Kawhi Leonard And Pascal Siakam Showed They Can Do The Incredible In Their Game 1 Win Over Philly

If the Toronto Raptors play the entire playoffs to the level they performed during their 108-95 Game 1 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday night, they could make a run to the NBA Finals look pretty easy. Kawhi Leonard scored a playoff career-best 45 points. That alone is enough for the Raptors to pick up a win, but add in the 29 points from Pascal Siakam, and it’s awfully hard to find a path to beating them.

It was a performance so great that even LeBron James had to give credit to what he was seeing.

Remember when James dominated the Raptors so frequently and easily that the city earned the facetious nickname LeBronto? These aren’t those Raptors. This team has a killer mentality to them, moving the ball with precision and creating open three-point looks constantly. If you attack them on the perimeter, they just dribble around you and go to the rim. Try a switching defense? Get ready to be posted up. If you manage to stop all of that, then Leonard or Siakam will take you off the dribble in an isolation set and score.

What Leonard has added to the Raptors is an incredible two-way force. He’s still the same defender that can shut down the NBA’s best scorers, but over the course of his career, his offensive game has become deadly. He has enough handle to dribble drive his way to the rim, but what’s really fascinating about him is how deceitful he can be with the ball. He constantly lulls defenders into a false sense of security, only to make them go the wrong way as he sets up an open look.

Yet, as great as Leonard has been, you can argue the reason the Raptors are as dangerous as they are is Siakam. It’s only his third season, but he’s already earned the label of superstar. Siakam can do everything — he has the size to battle bigs down low, but if you dare to leave him on the perimeter, he’ll make you pay with his jump shot. If you close out on him he has the ability to dribble inside and get to the rim, and his isolation game is impossible to defend because he’s just so long. It’s not a stretch to say Siakam is the perfect compliment to Leonard.

Of course, you can’t look at how great the Raptors were against Philly and not give credit to their defense. All postseason long, Marc Gasol has not only held onto his matchups individually, but he’s destroying teams in help. Joel Embiid is the best center on earth, and he has no idea how to attack Gasol.

When the Sixers try to post up with Embiid, if it’s against Gasol, then the Raptors can hold their own. If he gets a mismatch, then Gasol is always ready to move over to bring the double team. When Embiid kicks, the Raptors are athletic and fast enough to recover and chase the ball out. They’ve shut down the post game all season, and in the playoffs, they’ve suffocated it even more.

If the Sixers are going to have any chance at all in this series, then they have to find a way to get their starters to win their 1-on-1 matchups, but that’s easier said than done when Leonard and Siakam are playing like this. Add in what Gasol brings defensively and it looks awfully hard. However, the Raptors are not unbeatable, and it’ll be up to Philly to figure out what they need to adjust for Game 2.