With Tyrese Maxey out, the Sixers needed new heroes, and fast. They found them.
With VJ Edgecombe filling in at point guard, the 76ers beat the Grizzlies thanks to big performances from Cam Payne and Kelly Oubre.
No one has been more durable or played more minutes in the NBA this season than Tyrese Maxey. Until now.
After Maxey suffered an injury to his right little finger in the final minute of a loss in Atlanta, the Sixers confirmed before Tuesday’s 139-129 win over Memphis that the point guard would miss at least the next three weeks.
“You can’t replace Tyrese Maxey,” VJ Edgecombe said. “He’s one of one. … Obviously, he’s been our best player all year. It hurts for him to go down, but now everyone else have to step up. He knows it’s next man up.”
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Maxey will miss the majority of the regular season’s final 17 games over the next month. In the best-case scenario, if Maxey misses exactly three weeks, he would return April 1 against the Washington Wizards, in time for the Sixers’ final seven games.
It wasn’t all bad news for the Sixers. Edgecombe returned to the lineup after missing three games with a bruised back. He took a hard foul from San Antonio’s Carter Bryant on a three-pointer in the final seconds of the first half against the Spurs on March 3.
In his return from injury, Edgecombe was thrust into an unfamiliar position — an NBA game without Maxey.
“He’ll play the primary ballhandling position,” coach Nick Nurse said. “Good chance for him to get a lot of reps at that spot.”
Before the 2025 NBA draft, Edgecombe expressed to teams that he saw himself as a point guard, but playing opposite Maxey, Edgecombe more often finds himself in an off-ball role. Now, Edgecombe will get a lot more opportunity to make plays.
Against the Grizzlies, Edgecombe went 7-for-15 from the field, scoring 21 points in 34 minutes, 32 seconds.
“I really thought VJ gave us a huge spark,” Nurse said. “He just all of a sudden started getting offensive rebounds and putbacks. Leadership-wise, with his energy, just really sparked that whole run with some of the tough plays he was making.”
But the Sixers’ best minutes came without Edgecombe, led by the lineup of Quentin Grimes, Kelly Oubre Jr., Cameron Payne, Dominick Barlow, and Dalen Terry late in the fourth quarter.
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To win without Maxey, Joel Embiid, and Paul George — their three leading scorers — the Sixers need contributions from every part of their lineup. Against the Grizzlies, Nurse said the offense didn’t start great, but as the game progressed, especially in the fourth quarter, the Sixers got huge results from multiple spots in their lineup.
Payne, playing in just his 11th game back in the NBA after starting the season in Serbia, had a career night. He became the first player in franchise history to make eight three-pointers without a miss, the first Sixer this season to score 30 points off the bench, and the first player in franchise history to produce at least 30 points and 10 assists in a game off the bench. He finished with 32 points.
“Bench guys, you have to have a different kind of motor, because you don’t really have that much time sometimes,” Payne said. “You need to come in and find a way to change the game, and that was my goal tonight. Sometimes the nights turn into big nights, and that was the case tonight.”
The Sixers were plus-22 in Payne’s 30 minutes on the floor. Oubre contributed 30 points with 12 rebounds, Grimes scored 23 points, and the Sixers were plus-11 with him on the court.
Without Maxey, Embiid, and George, the Sixers have little room for error if they want to stay in the conversation for the No. 6 seed or the top half of the NBA’s play-in bracket.
“We’ve got to just get gutsy wins like we did tonight,” Oubre said. “It’s not going to be pretty. We’ve got to figure it out quickly and just try our best to hold it down until [Maxey] comes back and the guys get back, but it’s the tale of the seasons, right? Every year it’s something. We face adversity at inopportune times, and we’ve got to just figure out a way to just make it happen.”