Tyrese Maxey to miss Sixers’ game against Indiana Pacers with illness
This will be Maxey's first missed game of the season as he has carried the Sixers and stands among the league's leaders in points and minutes per game.
Tyrese Maxey will miss Friday night’s game against the Indiana Pacers at Xfinity Mobile Arena with an illness. This comes after the 76ers point guard missed practice this week.
“Obviously, that’s a huge challenge,” coach Nick Nurse said of not having Maxey. “Obviously, lots of minutes, lots of ball handling, lots of scoring against a team that likes to pressure a lot, play a lot of guards.
“So I think the handling of the ball responsibilities got to get spread out between the rest of those guys. It’s going to be a good challenge for them.”
» READ MORE: The Sixers are injured at key spots. They still see reason to be optimistic about their East chances.
Nurse declined to disclose who will start in Maxey’s place alongside shooting guard VJ Edgecombe. However, Quentin Grimes wore a blue practice jersey, which is usually reserved for starters, when the media was permitted on the arena floor after Friday morning’s shootaround.
This will be Maxey’s first game missed this season. The 6-foot-2 point guard is the league’s third-leading scorer at 31.5 points per game. He’s also third in three-pointers made (84) and ninth in assists per game (7.2).
Maxey finished with a career-high 54 points along with nine assists, five rebounds, three steals, and three blocks in the Sixers’ 123-114 overtime road victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Nov. 20.
Those 54 points tied Hall of Famer Allen Iverson for the ninth-most points scored in a regular-season game in team history. Iverson did it twice, on Dec. 18, 2004, and Jan. 6, 2001.
» READ MORE: TGI Fridays on City Avenue was a longtime Sixers hangout. Then Allen Iverson made it one of Philly’s hottest ‘clubs.’
Maxey joins Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain (March 18, 1968) as the only two players in franchise history to produce at least 50 points and nine assists in a single game.
The Sixers will also be without Kelly Oubre Jr. (left knee LCL sprain), Trendon Watford (left adductor strain), and Hunter Sallis (right shoulder sprain). The Pacers are without Tyrese Haliburton (right Achilles’ tendon tear), Kam Jones (lower back stress reaction), Aaron Nesmith (left knee MCL sprain), Ben Sheppard (left calf strain), and Obi Toppin (right foot stress reaction).