Tyrese Maxey takes accountability for off night in loss at Spurs: ‘For us to win games, I’ve got to be aggressive’
Maxey went scoreless in the first half and finished his uncharacteristic performance with 15 points on 6-of-16 shooting, eight assists, three rebounds, and four turnovers.
SAN ANTONIO — Tyrese Maxey assertively stepped into a three-pointer from the right wing, the type of shot he has nailed countless times while blossoming into one of the NBA’s top scorers.
But Monday night, that marked Maxey’s first made bucket … about four minutes into the third quarter.
It was an uncharacteristically off outing for the All-Star point guard in a big moment for the 76ers’ postseason fate. Though the night was initially developing into a fabulous big-man showdown between Joel Embiid and Victor Wembanyama, Maxey’s scoreless first half still raised eyebrows. And even while totaling 15 second-half points, Maxey did not go into the hyperdrive that he is capable of reaching — especially once Wembanyama left the game with a bruised rib, and Embiid finally took a breather at the start of the fourth quarter.
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The rest of Maxey’s stat line in the Sixers’ 115-102 loss at Frost Bank Arena, which he called “definitely a lost opportunity”: 6-of-16 shooting, eight assists, three rebounds, four turnovers.
“That’s just on me,” Maxey said from the postgame locker room. “For us to win games, I’ve got to be aggressive.”
Sixers coach Nick Nurse pushed back slightly when asked about Maxey’s struggles, reminding that 15 points after the break is “nothing to sneeze at.” Neither were Maxey’s seven first-half assists for the 43-36 Sixers, who dropped to seventh place in the Eastern Conference with Monday’s loss.
Yet the more critical outside evaluation is evidence of the expectations Maxey has raised for himself, as the Sixer who has so admirably carried his team for the bulk of two seasons. He entered Monday ranked fifth in the NBA in scoring, at 28.6 points per game, as a guard who can explode to the basket and launch from deep range.
Maxey’s performance also could be a blip in the reintegration of the Sixers’ finally healthy roster. Embiid responded from an early twisted ankle to finish with 34 points, 12 rebounds, and four blocked shots. Paul George, who has largely been terrific in his return from a 25-game NBA suspension, totaled 16 points Monday but went 5-of-15 from the floor and faded after another hot start.
Maxey said the Spurs threw a barrage of defenders at him in the first half, opening up facilitating opportunities. After the game, though, the 25-year-old said he wished he would have taken more midrange shots and floaters. He went 0-for-4 before the break, falling way short of Nurse’s desired shot volume for Maxey even when the Sixers are at full strength.
He was 2-of-9 from the floor before beginning the fourth with a driving floater to cut the Spurs’ advantage to 94-87. But when Embiid — whose 39 minutes included playing nearly the entire second and third quarters — finally needed a break to begin the final frame, that could have been Maxey’s time to take over the game.
Instead, San Antonio built a 14-point advantage to seize control for good.
“That’s OK. We’ve got his back,” Embiid said of Maxey. “He’s been doing it all season, so if he doesn’t have it one night, that’s fine. Everybody else is going to pick it up. I tried to pick it up. It wasn’t enough, so I’ve got to be better. …
“I’m sure he’s not worried about it, but we don’t worry about who gets shots or not. … Play winning basketball.”
» READ MORE: Missed opportunity, Tyrese Maxey’s struggles, other things we learned in Sixers’ 115-102 loss to Spurs
It might be easy to forget that Maxey came back sooner than outsiders anticipated — without any five-on-five scrimmaging or a typical ramp-up process post-reevaluation — from the pinkie tendon strain that kept him sidelined for three weeks.
Before Monday’s game, Nurse said he had not noticed “any rust or rhythm problems” from Maxey and that it “doesn’t even seem like he had the injury, to me.” It certainly is not hampering Maxey’s outside shooting accuracy as drastically as last season’s injury to the same finger, though his three-point percentage has dipped to 31.3% on 5.3 attempts in his six games since his return (it is 36.9% on 8.6 attempts overall this season).
Yet Maxey acknowledged he hit his finger during Saturday’s loss to the Detroit Pistons, prompting him to shake his hand and breathe deeply while on the floor. He shook it a bit again during Monday’s loss. When asked if it is still bothering him, he politely shrugged it off by saying, “I’m going to be out there, no matter what.”
“I do all the treatment they ask me to do,” said Maxey, who continues to wear a splint. “It is what it is at this point. You’re not going to hear me complain. You’re not going to hear me talk about it. I just want to go out there and help my team.”
After Monday’s loss, Maxey called on the Sixers to “raise it one more notch” to prepare for playoff intensity. They are still jostling for seeding with three games remaining, beginning Thursday at the Houston Rockets.
That means Maxey must quickly shift back into his aggressive self.
“I’m in a good spot mentally,” he said. “I know what I can do out there on the basketball court. I’ve shown it this [season].”