The summer version of the Philadelphia 76ers continued with their schedule out in Vegas on Saturday when they took on the Boston Celtics, but they had to do so without star second-year guard Tyrese Maxey.
The young man out of Kentucky was having a terrific summer league, but he returned home to Garland, Texas to host a youth basketball camp. In his absence, Philadelphia had a tough time generating any consistent offense and they fell to the Celtics 100-80.
Isaiah Joe led Philadelphia with 15 points and Paul Reed added 14 and 12 rebounds, but as a team, it was tough sledding on offense. Maxey has been the one generating a lot of the team’s offense as he creates not only for the team, but for himself as well. Replacement Frank Mason III was admirable, but he is not Maxey.
“Maxey’s obviously, especially at this level, he’s a talented point guard in general, but he’s at this level, he’s even that much,” said summer league coach Brian Adams. “Any time you lose your point guard, your team is going to suffer from the standpoint of that’s been your leader the whole camp and whatnot, at the same time though, we were ready for this, we prepared for it, I thought Frank did a pretty good job he was very aggressive, he got downhill.”
Things unraveled quickly for Philadelphia in the third quarter when they were outscored by the Celtics 30-14 as they could not find any open looks at all after keeping it close in the first half.
“A guy of Maxey’s caliber is always going to make a thing, but that can’t be an excuse at all,” Adams continued. “I thought we were ready and we were prepared and then when the game started, I was happy with our first half overall and then the third quarter, I have to go back and watch, but things kind of fell apart a little.”
Joe had four assists as he did his best trying to create some offense for the team in the absence of Maxey, but it was clearly not enough on the offensive end of the floor.
“Tyrese is a big part of this team, but just like any NBA game, sometimes you got to play without great players,” Joe explained. “You got to learn how to use what you have. Today was a test of that. So I think we just got to keep getting better with what we got because we have the pieces. We have the coaching staff, we have the layout, we just got to put it together.”
The Sixers will wrap up the summer league on Sunday when they take on the Minnesota Timberwolves out in Las Vegas.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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