The 76ers will be without one of their key players for some of their first-round series with the Raptors.
When the 76ers faced the Raptors in Toronto on April 7, Matisse Thybulle was ineligible to play because he is not fully vaccinated against COVID-19, prohibiting him from entering Canada.
76ers head coach Doc Rivers has already said that Thybulle will not play in Games 3 and 4 of the series.
How does Thybulle's part-time availability impact the 76ers? Let's take a closer look.
NBA LEAGUE PASS: Sign up to unlock live out-of-market games (7-day free trial)
The 76ers will miss Thybulle's hellacious defense
Thybulle is Philadelphia's best perimeter defender, and it's not close.
Thybulle was one of the four guards to crack an All-Defensive Team last season and may very well earn another All-Defensive selection this season. He often defends the opposing team's best player and has established himself as one of the league's more disruptive defenders, ranking among the leaders in steals and deflections while blocking 3s at a rate only Raptors big man Chris Boucher can come close to matching.
Thybulle dances around screens and uses his 7-foot wingspan to wreak havoc. He does stuff like this on a regular basis:
Thybulle played in two of Philadelphia's four matchups with Toronto this season. In the first meeting, he spent most of the game chasing around Gary Trent Jr. and played a leading role in limiting Toronto's sharpshooter to 19 points on 6-for-24 shooting from the field and 4-for-13 from 3-point range. In the second meeting, Thybulle defended mostly Scottie Barnes but also spent time on Trent and Pascal Siakam.
Standing at 6-foot-5 and 201 pounds, Thybulle is at a size disadvantage against Barnes and Siakam, but he has the smarts and length for it to not be a clear mismatch.
Even if Thybulle guards Trent in the games he is eligible to play in, the 76ers will need to find someone else to defend him in the games Thybulle isn't eligible for. That responsibility fell on Tyrese Maxey and Shake Milton in Philadelphia's loss to Toronto on April 7, a game Trent scored 30 points in. And even if Thybulle doesn't spend much time directly matched up with Barnes and Siakam, not having him means the 76ers will be down a defender who can at least hold their own against them.
No matter how you slice it, the 76ers will feel Thybulle's absence in a big way on the defensive end. Offensively? That's a different story.
MORE: Pascal Siakam vs. Joel Embiid takes center stage once again: Can Raptors star crack the code?
No Thybulle could boost Philly's offense
It's safe to assume that the Raptors will throw the kitchen sink at both Embiid and James Harden.
Embiid has gotten to a level where there isn't much anyone can do to stop him anymore, but the Raptors have a history of defending him well. As he explained on Zach Lowe's podcast last season, the Raptors don't give him space to breathe by throwing timely double and sometimes triple teams his way. Embiid has a lower career scoring average against only one team.
As for Harden, we've seen the Raptors play box-and-one on him in the past and they have options to throw at him in Barnes, Siakam and OG Anunoby, each of whom has the size and length to give him trouble.
How does Thybulle factor into this equation? Dominant as he is defensively, Thybulle is a limited offensive player at this stage of his career. Nearly half of his field goal attempts came from the 3-point line this season but he made only 31.3 percent of those opportunities. He does his best work as a scorer on cuts and in transition.
Knowing his shortcomings as a shooter, the Raptors weren't shy about helping off of him — or anyone else, for that matter — in the regular season to clog up the paint for both Embiid...
...and Harden.
That becomes a little more difficult to do when it's Danny Green (career 39.9 percent 3-point shooter) or Georges Niang (career 40.4 percent 3-point shooter) standing in the corner instead of him.
The 76ers even parked Thybulle in the dunker spot at times like they used to do with Ben Simmons.
Philadelphia's spacing will almost certainly be better with Thybulle on the bench, but will that give them a big enough boost offensively to make up for the hit they'll take defensively in the games he misses?
We'll soon find out.
