Raptors at 76ers: Toronto heads to Philadelphia short-handed on the second night of a back-to-back

The schedule has done Toronto no favors. The Raptors host Boston at 7 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday and tip off in Philadelphia 24 hours later without their two leading scorers: Scottie Barnes, who averages 23.5 points, has not played since November 4 with a left groin strain, and Kawhi Leonard, who has appeared in two games, is listed out with his left knee. Immanuel Quickley, the next man in the scoring order, was questionable on Wednesday's report.

Philadelphia has a different kind of worry. At 9-3 the Sixers hold the second-best record in the East after Tuesday's games, behind Boston's 9-2 — and it was Boston that beat them 123-101 at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Tuesday. Philadelphia shot 42 percent from the floor and made 11 of 37 three-pointers, and Embiid needed the free-throw line, where he went 11 for 13, to reach 16 points.

• Competition: NBA 2026-27 regular season.
• Matchup: Toronto Raptors at Philadelphia 76ers (official NBA game ID 0022600227).
• Tip-off: Thursday, November 12, 7 p.m. ET (4 p.m. PT); 00:00 UTC on Friday the 13th.
• Venue: Xfinity Mobile Arena, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• Series: first meeting of 2026-27; Toronto has won three of the last five.

Nine wins, and one flat night

Before Tuesday, Nick Nurse's team had won eight of its previous 10, including 112-106 at Detroit and 127-121 at Chicago. The season profile is 111.0 points scored and 109.2 allowed, with 12.9 turnovers a night.

Tyrese Maxey is the engine: 26.7 points in 36.3 minutes, 71 of 82 from the line, and 24 points on 8-of-12 shooting against Boston. Jaylen Brown averages 21.5 points and 6.5 rebounds, though he finished Tuesday with 13 and a minus-27. LeBron James has 15.1 points, 7.2 rebounds and 6.5 assists through 10 games and leads the team in assists. VJ Edgecombe adds 12.7 points and 6.3 rebounds.

Embiid averages 17.7 points and 9.3 rebounds in 31.8 minutes, but his shooting has stayed uneven: 54 of 146 from the field on the season and 4 of 33 from three. Off the bench, Anfernee Simons contributes 9.7 points and was Philadelphia's second-leading scorer on Tuesday with 17 in 18 minutes.

Toronto's thin rotation

Darko Rajakovic's team lost 118-102 at home to Memphis on Monday and is 5-5. The style has not changed with the absences: the Raptors hand out 28.5 assists a game and take 11.1 steals, the most striking number on their sheet. They score 116.6 and allow 113.3.

Without Barnes and Leonard, the scoring load falls on RJ Barrett, who averages 21.3 points in 33.3 minutes and scored 19 against Memphis. Jamal Shead, who delivers 7.0 assists in only 24.2 minutes a night, scored 20 that evening; Jamison Battle added 18 off the bench, and Jakob Poeltl, who averages 6.6 rebounds, also had 18.

Depth is the deeper problem. Beyond Barnes and Leonard, Wednesday's report listed Quickley, Collin Murray-Boyles and Trayce Jackson-Davis as questionable and ruled out Nate Bittle. If several of them cannot go on the second night of a back-to-back, Rajakovic would have to hand minutes to players who barely clear 10 a game.

Injury report

The NBA report for this game had not been filed when the league updated its document at 10:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, November 10; the deadline is 5 p.m. ET on Wednesday. That same document carries each team's designations for the game it had next.

Philadelphia 76ers (report for Tuesday's game against Boston)

• Adem Bona: out — cervical spine sprain.
• Dominick Barlow: out — low back stress reaction.
• Ariel Hukporti: out — right Achilles tendon rupture.

Toronto Raptors (report for Wednesday's game against Boston)

• Scottie Barnes: out — left groin strain.
• Kawhi Leonard: out — left knee injury management.
• Nate Bittle: out — right avulsion fracture; the report does not specify the area.
• Immanuel Quickley: questionable — right hamstring injury management.
• Collin Murray-Boyles: questionable — illness.
• Trayce Jackson-Davis: questionable — illness.

All three Philadelphia absences are big men, which leaves Nurse with Embiid, Jabari Walker and Dean Wade as his only rotation size; Wade played 23 minutes and grabbed nine rebounds on Tuesday. Toronto's designations belong to Wednesday's game and can change on Thursday's report.

Three things that will settle it

Steals against ball security. Toronto takes 11.1 steals a game and turns them into the quick baskets it needs with scorers missing. Philadelphia gives the ball away 12.9 times a night, a low figure for the pace it plays. That is the first contest of the evening.

Embiid in the post against a thin Toronto front line. Poeltl averages 6.6 rebounds in 22.8 minutes and is the only true center available to Toronto if Jackson-Davis cannot play. Embiid, who took 13 free throws on Tuesday despite a poor shooting night, would have a direct route to points even if his jumper does not fall.

Barrett's minutes. With Barnes and Leonard out and Quickley in doubt, Barrett would carry two straight games as the first option with no rest between them. What Toronto gets from Shead, Battle and Ja'Kobe Walter will determine whether it can hold the 116.6 points it has been averaging.

How to watch Raptors–76ers

• Venue: Xfinity Mobile Arena, Philadelphia.
• Date and time: Thursday, November 12, 7 p.m. ET; 00:00 UTC on Friday the 13th.

United States — Thursday 12, 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT

• TV: no national broadcast. In the Philadelphia market the league assigns the feed to NBC Sports Philadelphia and Peacock.
• Streaming: NBA League Pass outside the local market.
• Radio: SiriusXM nationally and 97.5 The Fanatic in Philadelphia.

United Kingdom — Friday 13, midnight GMT

• TV: Sky Sports Mix, with coverage listed from 00:00 in the Sky Sports basketball schedule. The NBA's own listing for the game also names Sky Sports+.
• Streaming: NBA League Pass.

Australia — Friday 13, 11 a.m. AEDT in Sydney and Melbourne

• TV: no broadcast announced. The game carries no Australian broadcaster in the league's official listing, and the ESPN Australia schedule assigns no channel.
• Other time zones: 10.30 a.m. ACDT in Adelaide, 10 a.m. AEST in Brisbane, 8 a.m. AWST in Perth.
• Streaming: NBA League Pass.

Nurse has one night to correct Tuesday's 42 percent shooting; Rajakovic gets to find out how much a roster missing its two best scorers can hold up on the second night of a back-to-back.