PHILADELPHIA — On paper, the Toronto Raptors were supposed to join the 76ers as one of this season’s Eastern Conference’s elite teams.
The Raptors’ season, however, has been a difficult one for their coach, Nick Nurse, from a number of standpoints.
“Early on, [Toronto] had some pretty serious injuries with some key guys,” Nurse said before Friday’s game against the Sixers at the Wells Fargo Center. “I thought we kind of weathered that for a little bit, but it kind of caught up to us a little bit. And, yeah, I think the trade deadline stuff. I don’t know if there was a 1,000 rumors, 999 of them were about us, it seemed like.
