Raptors Playing with 'Nothing to Lose' as Pressure Builds for 76ers

The Toronto Raptors are playing loose with nothing to lose while the Philadelphia 76ers begin to worry about another playoff disappointment

Aaron Rose | Apr 27, 2022

Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Blind faith only goes so far.

That's the biggest difference between the Toronto Raptors and the Philadelphia 76ers right now. For nearly a decade, Philadelphia has been asking its fans to trust the process. Bear with us, they said through the down years of Sam Heinke's tenure, in the end, it will all work out. While organizations like Toronto's have gone the last decade with sustained success save for one season abroad and have built up a war chest of trust equity in the front office, patience has begun to wear thin in Philadelphia.

Look no further than Game 5 in Philadelphia when the boo birds rained down on the 76ers despite a 3-2 series lead. Even with the clock winding down in regulation and the game not quite over, fans had already begun heading for the exits, unable to watch any longer.

"I was asking where they were going," Chris Boucher joked Wednesday, perplexed by the 76ers fans' desire to leave early. "I feel like a lot of their fans when we were going to the bench, they were talking reckless, to be honest with you. If they would have won the game I bet they would have said a lot of stuff. Fortunately, we did. Me and Precious had a good time talking back to them.”

Right now, the Raptors are playing free. Sure, the Game 3 loss was a slap in the face, as Boucher said, but Toronto isn't worried right now. The Raptors licked their wounds and after an evening of sulking, they came back ready to go.

"I wouldn't really say there's too much pressure," Gary Trent Jr. said Wednesday. "We feel like we can win and play with anybody. So, experience or not, we feel like we got a chance."

That's in stark contrast to the 76ers who have a coach in Doc Rivers with more blown 3-1 series leads than anyone else in NBA history and a pair of superstar players in James Harden and Joel Embiid, the former more so than the latter, whose resumes are littered with playoff disappointments.

Doc Rivers got a little defensive when discussing his past teams' collapses 👀 pic.twitter.com/88PqjDDUZa
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) April 27, 2022

"We are just trying to win one game at a time. We got nothing to lose," Boucher added.

That's the freedom Toronto is playing with these days. The Raptors know this isn't a championship-or-bust season. Their core is young, on average just 24 years old, with plenty of playoff opportunities to come. If they win this series, great, but the goal of this season was to make the playoffs and get experience.

"We have nothing to lose," Raptors coach Nick Nurse reiterated. "Nothing to lose."

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