Sixers-Raptors takeaways: Defense is Achilles’ heel and squad is a ways away from sustaining wins

TORONTO — So much for all that preseason hype about the 76ers being a solid defensive team. The backup center position remains a growing pain. And the Sixers have a lot of work to do before being capable of winning multiple games.

Below is my look at three things that stood out during the Sixers’ 119-109 setback to the Toronto Raptors Wednesday night at Scotiabank Arena.

Joel Embiid’s preseason goal was to have the NBA’s best defense, and his teammates backed him up.

However, it’s obvious after five games that the Sixers have a ways to go before even being considered as a competent defense.

They look several steps too slow and not athletic enough to effectively guard opposing wings. That’s led to their perimeter defense being in shambles and their transition defense being almost non-existent.

On Wednesday, the Raptors scored 29 fast break points and made 16 of 37 three-pointers. Seven of their three-pointers came in the first quarter.

The Sixers have been preaching they need to communicate better since the start of the season. But it’s becoming obvious that their problems are bigger than lack of communications.

“It’s all about effort,” Embiid said after Wednesday’s game. “You got to be honest about it. It doesn’t matter what the coaching staff says. It doesn’t matter what the game plan is. If we don’t go out there and execute, we are not going to go anywhere.

“So it’s all about effort, having the mentality of playing hard and having each other’s back and just flying around.”

Embiid said the Sixers do it at times. But he knows they need to be perfect on the defensive end to win.

But their inability to guard the ball leads to players rotating on defense and opponents taking wide-open shots.

Montrezl Harrell is a solid scorer, who plays well with point guard James Harden. Meanwhile, Paul Reed is an athletic rim protector.

The problem is when they’re in the games, teams appears to take advantage of their weakness. With Harrell in the rotation in the first half, the Raptors collected all of the loose balls and got to the rim with ease. That led to Reed getting some playing time in the second half. However, the Sixers lost their momentum and couldn’t generate any offense with him on the floor.

After losing to the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday, Sixers coach Doc Rivers sounded like a coach whose team would have a tough time winning games. Well, he changed his stance after Wednesday’s game — slightly - expressing that the team will continue to struggle until things change.

“I think we can win games,” he said. “But we are not going to win multiple games until we play right every night.”

The Sixers must play with the right pace, spread the floor, move the ball and share it to be more competitive.

“Joel had a clear advantage tonight,” Rivers said. “I thought we didn’t get him the ball four, five times early in the game. Every time he touched it, something good happened. So we’ll see that and we’re going to be better at that for sure as the season goes on.”

» READ MORE: 1-4 Sixers are again uninspiring in 119-109 loss to Raptors