The Philadelphia 76ers will have plenty of challenges when they take on the Toronto Raptors such as their physicality, their defensive ability, and the challenge of keeping them off the glass, but they also have an All-Star guard who is tough to stop.
Fred VanVleet is coming into the playoffs in a bit of a slump as he is shooting just 37.3% from the floor over his final 21 games and he has been dealing with a knee injury. He only played in one game against the Sixers in the regular season and he had 32 points on 6-for-11 shooting from deep with seven assists and six rebounds.
Tyrese Maxey will get a lot of time defending VanVleet in this series and he discussed how he plans on defending him.
“Just try to take away his tendencies,” Maxey said. “He’s a very good player. He’s an All-Star, he was on that championship team, and he’s very savvy. I’m just gonna try and press him and take what he wants, take that away from him. It’s gonna be hard, it’s gonna be a challenge, but as a competitor, you live for those types of moments.”
Not just VanVleet, the Raptors have a lot of guys who can take a defender off the dribble. Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby, Gary Trent Jr., Precious Achiuwa, Scottie Barnes, and others can play well in 1-on-1 situations. That is where Maxey, Danny Green, and Matisse Thybulle will have to step up.
“We have to guard 1-on-1 in this series,” said coach Doc Rivers. “They’re gonna spread you out, they have a lot of 1-on-1 guys. You look at our team, if we did that same dribble weave, how many of our guys are 1-on-1 players? You can look at their team and say they have six of them.”
Game 1 of this series will get set to begin on Saturday at 6 p.m. EDT from the Wells Fargo Center.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
[mm-video type=playlist id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01eqbvq570kgj8vfs7 image=https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
[listicle id=62545]
[lawrence-related id=62605,62602,62566]