First half

An important point of discussion in this series was how good Toronto was in offensive rebounds, something the Sixers struggled with all year. Philly used his height advantage to overturn it in the first quarter, grabbing six offensive boards in the first quarter. Joel Embiid did a great job anchoring this, downloading three himself. Their ability to keep their belongings alive was a big reason they were able to start a warm start. Tyrese Maxey was the other reason for the Sixers’ good start. He flew around the floor at both ends of the floor from the jump and had a first quarter of 10 points in his first start in the playoffs. The Raptors managed to keep the game close by making many powerful shots early.

Great job in the non-Embiid minutes from Philly, as he checked back in a 10 point game. Paul Reed had a shaky moment, but settled well. James Harden and Tobias Harris did a good job aggressively during this journey, as Harden finally saw the step back begin to fall again. Harris led Fili to score at half time, scoring 16 points in 7 of 11 shots. Just an amazing attacking first half for the Sixers. The movement of their ball was excellent from the beginning, closing the ball around the perimeter, lifting 19 three-pointers at halftime. Incredibly, they had 15 assists and zero errors at half time. Embiid was great for closing the first half, as he took advantage of the fact that no one on the Toronto roster can hang out with him. He reached the line nine times at halftime, putting both Fred VanVleet and Chris Boucher in a major foul problem. Both would foul in the fourth quarter.

Second half

The third ten minutes started very familiar to the Sixers fans. After reaching a lead of 24, it dropped to 11 in just a few minutes and then became Tyrese Maxey’s game. Maxey had 21 of his 38 in the third quarter. It was the second ten minutes with the most scores for a Sixer in the playoffs, per Sixers Statistics. This Harden bounce brought Maxi and the crowd back to him.

Maxey was the best possible version of himself this quarter, he was driving deadly in the basket and far beyond the bow. It has been said millions of times this season, but the leap he made as a player and shooter this year is incredible. There’s still not a very big moment for Tyrese Maxey.

Only a cable-to-cable win for the Sixers, who did not give the Raptors another chance to get back in the game in the fourth quarter. They could not have asked for a better start to the post-season. They can extend the lead to 2-0 on Monday night.