Raptors win embarrassing tankathon against Philadelphia 76ers

Old-timers used to say you can’t tell the players without a program, and that was likely the case on Wednesday night in Toronto when the Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers faced off with both teams missing most of their regular players.

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Toronto controlled the contest for most of the night, survived a third quarter push from the visitors and eventually came away with a 118-105 victory, the team’s fifth in the last six games as dreams of drafting Duke star Cooper Flagg recede further into the distance with each passing game.

Jared Rhoden scored 25 in his first NBA start, Colin Castleton grabbed 14 rebounds in his first start, Canadian A.J. Lawson contributed 28 off the bench, Orlando Robinson 25. Quentin Grimes led Philadelphia with 29 while former Raptor Jeff Dowtin Jr. scored 20.

The paying customers got treated to Jakob Poeltl, Andre Drummond, Kelly Oubre Jr., plus many other players they likely didn’t know much about.

That’s what happens when the Raptors rest starting point guard Immanuel Quickley, have starting small forward RJ Barrett out for personal reasons, star power forward Scottie Barnes resting to heal up a hand injury, shooting guards Gradey Dick, Ochai Agbaji and Ja’Kobe Walter all injured. And that was just a portion of the Toronto side missing. Nick Nurse’s struggling 76ers (13 losses over the previous 15 games heading into Wednesday) were once again without former NBA MVP Joel Embiid and all-stars Tyrese Maxey and Paul George, amongst others.

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Raptors legend Kyle Lowry was also unavailable in what might have been his last game in Toronto, though the veteran will surely aim to stick around for a 20th NBA season next year.

The missing players totalled nearly 80% of the combined salary caps for the two teams.

Welcome to meaningless March basketball.

The Raptors led by six after a quarter and by 14 at halftime, but a big Philadelphia run cut it to 89-86 after three quarters.

Toronto quickly ran the lead back to double figures and was never threatened again.

Philadelphia was 12 games over .500 last season and had high hopes after signing George, who was coming off his best season in years, but this team started 2-12 and never got into gear. Philadelphia was 13-17 on Dec. 30, but the constant Embiid issue, could with all the other injuries have been too much to overcome. There have been nine and seven-game losing streaks since then.

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“Obviously, very, very difficult,” was how Nick Nurse summarized the season pre-game.

Meanwhile, Toronto has been going the opposite way, going 15-11 since January 11, putting the team pretty close to no man’s land, out of the high lottery and not quite in play-in range.

Philadelphia moved below Toronto in the reverse standings with the loss.

Next up is a trip west with games in Utah, Portland, Phoenix and Golden State, before returning to play San Antonio on March 23.

@WolstatSun

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