Tyrese Maxey, superstar? The Sixers will need him to be to have any chance against the Celtics.
The Sixers are about to embark on a playoff series where their only hope is for Maxey to play like a man he has never before needed to be.
Tyrese Maxey was looking downright professorial. Maybe he was feeling it, too. Wearing black-framed glasses and a tasteful diamond necklace that classed up a plain T-shirt, the 76ers’ 25-year-old guard laughed as he looked back on how fast the years had gone. The last time Maxey prepared for a playoff series in Boston, he did so as the third option on a team with an MVP at center and a former one in the backcourt.
Now?
“Are you calling me old?” Maxey said.
Hard as it is to reconcile, he knows there’s some truth to it. The Sixers are about to embark on a playoff series where their only hope is for Maxey to play like a man he has never before needed to be. They will be facing a team that has two national team members and an NBA Finals MVP and all the depth you could possibly hope to build on such a star-laden team. The Celtics were already a powerhouse before superstar Jayson Tatum made an earlier-than-expected return from Achilles surgery. They enter the postseason having won 13 of the 16 games he has played, the only losses coming against contenders New York, Oklahoma City and San Antonio.
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The Sixers? They have Maxey. He is the only reason they were anywhere close to the playoffs. Thanks to his 31 points and a herculean fourth-quarter effort in a 109-97 win over the Magic on Wednesday, he is the only reason they are there. Over the last six years, the Sixers have watched him rise from seldom-used rookie to promising starter to bona fide All-Star. Now, they will see how he fares in basketball’s biggest test.
“In this version of our team, we need him to be really great,” coach Nick Nurse said.
Game 1: Sixers at Celtics, 1 p.m. Sunday, ABC
Game 2: Sixers at Celtics, 7 p.m. Tuesday, Peacock
Game 3: Celtics at Sixers, 7 p.m. April 24, Prime Video
Game 4: Celtics at Sixers, 7 p.m. April 26, NBC/Peacock
*Game 5: Sixers at Celtics, TBD April 28
*Game 6: Celtics at Sixers, TBD April 30
*Game 7: Sixers at Celtics, TBD May 2
* If necessary
Even that may not be enough. The Celtics enter the series as 10.5-point favorites in Sunday’s Game 1 and 1-to-10 favorites to advance to the Eastern Conference semis. They won 56 games in the regular season and are a surprisingly strong contender to return to the NBA Finals for the third time in five years. Quite simply, they are a juggernaut, one that would be favored over the Sixers even if Joel Embiid was healthy and Paul George was in his prime.
The Sixers? They might still need to play their way into the postseason if they’d faced any team other than the Magic on Wednesday. Orlando star Paolo Banchero was a one-man-wrecking crew in the worst possible manner, missing 15-of-22 shots from the field and turning the ball over six times. It was some of the most uninspired, disjointed basketball you will see from a player with such supreme physical gifts. Credit the Sixers for harassing him all night. But this was more than that. Banchero and the Magic looked like a team with zero interest in extending their season another week or two. They shot 7-for-27 from three-point range, missed seven free throws, and finished -8 in turnover margin.
Even with all of that, they trailed by just one point with eight minutes left after Anthony Black hit a three-pointer to cut the Sixers’ lead to 87-86. Neither Maxey nor rookie VJ Edgecombe could get much going offensively. But that changed quickly.
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In a two-minute stretch that followed Black’s three-pointer, Maxey asserted himself as the one player on the court who could decide the game himself. First came a hard drive to the basket and a seven-foot floater. Then came a step-back three-pointer with hands in his face. Then came another floater. On the next possession, Maxey tried to make it nine straight points, but found himself bottled up on the baseline. Trapped in midair, he threw an overhand pass to the opposite corner, where Quentin Grimes quickly swung the ball to Kelly Oubre Jr. for a wide-open three-pointer that gave the Sixers a 97-89 lead with 5:45 left.
After the game, Maxey pointed to that stretch as the kind he will need to summon against the Celtics. All season, he has spoken openly of the challenge of being the focal point of an opposing defense. He has spent countless hours in the gym on getting to his spots in traffic and scoring through crowds.
“The mentality is definitely different,” Maxey said. “I mean, back then I was still attacking and still being aggressive but it’s a different situation. For me, it’s going to be a lot of film the next couple of days. A lot of film, breaking it down, get back in the gym probably Friday, a lot of getting to my spots and where I like to make shots and where I can get to. And then just read the game. There were a couple of plays down the stretch where I got to the paint and I just kicked it and jumped up and hit Q and we got a bucket out of that. Those are the plays that are going to be key.”
» READ MORE: Everything you need to know about the Sixers in the NBA playoffs: Schedule, bracket, how to watch, tickets, more
Maxey has been building toward this moment for several years now. In April of 2024, we saw him score 46 points in 52 minutes at Madison Square Garden while carrying the Sixers to an overtime win over the Knicks in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series. That performance announced his arrival as a potential superstar, something that even his most ardent believers didn’t envision. After a step backward last season, he thrived in a leading role this year, averaging 28.3 points while regaining much of the shooting efficiency he’d lost in 2024-25.
Now, for the first time in his career, Maxey will enter a postseason series as the Sixers’ best chance at winning. That’s an awfully tough mantle to carry against a team like the Celtics. Maxey has consistently willed himself through the ceilings of other people’s expectations. This time, he’ll need to drag an entire team with him.
