TORONTO–The Philadelphia 76ers finally put the Toronto Raptors behind them with a 132-97 Game 6 win to officially eliminate those pesky Raptors and now move on to Round 2. The Sixers once held a 3-0 lead in this series, but Toronto won two in a row to make it a series before Philadelphia got it done.
The Raptors were a feisty group. Even while losing Rookie of the Year Scottie Barnes for a couple of games and then losing All-Star Fred VanVleet as well, they were able to hang with it and push the Sixers a bit despite the tall task.
Now, Philadelphia will move on to the Miami Heat, but the Raptors gave them a challenge they will not forget.
James Harden
“That was one of the toughest series that I’ve played in. Just because of their switching, their athleticism, their length, they’re throwing different defenses at you, box And-1’s, zones, and just they mess up the game. Credit to Nick Nurse, but they’re a resilient team. They had injuries, guys in and out of the lineups, and just continue to fight, continue to find a way to stay in the game, huge shoutout to them, credit to them for even pushing to a Game 6. Even without Fred in the lineup for a few games. They had a helluva series and helluva season.”
“It was definitely a lot of learning lessons. Obviously, first off, you can’t get too high, you can’t get too low, and then we just gotta stick with each other. There’s so much outside noise that can creep in when you don’t exceed expectations. We know as a group, we have to hold each other accountable and just be ready. It’s the playoffs. Teams are gonna make adjustments. Things are not gonna go your way. Sometimes, things are gonna go your way, but you gotta be truly resilient through the process. Tonight, you saw that. A full effort pretty much the whole game of how we wanted to play and just sticking through. We just gotta stay balanced. Especially, during this stretch. That’s huge for us. Just stay balanced. Can’t get caught up in what everyone has to say. We understand, we wanted to sweep. As NBA players, we wanted to sweep. It didn’t happen that way, but for us, I think it’s part of our story and it’s one thing that’s gonna happen that’s gonna lead to the growth of our unit and our team. I knew going into this series after Game 4 that we lost that it wasn’t gonna be easy for us and we don’t want it to be easy. We just gotta fight through that.”
Doc Rivers
“I would like to say congratulations to the Raptors. I thought this series made us a better basketball team. We actually needed them in some ways. We are a new team and we’re still growing so with all the switching and all the different things they did, I thought it was really good for our team. I thought it was really something good to go through. We obviously came out winning the series 4-2. It was really good, but we were pushed, and we were pushed because of them and I thought that was great.”
“A ton. We wouldn’t want it any different way. We felt that this was the series we needed to prepare if we were to move forward to another team, a better team, or the next team that this team would prepare us for that next stage. They threw different things at us, different random stuff, trapping, jumping and going, and trusting each other. We had to play the right way and play for 48 minutes in order to beat them. They weren’t going to quit so for sure that’s what Miami’s gonna do. They probably shoot a lot more 3s, but we know we have to box out, get to the offensive glass, not let them get to the offensive glass, but we have a couple days to take a short breath. No real-time to exhale and we have to get ready for the next opponent. “
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