Raptors youngsters get best of Embiid, underachieving 76ers

PHILADELPHIA — Well, if you can’t get excited about 19-year-old Ulrich Chomche getting in a wrestling match with his idol and countryman Joel Embiid, and throwing the Philadelphia 76ers star to the ground, well, what are we even doing here? 

Sixers fans could wonder the same thing as that was just one moment among many where their highly touted, highly paid and vastly underachieving team were shown no respect by an upstart Toronto Raptors team that played rookie Jonathan Mogbo, two-way signee Orlando Robinson and Chomche — the 57th pick in the draft who was playing academy basketball in Africa last season — at centre with starter Jakob Poeltl (hip) out of the lineup.

Embiid got the best of the box score — he finished with 27 points, 12 rebounds and four assists — but the former MVP, who was playing in just his 17th game this season due to a chronic knee problem, also had four turnovers, including a crucial fumble with nine seconds left when he passed up a potentially game-winning three with the Raptors leading by two and instead drove the ball into traffic and had it squirt out of his hands. 

Even the small group of Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles watching from the courtside had to look away at the sight of the late-game gaffe. The Sixers had one more chance to tie it with five seconds left after Gradey Dick went 1-of-2 from the line, but a Tyrese Maxey three was well short, securing the 106-103 win for Toronto. 

Instead of ‘Fly Eagles Fly’ the Sixers crowd sent their NBA team off the court with boos. 

It’s been that kind of year for the Sixers, who lost their fourth straight and six in their past seven to fall to 20-33 in a season where they were among the championship favourites. 

The Raptors finished off their three-game road trip with their first win after four straight losses but will have an even tougher task at home Wednesday night against the East-leading Cleveland Cavaliers in their last game before the All-Star break. 

Still, the Raptors improved to 17-37 and can take pride in a win that was sprinkled with contributions from all corners of their roster as they played without two starters — Poeltl and RJ Barrett, who has been out with a concussion but has been cleared and is expected to play against the Cavaliers. 

Ulrich may have finished with just one blocked shot and two missed field goals to show for his 12 minutes work, but the Raptors bench ignited when he got his hand on an Embiid lay-up and then in the tussle for the loose ball, flipped the seven-foot-one, 300-pound giant on his back. 

At the top end of the roster, Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley each played among their best individual games of the season and certainly their best game as a duo. 

Barnes was a force, attacking the basketball relentlessly. After going 0-8 from three in a loss against Houston on Sunday (Barnes is shooting 26.6 per cent from three on the season with over six attempts a game) he made a point of getting to the rim and was rewarded. He shot 10-of-14 on two-point field goals (and was 1-of-2 from three) and was 12-of-15 from the free throw line, marking career highs for makes and attempts from the stripe.

In his post-game comments, Barnes attributed his determination to attack the paint to comments from The Raptors Show co-host Matt Bonner, where the 12-year NBA veteran criticized Barnes for settling for threes rather than pushing forward more. 

“I just wanted to be aggressive going downhill, showing some burst and be able to just try to get past the defender,” he said. “I think (Monday) I was just going to ice, and I was watching Matt Bonner. He was talking about something (on his podcast), talking about how I can’t go to the rim, how I can’t get past people. So I think that kind of motivated me a little bit as well. I was trying to get to the rim, be able to use my burst of speed, getting to the rim, getting fouled, getting free layups. Felt great today.”

Hey, whatever it takes. 

Meanwhile Quickley, playing in just his 15th game after dealing with multiple injuries, looked as close to the version of the point guard to whom the Raptors paid $175 million this past summer as he has all season. He played a season-high 34 minutes and finished with 23 points and five assists while shooting 7-of-11 from the floor and 4-of-8 from three. 

“I try to go out there and play hard, be aggressive,” said Quickley. “Some games you play good, some games you don’t. I’m starting to get back in the rhythm offensively, defensively. Teammates put me in a great position.”

But it wasn’t just the Raptors’ two highest-paid players (well, technically Barnes’ five-year, $225 million extension doesn’t kick in until next season) who were on their games. 

Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic’s rotation went 11 deep, and he devoted 94 of a possible 240 minutes to five rookies — none drafted higher than Ja’Kobe Walter at 19th — and two-way signee Orlando Robinson, a third-year pro with 86 games of NBA experience. With the Raptors leading by three, Rajakovic rolled out a lineup featuring three rookies — Walter, Jamal Shead and Chomche — with Barnes and Quickley to start the fourth and lived to tell about it. 

“It says a lot of things, first of all, about our front office being able in the draft to find all of those guys that are high-character people, hard-working kids, really improving from game to game,” Rajakovic said of his willingness to play his young group and still get a win. “Then it speaks volumes about our assistant coaches, who are working every single day with them, pouring everything into them, and you see their development as the season is progressing there, those guys are progressing. So kudos to front office and assistant coaches and players.”

But perhaps nothing summed up the differing fortunes of the Raptors and the Sixers than the minutes Chomche and Embiid spent on the floor with each other. That Embiid wasn’t really able to impose himself says less about Chomche — at six-foot-10 and just over 200 pounds, the raw 19-year-old in normal circumstances would only be an annoyance for the Sixers star — than about where Philadelphia’s franchise star is and might be going. 

Embiid was playing in just his 17th game this year and reportedly will need more surgery on his right knee, which he covers in a bulky brace for the moment. He looked slow and rusty. Paul George played in just his 34th game and finished with just 14 points while their third star on a ‘max’ deal, Tyrese Maxey, was 1-of-9 from the floor for five points. Embiid, George and Maxey finished just their 10th game together all season. They are 6-4 in those games, which doesn’t seem like a great return on investment given that Embiid has four years and $234 million left on his contract at age 30 and George has three years and $163 million left at age 34 with his own injury history to be concerned about. 

It’s probably not what Nick Nurse signed up for when he did the old ‘you can’t fire me, I quit’ thing with the Raptors after the 2022-23 season, likely hoping to skip a pending Toronto rebuild and ride with Embiid to a future filled with NBA Finals. 

It’s not looking good, let’s just put it that way.

The Raptors’ future isn’t all that much more certain, but after games like Tuesday’s against the Sixers you can see the outline of something: Barnes playing like an all-star; Quickley supporting him and a roster full of developing young talent, all with the potential of a top-five pick and the newly signed Brandon Ingram waiting in the wings. 

It might just be something worth looking forward to.

Afterwards I asked Chomche about playing against Embiid. Was he excited? 

“I’m always excited to be on the court,” Chomche, whose first language is French, said. “So it was a pleasure to be there. And competing against Embiid was something very good because he’s one of the players I’ve been admiring and watching since I started playing basketball. 

“Even when I was on the court, I said ‘I’m happy to be here.’ And he said, ‘good, enjoy the journey.’”

It’s easier some nights than others.