PHILADELPHIA — Kawhi Leonard let out a deep sigh and rubbed his eyes before facing the press after the Toronto Raptors embarrassed themselves in Game 3.

It’s fitting that Leonard was the only Raptors player to take the podium because he was the only Raptor who showed up. In the face of triple teams and half court traps, Leonard was still able to produce 33 points while shooting better than 50 percent from the field. Leonard continues to have one of the most efficient playoff runs of all-time, and he even gave the lifeless Raptors a shot to steal the win with a furious charge to end the third quarter before he needed a breather.

Sensing the urgency of the situation, Nick Nurse broke his rotation and turned to his steady veterans in Kyle Lowry and Marc Gasol to maintain momentum. But that plan backfired spectacularly, as Lowry immediately fouled Jimmy Butler for two free throws and bricked a long two, while Gasol passed up shots like they were the plague and stood still as Butler drove past him for a layup.

During the 143 seconds in which Leonard sat, Toronto’s deficit doubled from seven to 16 points. And when Leonard checked back in, the Sixers outright disrespected the other four Raptors on the floor by aggressively double teaming Leonard and daring anyone else to beat them. Nobody did a thing. The Sixers spent the rest of the quarter celebrating before their raucous home crowd. They had punked the Raptors and asserted their dominance in the series.

In the end, it was an entirely forgettable game for Toronto’s two most senior stalwarts. Lowry finished with seven points on 2-of-10 shooting and was elbowed in the groin, while Gasol allowed Joel Embiid to dance and dunk his way to 33 points in 28 minutes. They came up woefully short and left Leonard on an island.

“We’ve got to help him. We’ve got to help him. Myself especially, I’ve got to help him score more. I’ve got to help him on the floor. We’ve all got to help him. He’s playing unbelievable right now. We’re not giving him any help. Me, I’m not giving him any help. We’ve got to help him,” Lowry said.

For Lowry, this was yet another night where he was reluctant to shoot. Lowry had several opportunities to fire away from deep, but he didn’t trust his shot after going 0-for-4 from deep, and that stalled the Raptors’ attack. Lowry is well past the point where he can create his own shot, and so oftentimes these triples are his only weapon. When he turns those down, it’s not only a missed opportunity, but the entire offense loses its purpose. And when the Raptors struggle to crack 100 points and only record 15 assists as a team, that’s a reflection of their point guard.

It doesn’t help that Lowry is also saddled with too many responsibilities on defense. Not only is Lowry expected to win every loose ball and routinely step in for charges on players twice his size, but Lowry’s also called upon to run track meets with J.J. Redick while also muscling up against Butler when the Raptors go small. Lowry was disruptive and pesky in Games 1 and 2, but at some point it wears you down. Lowry is exhausting himself on defense, and if he doesn’t have his legs on the jumper, that’s probably why.

The same can be said of Gasol, who finally buckled beneath the weight of a 7-foot-3 battering ram. He repeatedly bit on Embiid’s fakes, was caught out of position when guarding him in space, and got flat-out worked around the rim. Gasol limited Embiid to only 28 points on 7-of-25 shooting in Games 1 and 2, but in hindsight that feels more attributable to Embiid’s bad knee and gastroenteritis. With Embiid at full strength in Game 3, he was able to push Gasol around on the block and he even threw down a windmill jam just for the fun of it. Gasol needs to get Embiid back under control, or this series is over.

On the other end, Gasol just stubbornly refuses to shoot the ball. For all the talk coming into the game on how Nurse wanted Gasol to be the third option, he still finished with only six attempts. Gasol seems either incapable or unwilling to punish Tobias Harris in the post, but worst of all, he just keeps passing up open shots. When everyone else is struggling, the Raptors need Gasol to take on the Brook Lopez mentality and fire away from three, but he always swings it to someone else, even if the next option is an inferior shooter.

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