The Toronto Raptors claimed a big win over the Philadelphia 76ers 125-89 at the Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday, leading 3-2 in the series and are one win from the Eastern Conference Finals. The Denver Nuggets gained the same upper hand by beating the Portland Trail Blazers 124-98 at the Pepsi Center.

By the way, in NBA history, teams that won Game 5 after 2-2 in a 7-game series had an 82.4 percent chance of making it to make the next round. Game 6 of these two series will happen on Thursday.

The good news for Philadelphia in Tuesday's game was that Kawhi Leonard ceased to play like Michael Jordan - except the two dunks he did - as he only got 21 points and 13 rebounds at the field goal rate of 43.7 percent. However, that did not mean Philadelphia could win the game, at least not with the terrible performance of theirs.

Having scored only 89 points, the 76ers only led in three things: blocks (5-2), turnovers (19-10) and fouls (26-18). Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid together had 20 points, 13 rebounds and 13 turnovers. Though they managed to stay in touch in the first quarter trailing by just one (27-26), the 76ers watched the Raptors launched a 37-17 run in Q2 and the game basically became a foregone conclusion since then.

Embiid carried the most blames for Philadelphia's loss though coach Brett Brown said that their All-Star center had been suffering from illness. Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley did not let him go on TNT. "You've got to be hungry. You've got to act like you want it," said O'Neal who believes the series is already over for Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, Barkley said that star players should not show weakness: "If you want people to remember The Process (Embiid's favorite phrase was 'trust the process' when he returned to the league from injury) forever, you've got to step up."

The veteran's words aside, Embiid did have a lot to work on his game. Lacking strength in his lower body made him vulnerable in front of strong big men like Marc Gasol or Al Horford. Moreover, Embiid could count on his middle-range and 3-pt shooting either, limiting his power in offense too.

Ben Simmons does not have immunity either. He has not left much of a footprint in all of the five games of the series because he could not shoot. In their competitions against the Brooklyn Nets, Simmons could still attack the rim or post up to score using his big size, quickness and better athleticism. However, when he met defense from players who could match him in those areas, Simmons had only one way to contribute: transition offense, which was taken away by Toronto too in Game 5. When he did not enjoy physical advantage or could not launch fast offense, Simmons was a totally liability in offense.

What might be more frustrating than the loss of Game 5 to Damian Lillard was the fact that his four teammates in the starting-lineup together only scored 27 points. By contrast, Denver saw four of their starting players drop double-digit points, the least was 16 points by Gary Harris.

From the beginning of the game, Lillard felt that he was fighting the whole team of the Nuggets by himself. When he was dribbling outside the 3-pt line, 2.01-meter Torrey Craig remained in front of him to stop his three-pointers. When he tried to break though, there was always someone trying to obstruct his shooting until Lillard passed the free throw line where big men like Nikola Jokic or Mason Plumlee were waiting for him.

Sure Lillard could choose to pass the ball to his teammates and that was what he did, only to find out that none of them could score - in the first half, the Trail Blazers other than Lillard made at most one field goal each in the first quarter. Neither were the Trail Blazers passionate enough for rebounds-they trailed 62-44 in this area,

As Portland kept missing shots, they left Denver tones of opportunities to launch transition attacks, expanding their lead from six points in Q1 to 18 points in Q2 an then to 28 points in Q3 before Portland sent their garbage time squad to admit the loss.