Tyrese Maxey’s All-Star season for Sixers ends with ‘one of the hardest series I’ve played in’ vs. Knicks

Tyrese Maxey stood near the 76ers’ bench late in Sunday’s third quarter, his team already spiraling toward being swept out of the playoffs by the rival New York Knicks. Before checking out for the final time this season, he embraced teammate VJ Edgecombe and then shook hands with his parents, Denyse and Tyrone, who sit at the scorer’s table for most home games.

This season was another significant step forward for the 25-year-old point guard. He ranked fifth in the NBA in scoring (28.3 points per game), became an All-Star for the second time, and will likely make an All-NBA team. He spearheaded a Sixers team that, despite playing huge chunks of the season without max-contract players Joel Embiid and Paul George, returned to the playoffs and pulled off a thrilling first-round upset over the Boston Celtics. He was the definition of a workhorse, leading the league in minutes per game (38), and became a legitimate defensive playmaker.

» READ MORE: Joel Embiid battled, Sixers rotation was exposed and more from a 144-114 dismantling to close the season

Yet Maxey, like his team, underperformed throughout the Sixers’ second-round matchup against the Knicks. He scored 17 points on 6-of-16 shooting and added four assists in a 144-114 Game 4 drubbing at Xfinity Mobile Arena, a forgettable final performance that will fuel how he attacks his offseason work.

“They made it tough on me. I can’t even sit here and lie,” Maxey said following the game. “They did a good job of, just, I saw multiple [defenders] every single night. … I’ve got to really watch it, because it was definitely one of the hardest series I’ve played in, for just myself.

“I have to be better for my teammates, no matter what the case is, no matter what the defense is.”

The final stretch of Maxey’s sixth NBA season will be marked by the splint protecting the right pinkie he injured on March 7. He returned to game action exactly three weeks later, vowing that “there was no chance I was using that as an excuse or missing any part of this” Sixers run to the postseason.

He acknowledged Sunday that he periodically aggravated the injury. The finger got caught in a jersey during an April 4 game against Detroit, causing him to be passive on the Sixers’ final regular-season road trip to San Antonio, Houston, and Indiana. Though he said it felt better during their grueling first-round win over Boston, he jammed it again in Game 2 in New York.

“It just hurt,” Maxey said. “It hurts bad. … That’s kind of what I felt like these last two games.”

Maxey averaged only 18.3 points in the four games against the Knicks, on 43% shooting from the floor and just 3-of-19 from three-point range. He said healing the injury will require hand therapy and “whatever the doctors and them tell me to do” beginning with a follow-up appointment Monday.

The Knicks also aggressively trapped Maxey on “every single pick and roll” to get the ball out of his hands. And when Maxey could shake free to drive downhill, “the entire [Knicks] team was in the paint.”

» READ MORE: The Sixers season ended in embarrassment, but also made something clear about Joel Embiid’s future

That is why it is important for Maxey to continue developing backcourt potency with Edgecombe, who just completed a rookie season that Maxey called “exceptional.” Edgecombe already took some ballhandling pressure off Maxey this season, and said he plans to work more on that offense-initiating this summer. That would move Maxey to shooting guard on some possessions.

“When you’re in front of the defense all the time,” Maxey said. “ … it gives [the opponent] opportunities that have the entire team kind of load up. And I feel like that’s one thing that really good players and great players can do. They can be on the ball [and] make plays on the ball, but they can also play off the ball and contribute that way, use their gravity that way.”

So it was fitting that Maxey and Edgecombe conducted a joint end-of-season news conference, as a visual representation of the Sixers’ future even with Embiid and George still on max contracts for multiple years. Maxey reminisced about how he once was the young guy alongside Embiid and former Sixers guard James Harden, who both “saw something in me.” Sunday, it was Maxey offering praise about Edgecombe — and the rookie reflecting on how “surreal” it was to watch and learn from Maxey this season.

“He’s going to be a superstar for years to come,” Edgecombe said of Maxey. “I’m really proud to just be a part of the journey. It’s just been so great for me, for this team. We ain’t going anywhere without him.”

Maxey’s first offseason priority, however, is way bigger than basketball. He will go “back to the crib” in the Dallas area, where he will become a father for the first time. That news has been circulating for weeks in basketball corners of the Internet, but he had not formally addressed it publicly until Sunday.

“I’m happy with that,” Maxey said. “I’m ready to go home and then just see [what] that’s like. That’s just, honestly, the facts of it.

“Hell of a season. Had a great time playing basketball. And now, it just brings a life challenge that’s going to be great.”