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Five observations, 'best' and 'worst' awards from Sixers' 128-94 loss to Toronto Raptors

Three games into the season, the Sixers are one of the NBA's leaders in turnovers.

Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan (left) shoots over 76ers guard Jerryd Bayless (0) as Raptors center Jakob Poeltl (42) and 76ers forward Dario Saric (right) look on.
Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan (left) shoots over 76ers guard Jerryd Bayless (0) as Raptors center Jakob Poeltl (42) and 76ers forward Dario Saric (right) look on.Read moreFrank Gunn / The Canadian Press via AP
    by Keith Pompey | Columnist
    Published 

TORONTO — Here are my key takeaways and best and worst awards from the 76ers' 128-94 loss to the Toronto Raptors on Saturday night at Air Canada Centre.

Key takeaways

  1. Joel Embiid's presence makes a huge difference for J.J. Redick. With Embiid not on the floor, the Raptors turned their attention to Redick, who struggled. He couldn't get a lot of open looks as the Raptors kept running him off the three-point line. Redick finished with six points on 2-for-8 shooting, missing both of his three-point attempts.

  2. Without Embiid, the Sixers aren't better than last season's squad. They were basically manhandled in every area of the game.

  3. The Sixers might want to consider sitting Markelle Fultz for at least a couple of days. The effort is there, but the shoulder is obviously bothering him. His free-throw attempts have become hard to watch.

  4. Jahlil Okafor needs to get more minutes. The reserve center finished with 10 points on 4-for-7 shooting in 22 minutes — his first game action of the season.

  5. The Sixers are, once again, one of the league leaders in turnovers. They had 20 on Saturday after combining for 33 in their first two games.

Best and Worst awards

Best performance: Raptors power forward Serge Ibaka gets this award on a night when his teammate, DeMar DeRozan, finished with a game-high 30 points. Ibaka was the most dominant player on the floor, especially in the third quarter. That's when he scored 11 of his 21 points on 4-for-4 shooting. Three of those shots were three-pointers.

Worst performance: Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot looked overmatched during his 10 minutes, 41 seconds off the bench. The Sixers swingman finished with four points on 1-for-5 shooting. He also had three turnovers.

Best defensive performance: This goes to Jakob Poelti. The Raptors reserve post player finished with a game-high three blocked shots and one steal.

Worst statistic: This was a hard one. But I decided to give it to the Sixers' 20 turnovers over their 61.1 percent foul shooting.

Best statistic: This goes to the Raptors' 10 blocked shots. In addition to Poelti's three, Ibaka, Delon Wright, and Lucas Nogueira had two apiece. Norman Powell added one.

Worst of the worst: The Sixers' defense. Toronto's offense resembled a layup line, as the Sixers failed to keep the Raptors in front of them.