Game 6 takeaways: Sixers stomp Raptors to force Game 7

The Philadelphia 76ers responded to their 36-point Game 5 loss with a 112-101 victory over the Toronto Raptors in Game 6 - a performance far more dominant than the 11-point gap might suggest.

Here are some thoughts from Thursday's contest, which forced a decisive Game 7 on Sunday in Toronto:

Series of runs

There comes a point in a long series, particularly one between two good teams with Finals aspirations, where there are few X's and O's left to dissect. At some point, you just accept that the series was always going to find a way to go seven. This is where the Sixers and Raptors have left us.

The Raptors cruised to home victories in Game 1 and 5, the Sixers returned the favor in Game 3 and 6, and both teams won five-point nail-biters (in Game 2 and 4) that left the defeated party feeling like it coughed up a golden opportunity at home.

Desperation kicks in for Sixers

For the Raptors, there's just no way to manufacture the same desperation a good team facing elimination at home plays with.

This isn't the Orlando Magic with their backs against the wall in Toronto. This is a star-studded Sixers team in a do-or-die situation in front of the Philly faithful. As expected, the Sixers took control early, built a comfortable, eight-point lead after one quarter, and continued to play with more urgency than the Raptors, even while nursing a double-digit advantage for virtually the entire second half.

If their 16 offensive rebounds didn't provide enough evidence of that desperation, one play, in particular, stood out. Down 22 in the fourth quarter, Serge Ibaka had a chance to pick up a loose ball that last touched Jimmy Butler. Instead, Ibaka tried to calmly box Butler out, expecting the ball to bounce out of bounds. Butler had other ideas, hitting the floor and practically sliding through Ibaka's legs to secure the loose ball and possession for the Sixers.

Philadelphia's stars show up

Butler - "the adult in the room," as Sixers coach Brett Brown likes to call him - led the way for the Sixers. He scored a team-high 25 points to go with six rebounds and a game-high six assists in 35 minutes of action. Butler did all of this while taking on a sizeable defensive responsibility that saw him get the best of Kawhi Leonard on a number of possessions.

Ben Simmons, meanwhile, looked as confident and forceful as ever attacking Leonard and the Raptors' defense, finishing with 21 points on 9-of-13 shooting while recording six assists and zero turnovers. Simmons was in transition attack mode off Raptors bricks all night, and it helped that Toronto once again missed a ton of wide-open looks to fuel those breaks the other way.

As for Joel Embiid, the star big man continued to struggle in the offensive end, producing just 17 points on 22 possessions, but he was in godly form protecting the rim. Embiid posted an unbelievable plus-minus of plus-40 in his 36 minutes, meaning the Sixers were outscored by 29 points in just 12 minutes without him. It didn't help that Brett Brown went to Boban Marjanovic while Embiid rested for portions of the first and second quarter, as opposed to going small with Mike Scott or Simmons at center.

Every Raptor struggled

A glance at the box score will tell you Leonard and Pascal Siakam, who combined for 50 points on 47 percent shooting, carried the Raptors in this one. The truth is, even Toronto's top two players turned in disappointing performances.

Leonard missed a bevy of open looks that had become automatic for him earlier in the series and didn't have his usual defensive impact on Simmons. He also got switched off of Simmons far too easily on a few defensive possessions where it didn't seem entirely necessary, even for Toronto's switch-heavy defense. Siakam, meanwhile, wasn't operating with the same hyperactive attentiveness Raptors fans have grown accustomed to.

Continue down the roster, and there were no positives to be found. Kyle Lowry, and especially Marc Gasol, drifted in the shadows at times on offense; Danny Green went 2-of-8 from deep; Ibaka failed to replicate the inspiring effort that helped decide Game 4 and 5; The duo of Fred VanVleet and Norman Powell continued to make it painfully obvious they're not big enough, and perhaps simply not good enough, to log meaningful minutes in this matchup.

The only positive for the Raptors: If the rest of this series has been any indication, almost none of this will matter come Sunday night.

Quote of the game

"Most of us have been playing ball our whole life, so it's really just not losing track of that, and staying with the game, and having fun." - Ben Simmons on the Sixers playing with a feeling of freedom despite facing elimination.

What to watch for

A cumulation of everything we've discussed over the first six games.

The Sixers will feel confident if they can get 36 minutes out of Embiid, take care of the ball, and crash the offensive glass. The Raptors should like their chances if Leonard plays up to his usual postseason standards, if they make even a respectable number of their open 3-point looks, and if they can turn the Sixers over and get out in transition. As always, Gasol's minute-matching with Embiid could also go a long way toward deciding Game 7.