto, but trending in a positive direction on both fronts has the potential to compromise how Philly can defend the Raptors.
Van Vleet is shooting roughly equal shares of catch-and-shoot threes and pull-up threes since the All-Star break, shooting 29.4 percent and 29.6 percent on those looks respectively. The three-point shooting number is significant because it's not being driven by failure on one specific sort of shot. In and out of the lineup with a knee injury, Van Vleet has shot worse than Furkan Korkmaz, and his output is down across the board: He has been nowhere close to that guy for the past two months. Maxey in an early-season matchup - admittedly a matchup that is hard to extrapolate much from - Van Vleet went bonkers, dropping 32-6-7 and stealing a win on Philadelphia's home floor. In that scenario, the Raptors have another guy who can hurt Philadelphia in the halfcourt, a dangerous outside shooter with some on-ball juice who can target Philadelphia's weakest defensive links. If Van Vleet looks closer to the guy who he was prior to suffering a knee injury in mid-February, the Sixers are in big trouble. Which version of Fred Van Vleet will Toronto get in this series? If it's critical for the Sixers to get star-level performances from their star players, it's arguably just as important for Van Vleet to resemble the guy who opened the year on an absolute tear. Here are some of the important pivot points in Sixers-Raptors for you to judge accordingly. You all know where I stand on the series, but you can't plan for everything. All that's left now is to decide whether you will be irrationally confident in the Sixers taking care of business, or get your Chicken Little on looking at offensive rebounding stats for the Toronto Raptors. Tickets and pre-game beers have been purchased. Previews and predictions have been written.
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