Philadelphia 76ers (3) vs Toronto Raptors (6)

 

 

A match up that wasn’t decided until the very last game of the season, this match up will be as tight as the competition to get to this spot was. An undermanned Raptors team ended up sneaking into the 6th spot leading to the dominoes falling (to a sigh of relief to the rest of the east) pushing the Indiana Pacers out of the playoffs entirely. Much to the chargrin of GM of the 76ers, Ben, they may have the better team on paper but go up against a long Raptors squad that as one of the best 2k tactical GMs in the league in Dylan. The teams may look a bit lop sided on paper with one team having an MVP candidate in Fox and the other lead by two rookies but this series will be a rock fight and I for one am excited to see it.

 

76ers

One of the best seasons in the teams history and with every second rounder in the next 30 drafts, Philadelphia are in a prime spot to have this be the beginning of their sitting atop the East year after year. The 76ers are near full strength for the playoffs with Brogdon returning from injury that saw him not play the last few weeks of the season. They are a little light on bigs so it’ll ne up to the guards led by the point guard and MVp candidate on the squad, DeAaron. Averaging 30 points and 7.4 assists on 52/34/81, its a spectacular season for Fox and will be the key driving factor the 76ers will lean on to get points on board for the squad against what will be a tough defensive squad. Fox is one of the quickest players in the league with a blink and you’ll miss it first step that allows him to get to the rim at will and with the power and finesse to finish in a variety of ways but also have the body control to draw 8.4 free attempts per game, good for 2nd in the league! Add all those factors together and you can see why Ben put the team on his young stars shoulders in the construction of the team. The big man rotation will be one to watch here as there’s no established proven player at C and will have to be “bigs by committee” approach to slow down the rookie sensation big man on the other side.

 

Raptors

Speaking of the other side, we have the Toronto Raptors. A team has mentioned before lost their “best” player for the season and you would’ve thought they were going to throw in the towel but ended up fighting their way through injury to make it into the final locked in playoff spot in the 6th seed. This is a super young team with (any in other year) two rookie of the year candidates in Chet and Amen. Once Randle went down the team gathered around Chet and only will go as far as he will take them. They are a bit light on depth but a team they don't mind getting funky with their line ups/rotations or playbooks with length and athleticism all over the roster, they aren’t as easy to beat as their record or years in the league average as one would expect. The unpredictability of the youth will have a huge say in how this squad goes and I for one am excited to see where this team goes.

 

X Factors

Besides having a MVP candidate on the squad, the 76ers are filled with veteran talent all throughout the roster. This depth and badge discrepancies is going to play the biggest part in them getting the win over the Raptors. They have multiple different line ups they can play and its just a matter of finding the right one to exploit the other sides weaknesses. Sometimes having too much of a good thing can be harmful so its going to be on Ben to find the exact amount of minutes and where they should be spread to get the best out of the team. There is a winning combination there, it just needs to be found in my opinion.

 

The Raptors X factor is going to be their GM who seems to have studied 2k in ways that the rest of us haven’t. Able to get the best out of whatever players he has on the floor, you know he is going to be cooking up something to counter whatever the 76ers decided to do. They may not have the talent but sometimes they isn’t what decides who wins these series. Punches and counter punches, Dylan loves to throw a feint then a surprise knee to the groin. It’ll be an interesting watch if meticulous strategic planning can overcome sheer overall talent.

 

Summary

This is one of the more tough series to pick and will be a true rock fight. Hard to go by the previous wins of these squads as they look different from most match ups they’ve had. I tend to lean talent over everything and that will reflect in my prediction I wouldn’t be surprised with any result that could happen here. Could Dylan figure a way to stop the 76ers star player and sneak away 4 wins? Can Ben lock down a rotation that compliment each other best and overwhelm the opposition with talent? There’s only one way to find out and boy oh boy am I looking forward to finding out.

 

76ers in 7 with one game going into overtime.