For the Philadelphia 76ers to have any chance of winning games without Joel Embiid, they need Tyrese Maxey to be great. For the most part, it was. He was fantastic in his fourth season in the league.
However, the first-time All-Star got off to a rough start to this current 4-game road trip and coach Nick Nurse had to start him on Friday. Los Angeles Lakers lost 101-94.
After a 3-of-13 performance in the loss at Phoenix to start the trip, Maxey shot just 2-of-7 in the first half for five points. The Lakers did a wonderful job of compartmentalizing him a bit and blitzing him, but Nurse shared a message with him at halftime to get him going a bit.
“I told him I wanted him to go back to more – that seemed like good advice because I asked him to go back to running against them, go back 3 seconds,” Nurse told reporters after the loss . “Like his first possession of the second half, he ran, dropped back and hit it. That ended up being his only 3-point make of the night.
In the second half, Maxey was much more aggressive. He shot 8 of 19 and had 22 points after halftime. He only made one 3-point shot, but that type of production is what Nurse is looking for to help the Sixers succeed.
“I kept telling him, again, ‘You have to get the ball, find the ball, find space.’ You have to keep attacking. Like you have to keep attacking. You’re our best option, right? The nurse added. “So that’s what he did.”
Overall, the Sixers fought like never before to try to steal one from Los Angeles. They forced the Lakers into 21 turnovers, held the Lakers to 43.8% shooting and held LeBron James in check for most of the night before heading into the fourth.
The problem is the Sixers shot just 34.4 percent from the floor and 8 of 37 from deep. It also didn’t help that Maxey couldn’t get an early start.
“I say as long as we play with our guts, I can live with it,” the nurse continued. “I’m having a hard time living with this right now, aren’t I?” Because I just felt like we really played so hard and executed so well on defense tonight and I thought we executed on offense as well. We just couldn’t put it in the basket.
According to Nurse, the Sixers fought hard all night. They did not get discouraged and continued to give themselves a chance. Maxey has a late steal and if he makes a corner 3, then Philadelphia is up two with about 15 seconds left. It just wasn’t supposed to happen.
“I think so, you definitely want to – I told the guys I give you a lot of credit,” the nurse finished. “You just kept playing and kept playing and kept playing. Even at the end, we stole the ball. If Tyrese nails that third corner, it’s a two-point game with 30 seconds left. Like we’re still here, right?
The Sixers will face the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday to continue the road trip.
