The Philadelphia 76ers claimed a big victory in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals by beating the Toronto Raptors 116-95 at the Wells Fargo Center, giving them a 2-1 series lead.

Returning to their home court, Philadelphia's Joel Embiid finally found his dominance and dropped 33 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks. Though he was still uncomfortable in front of Marc Gasol, Embiid tried something different on offense. Instead of posting up in the paint to pick physical fights with Gasol, Embiid chose to launch more attacks out of the paint via either perimeter shots or penetrating after screen play. Gasol has a stronger lower body, but he's no match for Embiid's speed. Moreover, as Embiid grew a hot hand, he began to punish Toronto's defense from middle-range to the 3-pt line.

However, Embiid alone wasn't enough to defeat the Raptors because they have Kawhi Leonard. The 2014 Finals MVP scored 17 points in the first half and then made six straight shots in the third quarter to help his team narrow the score difference down to eight points. 

If you only look at the scores in the first and third quarters,  it was a draw for Toronto and Philadelphia. The real reason for Toronto's painful loss was in the other two quarters when their head coach Nick Nurse decided to put a strange lineup on the court: three small guards, Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet, Norman Powell; one big center Gasol; and a forward, Leonard/Siakam.

It's not exaggeration to call this type of squad a "suicide line-up" because its small size made the Raptors too vulnerable in front of the 76ers' giants. The first time this line-up came onto the court in the second quarter, the 76ers launched an 8-0 run to expand the lead to 11 points.

Though Leonard used his remarkable third quarter performance to offset the damage left by the small squad. Coach Nurse decided to use the squad again in the last quarter, only replacing Leonard with Siakam. This time, Philadelphia again didn't hesitate, and established a 16-point lead before Leonard came back. 

It's hard to explain why Nurse was so obsessed with this suicide line-up, but since he took over as Toronto's boss, Nurse has never been a fan of change. He's extremely confident in his play style and rarely makes adjustments to their opponent. It's true that Nurse and his team won 58 games in the regular season but the playoffs are totally different – it's all about adapting and changing.

By contrast, Philadelphia's head coach Brett Brown never hesitated to embrace change, as long as it could lead his team to victory. He replaced Embiid with Tobias Harris in defending Gasol, maximizing Embiid's power on defense by letting him stay under the rim; he gave Greg Monroe and James Ennis III more time on the court to hurt Toronto with their size advantage.

Both coaches are under a lot of pressure to make breakthrough in the playoffs. The 76ers made two big deals to get Jimmy Butler and Harris, giving them the second best-talented line-up in the league. Losing in the conference semifinals will not be worth these trades. The Raptors have been trying everything to convince Leonard to stay after this season and what can be more convincing than making the NBA Finals or even winning the championship?