There was a strong consensus that the first-round tilt between the Philadelphia 76ers and Toronto Raptors would, at the least, be a long and competitive series, though opinion was split on who would win. So far, the proceedings have been extremely one-sided, with Philly holding serve at home by an average margin of 17.5 points.

Simple misfortune played a role, to be sure; the Raptors lost dynamic rookie Scottie Barnes to an ankle sprain near the end of Game 1 and saw two more rotation players (Gary Trent Jr. and Thaddeus Young) lose all semblance of utility due to an illness and a sprained thumb, respectively. The Sixers already have more top-end talent, so an uphill climb for the Raptors became even steeper after that significant blow to their depth.

But the talent mismatch doesn't tell the whole story of Games 1 and 2. Neither does the officiating, even though the free-throw disparity between the two teams has unsurprisingly (and, in a couple instances, justifiably) incensed Raptors players, coaches, and fans. Toronto had certain advantages it was expected to impose on this matchup. There's a reason plenty of pundits predicted the Raptors to push the series the distance or outright win it, despite Philly rostering by far the best player on the court in Joel Embiid. More surprising than the Sixers being up 2-0 is how they got there: by turning all the Raptors' principles against them and swinging Toronto's presumptive tactical edges in Philly's favor.

To win the regular-season series between the two teams, the Raptors needed to overcome a significant deficit in shot-making and half-court offense. They did so by winning all the little battles in the margins that they made a point of controlling all season: They worked the Sixers on the offensive glass, turned them over a ton, and ran them ragged in transition, all while tamping down the individual production of Joel Embiid and James Harden with multiple layers of help defense.

But across the non-garbage-time portions of Games 1 and 2, the Sixers rebounded a higher share of their own misses than the Raptors did, got out in transition far more frequently than their reptilian foes, turned the ball over on just 11% of their possessions, and posted an ungodly 139.2 offensive rating.

The real shame for the Raptors is that their biggest weakness – the ability to score against a set defense – has actually been a strength so far in the series. During the regular season, their first-shot half-court offense ranked 26th, producing just 91.3 points per 100 possessions. Thanks to the drop-busting pull-up shooting of Fred VanVleet and the mismatch-hunting iso-scoring exploits of Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby, that number is up to 110.1 in the playoffs. (For context, that's nine points per 100 better than the Hawks' league-best regular-season mark.) The Sixers have been better in that department, but only slightly (112.3).

The disparity has shown up in transition instead, in the exact opposite way that we all anticipated. The Raptors played a higher percentage of their offensive possessions in transition than any team but the Grizzlies this season, while the Sixers, prone to walking the ball up the floor and setting up grinding post possessions, finished bottom 10 in transition frequency.