NBA DFS: Playoff Preview – Sixers vs. Raptors

NBA DFS: Series Preview

Hello everyone and welcome to my first attempt at a series preview for round two of the NBA playoffs. My focus for these breakdowns will be mainly for DFS purposes as I try to give you some helpful info for making those NBA DFS lineups over the course of the next few weeks.

Instead of analyzing each slate as they come out, I’d rather take a look at both teams without their DFS price tags, how they match up, which players are trending up or down, and then use that information when it comes time to make a lineup.

I’m really excited for these Eastern Conference semi-finals. The first round was predictable, but I think all four of these teams have a great chance of moving on to the Conference finals and both of these series give us some really compelling matchups (don’t worry, my Bucks-Celtics breakdown will follow this one shortly!)

Game 1 between the Sixers and Raptors is set for Saturday at 7:30. Both of these teams were eliminated in round 2 last year, so one of them will be advancing further this year. Both teams added important pieces to their rotations this year. The Raptors traded DeMar DeRozan for Kawhi Leonard, while the Sixers added Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris (among others) during the season this year in an attempt to bolster their roster.

This series preview is going to take a quick look at how both teams fared in their round 1 series, how their rotations have tightened, and how they’re performed against each other in their regular season matchups. Let’s dive right in with a quick look at each team’s performance against their round one opponents!

NBA DFS: Raptors vs. Sixers

The Raptors defeated the Orlando Magic in 5 games to advance to round two. After losing a close game in the opener, Toronto ended up handling the Magic and winning the next four games by double digits. Here are the top performers from the Raptors in this series.

Pascal Siakam: 22-8-3 on 53% shooting

Kawhi Leonard: 28-6-3 on 55% shooting.

Kyle Lowry: 11-5-8 on 44% shooting.

Siakam and Leonard were clearly the main options on offense for Toronto and both posted some impressive individual performances against Orlando.

The Sixers had a similar situation in their series, as they dropped the opener to the Nets and followed up by winning the next four games to close them out while posted a gaudy 127.5 points per game. Their offense was humming with major contributions from the big four. Here were their stat lines.

Joel Embiid (4 games): 25-13.5-3.5 with 3.8 steals/blocks

Ben Simmons: 17-6-7 with 2.5 steals/blocks

Tobias Harris: 17-9-4 with 1.6 steals/blocks

Jimmy Butler: 16-5-4 with 2.6 steals/blocks

J.J. Redick managed only 13 points per game with almost no peripheral stats and saw his minutes drop to 28/game. Perhaps the Philly stats are a bit inflated as the Nets played very little defense, but we can see that all of the big four will certainly be in play in this series against Toronto, too.

So far the playoff rotations for both teams have been pretty tight in the close games, but a few games in both series turned into blowouts that led to some more bench players seeing time.

The three safest players from a minutes perspective for Toronto are Kawhi Leonard, Pascal Siakam, and Kyle Lowry. Fellow starters Danny Green and Marc Gasol are stuck in timeshares with bench players Serge Ibaka and Fred VanVleet. Norman Powell has been the 8th man in the rotation for the Raptors playing 19 minutes a game.

The Sixers rotation has been pretty tight, too, with only 8 players getting significant minutes in the rotation in games that weren’t blowouts. Mike Scott and James Ennis have been the first guys off the bench filling in on the wing and inside, while Boban Marjanovic has picked up a few minutes at backup center (and a few big games, including in the one game that Embiid missed).

It’s hard to trust the minutes for bench players during the playoffs, but when building rosters it’s usually imperative to find some value plays that can help you cram in some studs into those lineups.

NBA DFS: Raptors vs. Sixers

These two powerhouses faced off 4 times this season, with the Raps winning the season series 3-1. Here are those scores and links to those boxscores if you want to dig a little deeper.

October 30: Raptors 129, Sixers 112

December 5: Raptors 113, Sixers 102

December 22: Sixers 126, Raptors 101

February 5: Raptors 119, Sixers 107

It’s important to note that the only loss the Raptors have in the series was without Kawhi Leonard in the lineup. The Raptors seem to have the Sixers number this year, but more importantly, we saw a lot of points scored in all of these games this season as both teams like to play fast and Philadelphia was a team that looked to push the tempo all season long.

Here are some of the best performances from individual players in the series.

Kawhi Leonard (3 games) 30-7-3 with 4 steals

Pascal Siakam (4 games) 16-9-3

Kyle Lowry (4 games) 17-3-7

Joel Embiid (4 games) 26-12-3

Ben Simmons (4 games) 17-9-9

Jimmy Butler (3 games) 23-6-4

Tobias Harris has not faced the Raptors as a member of the Sixers.

Kawhi and Embiid’s stat lines both really stand out as impressive. These performances don’t surprise me because Philadelphia gave up some big lines to wings and guards who attack the rim this season, while Toronto was abused by centers for much of the season until bringing Marc Gasol over from Memphis. Starting your lineup with these two superstars is probably a good idea and is likely going to be a popular strategy.

NBA DFS: Final Thoughts

This shapes up to be an excellent series, and I predict the higher scoring series in the Eastern Conference based on how high scoring their regular season matchups were this year. We are going to want to target Embiid in this matchup regardless of his price and pay attention to which of the other big three Sixers play well in Game 1.

Siakam and Leonard are the main targets for Toronto and both have performed well against Philly this season. Using them both in lineups will likely be difficult due to cap constraints, especially when you are trying to squeeze in Embiid.

Value plays like Mike Scott, Fred VanVleet, and Norman Powell are all firmly on my radar depending on their prices since they seemed to have carved out solid roles with their teams in round 1.

Game 1 is going to be on a two-game slate with game 7 of the San Antonio-Denver series and game stacking the Philly-Toronto game is probably my preferred strategy, depending on how players are priced by FanDuel or DraftKings.

I hope you enjoyed this series breakdown and keep playing NBA DFS during the playoffs! Make sure you keep following FantasyCPR for more NBA content as well as the rest of the sports that we cover!