Short-handed Raptors fall into 0-2 hole as 76ers dominate on home court

Seconds after the final buzzer sounded, the television camera caught Raptors coach Nick Nurse and Sixers big man Joel Embiid having a cordial sideline conversation.

Philadelphia had just beaten Toronto 112-97 to take a 2-0 lead in their first-round playoff series and Embiid had run roughshod over the Raptors, scoring 12 of his 31 points on free throws, and hauling down 11 rebounds.

"[Embiid] was saying to me, 'I'm going to keep making all the free throws, if you keep following,' and I said, 'Well, you might have to,"' Nurse said of the post-game chat that largely summed up the night.

OG Anunoby had 26 points for the Raptors, who were playing without Scottie Barnes. Toronto's prized rookie suffered a left ankle sprain in Game 1 and sat courtside in a walking boot. An ailing Gary Trent Jr., started the game but played only nine minutes.

Pascal Siakam had 20 points and 10 rebounds for Toronto. Fred VanVleet scored 20 points and Chris Boucher finished with 17 points and eight rebounds.

WATCH | 76ers run past Raptors to take 2-0 lead:

The best-of-seven series now heads to Toronto for Game 3 on Wednesday, the first time Scotiabank Arena has hosted playoff basketball since Game 5 of the NBA Finals in 2019.

Despite a pair of ugly losses in Philadelphia, the Raptors managed to claw back from a 27-point deficit to pull within 11 points on Monday, some positive momentum they say they can build on.

"One thing about this team all season, we never quit, we're pretty good at facing adversity, we've responded to challenges throughout the year and you've got to love the fight and effort from guys," VanVleet said. "As long as there's time on the clock, we're going to continue to fight and scrap.

Nurse said winning one game in Philadelphia, even if they'd been completely healthy, would have been considered an upset.

"And the way we finished the game, I don't see [that] our guys are discouraged at all," the coach said. "I think they'll rise up and they'll play better. We need to get one and we get ourselves back in the series."

Toronto got off to a strong start and led by a point at the end of the first quarter.

"They wanted to muck the game up and play physical," Sixers coach Doc Rivers said. "I just told our guys to just play through it."

Philadelphia took a 95-71 advantage into the fourth quarter.