The Philadelphia 76ers are rolling again after a very impressive 4-1 road trip. They are in third place in the Eastern Conference only two games behind the second-place Boston Celtics.
A big reason for their success has been the play of Tyrese Maxey. The young man out of Kentucky started all five games on the trip, and he averaged 26.6 points and shot 57.6% from deep in those games.
After a win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in which Maxey scored 27 points on 9-for-16 shooting and 4-for-7 from deep, he talked with NBC Sports Philadelphia about where he’s at mentally:
It was after the Boston game in Boston where it was tough on me, man. It was tough on because, like I said, I played really well at the beginning of this year and new role and new stuff, life hard life is hard, but after that, I told myself I’d never played like that again with that type of mindset on my mind. I felt like I’ve been I’ve been pretty good ever since. Joel (Embiid) told me that, Joel and James (Harden) told me that for us to be as good as we possibly can, I have to be aggressive. I can’t be passive. It doesn’t matter if I’m on the court with them or I’m off the court with them. We’re at my best when I’m doing that. So I’m just gonna keep trying to do that.
Maxey recently mentioned he is going through a mental battle while working through a new role on the team. The Sixers moved him to the bench back in January and he had been up and down in terms of his production. Now, he looks as if he is back to who he was before the move to the bench which is going to be key for whatever the Sixers want to do in the playoffs.
[mm-video type=playlist id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01f1jxkahtwnvzepyp image=]
[lawrence-related id=76539,76561,76536]