PHILADELPHIA—Maybe it was too easy to think ahead. Maybe the big ideas — Milwaukee in the conference final, and maybe even an NBA final that might not be a death sentence — crowded out the moment, in the noise.It’s more likely that Philadelphia can be this good, and this series is exactly this tight. The Toronto Raptors had a chance on Thursday night to eliminate the 76ers, and instead repeated too many of the mistakes of Game 3, and Game 2. This second-round series has been a tug-of-war: The teams have now exchanged home blowouts, and road wins that looked like they were played with rocks, and now home blowouts again. This time Philly won 112-101. Game 7 is Sunday, in Toronto.“There was just too many fast momentum swings, I think,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said. “We didn’t play with enough force, we didn’t play hard enough, we didn’t stand in there, we didn’t play with enough physicality.” He said the missed shots throughout, and especially in key moments, hurt. Before the game he described this team’s identity as “play our butts off, to guard ya, and to move the ball. When we don’t, we are going to get beat. When we do, we have an awfully good chance.”Well, the Raptors didn’t give themselves enough of a chance, despite a 10-0 run in response to Philadelphia’s early push, and despite another in the second quarter, and despite some fight in the second half.Nearly all the bugaboos were back. Centre Marc Gasol’s shooting touch and shooting readiness from Game 5 were gone; he had an open three to cut the lead to six in the third and missed, and fell to 0-for-5 from the field. Just 100 seconds later he had made a couple defensive mistakes and the Sixers lead was back to 17. He had already missed an open three that could have cut it to five in the second quarter; the Sixers ended the half on a 9-2 run.The big Spaniard has transformed this team with his pa ...
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