Gasol hasn’t yet faced Embiid as a Raptor, but the veteran of 11 NBA seasons does have an impressive career record against Embiid.Dan Hamilton/USA TODAY Sports via Reuters
You can try probing Toronto Raptors big man Marc Gasol for insights on how he plans to defend Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid in their playoff series. The Raps’ seven-footer will give you what he gives most opposing centres: very little.
The Raptors beat the 76ers in three of four meetings this season – all in the first half of the year. Yet those games provide only a hazy illustration of how they will match up in this series. One of the biggest reasons: Gasol played in none of those previous games.
Both teams made bold moves since their last meeting in early February to bolster their rosters before the playoffs. The biggest might well have been Toronto’s acquisition of Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies at the trade deadline.
If there were any lingering questions about why the Raps traded three players for 34-year-old Gasol – including Jonas Valanciunas – the Spaniard snuffed those out in the first round. He led the smothering of Orlando Magic all-star Nikola Vucevic, who averaged just 11.2 points on 36.2-per-cent shooting, a contrast to the 20.8 points on 51.8-per-cent shooting Vucevic had in the regular season.
Gasol now must stifle a very different all-star – this one also an MVP candidate – in Embiid.
How will Gasol do it? He’s not giving the slightest suggestion.
“Prepare for a great player,” a cagey Gasol said after Toronto’s practice on Thursday. “Just like any great player, you try to make everything as uncomfortable as possible, be as physical as they allow you.”
Embiid averaged 26.3 points and 11.8 rebounds in the four games against Toronto this season, along with three assists and 1.8 blocks.
Philly’s 25-year-old big man averaged an astounding 27.5 points, 13.6 rebounds and 1.9 blocks in the regular season. Then the third-year NBA player had an average of 24.8 points and an NBA playoffs-leading 13.5 rebounds in their first-round series win over the Brooklyn Nets, despite sitting one of the 76ers five games and dealing with persistent knee soreness.
Embiid’s tough, dominant play at centre had ESPN’s outspoken broadcaster Steven A. Smith proclaiming, “If Joel Embiid is healthy, there’s no answer for him from the Toronto Raptors.”
Gasol hasn’t yet faced Embiid as a Raptor, but the veteran of 11 NBA seasons does have an impressive career record against the Cameroonian 76ers star. The two have played against each other five times and Gasol had a hand in holding Embiid to averages of 14.0 points on 34.4-per-cent shooting 12.4 rebounds to go along with 4.4 turnovers a game. Gasol’s Grizzlies were 3-2 against Embiid’s 76ers in those games.
The question is though, can Gasol guard Embiid one-on-one?
“I have confidence. He’s a very physical, smart defender,” Toronto coach Nick Nurse said of Gasol. “These guys are so good … you thinking that one guy could stop one guy or one coverage could stop one guy, over a series, that’s probably not the case. It’s at least a two-man job, him and Serge [Ibaka], and then it becomes a team job as well.”
Gasol’s play had Orlando coach Steve Clifford praising the man known as Big Spain. Clifford noted another way that Gasol’s addition has changed the Raptors – the way he helps them space the floor on offence.
“What Marc Gasol has brought – I think they were top-10 in three-point shooting before the trade and now they’re first,” he said. "The difference is simple: It’s spacing.”
Gasol is not only a willing and effective passer out deep. He’s shooting it from out there at a very good clip too: he’s 44.2 per cent from beyond the arc for the Raptors – and 53.8 per cent in the playoffs (compared with 34.4 per cent this year for Memphis).
The Raptors and 76ers haven’t met in the post-season since the 2001 Eastern Conference semi-final, when NBA superstars Allen Iverson and Vince Carter tangled for seven games, with Iverson’s Sixers emerging the winners. Embiid’s intriguing mix of talent and personality makes him a star on his way to that sort of fame, not to mention Toronto’s enigmatic Kawhi Leonard. Throw in Philadelphia’s Jimmy Butler and Ben Simmons and Toronto’s Kyle Lowry and Gasol, and it amounts to a fascinating second-round series.