Philadelphia 76ers must show 'effort and energy' to avoid humiliation after Game 5 'disgrace'

It's never happened before but if the Toronto Raptors can beat the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday night, then they will sit on the cusp of creating NBA history.

They would be just the fourth team to force a Game 7 after being 3-0 down in a series and could become the first to overturn a 3-0 deficit to win.

Before they can think about that though, they have to win on Thursday night, live on Sky Sports Arena at 12am (midnight) at Scotiabank Arena, to set up a winner-take-all Game 7 in Philadelphia on Saturday. Win that, and it would be an achievement close to rivalling their 2019 championship run, especially given the injuries that Nick Nurse's team has faced in the series to the likes of Scottie Barnes and Fred VanVleet.

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The humiliation for Philadelphia, on the other hand, would be seismic.

A team doubled-down upon by the front office with an all-in deadline day trade which added James Harden to MVP-calibre talent in Joel Embiid – and in doing so created a one-two punch seemingly better than any other in the league – would have fallen at the first hurdle in the postseason and in historically embarrassing fashion.

Doc Rivers, who has three times blown 3-1 leads as a coach would become the first-ever to blow a 3-0 lead.

The problem for Philly is though, it hasn't all come together in the way that they had planned. Harden has been nowhere near the player the Sixers thought they were getting, particularly when it comes to scoring.

Also worth noting is the injury to star man Joel Embiid, who has a torn thumb ligament, which is hampering him but not to the degree that there shouldn't be enough talent to step up in what – on paper – looks a beefy Philadelphia roster and take care of Toronto.

But that's the key, games of basketball aren't won on paper. They're won through hard work, effort and determination – over and above skill. Skill only acts as a differentiator if the levels of sweat and toil are the same on both sides.

In Game 5, that certainly wasn't true, and unless something changes in Game 6 and, potentially, Game 7, the Sixers could be facing the ultimate sporting embarrassment.

"I think the Philadelphia 76ers are under a lot of pressure," said Sky Sports HeatCheck pundit Mo Mooncey, @TheHoopGenius on Twitter. "What I saw in Game 5 at home from the Philadelphia 76ers was abysmal.

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"Philly [has] got some of the best fans in the entire association and Philly fans love to talk their stuff. They're always talking about 'Joel Embiid is the MVP' and 'Thybulle's the best defender, we're gonna win the East', but after Game 5 was the first time that Philly fans have not been talking their stuff. They're all worried.

"They're all embarrassed because of the lack of effort and energy displayed by that team, which had the chance to close out the Toronto Raptors who were missing All-Star guard Fred VanVleet. They fumbled it big time. Their defense was lackadaisical and lazy. The offense was sloppy.

"It was a disgrace to the city of Philadelphia the performance they put on in Game 5, and they need to bounce back on the road in Game 6 because if the Toronto Raptors can put together three straight wins, then everyone in Philly is [in] trouble."

Mooncey's fellow HeatCheck pundit, three-time NBA champion BJ Armstrong, reckons that given James Harden's struggles, the Sixers may have to look to someone else on the team to provide the secondary scoring punch needed to finish a Toronto Raptors team which will fight with every ounce they have.

"The Toronto Raptors are not going away and they're not going away anytime soon," said Armstrong. "You're going to have to knock this team out. Right now, the Philadelphia 76ers have to answer this question: are they ready to provide the effort and energy necessary to win this game? We know they have the talent, we know they have scorers, we know they have the ability to do it – but are they going to give the effort and the energy necessary to do it?

"One thing we know about this Toronto Raptors team, they're going to bring it. They're going out, they're going to play hard for 48 minutes.

"Unless the Philadelphia 76ers find who's going to be the second option – we're saying maybe James Harden – but I'm going to be on the watch to see if Tyrese Maxey or Tobias Harris are going to be that second scorer that's going to be needed to complement Joel Embiid, if they're going to go in there to Toronto and win in a hostile environment."

The pressure is also on Doc Rivers like never before, something the coach perhaps belied in an impassioned response he gave about blowing 3-1 series leads in the past, as referenced above.

Mooncey believes Nick Nurse is winning the coaching battle in the series and that Rivers needs to muster a response.

The HeatCheck pundit added: "I think Doc Rivers is under a lot of pressure because Nick Nurse – you see this in almost every series that he coaches in the playoffs – they take the first two games to feel out the opposition and then they figure out what adjustments need to be made. They make those adjustments, and then they apply the pressure. Right now I need to see Doc Rivers making some of those adjustments."

For Nurse and his team, the message remains the same as it did when a heart-breaking overtime loss off the back of a spectacular Embiid turnaround jumper put them in a 3-0 hole.

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"If somebody could do it, it'd be us," he told his players. "We have nothing to lose."

Philadelphia, on the other hand, has everything to lose – but still, two opportunities remain on Thursday, live on Sky Sports Arena at 12am (midnight) and then potentially on Saturday, to stave off historic sporting ignominy.

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