The Toronto Raptors beat the Philadelphia 76ers 108-95 at the Scotiabank Arena on Saturday, setting a good start of 1-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Denver Nuggets claimed a close win against the San Antonio Spurs 90-86 at the Pepsi Center and they will meet the Portland Trail Blazers in the Western Conference semifinals.

Kawhi Leonard dropped playoff career high 45 points and 11 rebounds, his first 40+10 game in the playoffs while Pascal Siakam scored 29 points. Though they were Toronto's only two players that had double-digit points, together they had 74 points, more than the sum of Philadelphia's starting five.

This was already the 14th straight loss of the 76ers against the Raptors in Canada (including the regular season). In fact, it was worse than the 13-point score difference because the 76ers barely stood a chance in this game from the beginning.

Joel Embiid was totally clueless about how to beat Marc Gasol's defense-he could not score posting up in the low block and failed to make Gasol pay with his three-pointers. Meanwhile, with Gasol and Serge Ibaka setting up a no-fly zone in the paint, neither Jimmy Butler nor Tobias Harris could break Toronto's defense via jump shots. As for Ben Simmons, since the 76ers could not stop the Raptors from scoring, there is barely any chance for Simmons to launch his favorite fast break.

Since it's hard to ask Embiid to either grow a strong lower body of Yao Ming or shoot like Brook Lopez in Brook Lopez in two days, Philadelphia should focus on defense by not letting Toronto scoring too easily. Toronto once buried 13 consecutive field goals in the first quarter, Leonard made 10 of 14 shots to claim 27 points in the first half, Siakam sank 12 of his 15 shots in the game-none of these is acceptable for the 76ers if they don't want to return to Philadelphia trailing 2-0 on the series.

This was a milestone win for Denver. They made in total two three-pointers in the game; they once led by 17 points at most but watched San Antonio narrow it down to two; their favorite offensive trick, screen play between Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray was decoded in the last quarter. However, the Nuggets won the game, thanks to Jokic's triple-double of 21 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists as well as Murray's last fade-away shot made. Having played seven games against the Spurs, the team that had the richest playoff experience in the past 23 years, gave the Nuggets a clear knowledge of what kind of competitions they are in and defeating the Spurs helped them realize that they are capable of winning.

As for San Antonio, they fought until the last moment but the players they have now are not good enough for the team to make any breakthrough in the playoffs. DeMar Drozan found his shooting back in the second half but that could not hide the fact that he only made one field goal out of 10 attempts in the first half. Aldridge can still score but it's getting harder for him to confront the new generation of inside players in today's NBA. The rest of the team still need time to grow and it remains unclear how long it will take or whether it's worth waiting.

The conference semifinals between Denver and Portland can be seen as a contest between typical U.S. basketball and FIBA play style.

The biggest advantage and the sharpest weapon the Trail Blazers have are their back-court combination, Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum, two typical American guards who have the league's top individual offense. In regular time, they still play according to the textbook-passing, moving the ball-but when game is on the line, Lillard and McCollum will take over the game.

By contrast, the Nuggets build their offense around Jokic, a European big man who can shoot, dribble, orchestrate, and most importantly, command on the court. The team have multiple guards, or guard-height players who cannot take charge like Lillard but are capable of maximizing the power of team work on the court.

It's clear that Denver have no one who can take on Lillard or McCollum in defense one-on-one but Portland will also scratch their brains over how to defend Jokic with the limited inside resources they have.