AROUND THE NBA Thursday’s Round 2 playoff game

76ers 116, Raptors 95

PHILADELPHIA

Joel Embiid refused to get tripped up back home in the postseason, scoring 33 points and playing to the “MVP!” chants to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to a victory over Toronto Raptors. Philadelphia took a 2-1 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinal series. Embiid also had 10 rebounds. He made the game his own in the third quarter and helped the Sixers put away a Raptors team badly overmatched outside of Kawhi Leonard’s one-man gang performance. Jimmy Butler, the Game 2 star, dunked off his own steal and the Sixers had quickly put the game out of reach. Butler had 22 points. Leonard toyed with Ben Simmons in the third to lead Toronto’s charge back into the game. The Raptors ran Simmons through screens to give Leonard the space he needed to create and bury open jumpers. Leonard scored 33 points for the Raptors, and Paskal Siakam had 20.

Associated Press