PHILADELPHIA — There was a lot to like for the Philadelphia 76ers in Saturday’s 112-100 win over the Phoenix Suns. They received strong play from Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, Kelly Oubre Jr. and Tobias Harris and played strong defense collectively.
Yet, there was some talk about Maxey and his lack of aggression to begin the game.
Overall, Maxey finished with 22 points, 10 assists and five rebounds. Those are terrific numbers when just looking at the box score. However, when watching the game, he wasn’t at his best. He shot just 5-for-14 through three quarters before going off in the fourth when he shot 4-for-4 overall and 2-for-2 from deep.
“The key for him is to be aggressive and to let the game come to him,” Embiid said of Maxey. “I think as the game went along, he just let the game come to him, and make the right plays. He passed up a couple shots that I think he should’ve taken, but he had the game under control, and he did a pretty good job.”
Coach Nick Nurse challenged Maxey after the win, saying he is too good to be passive and not attack. Embiid essentially echoed Nurse’s sentiments saying that he should look to attack no matter what.
“I told him, we got a lot of plays that we wanna run, but he doesn’t have to run all those plays,” Embiid explained. “There’s so many times there’s pace, and in those situations, you don’t have to run a play just because we called a play for somebody or whatever just to run the offense.”
Essentially, what Embiid is saying is Maxey should attack when he sees space and not slow down just because they called a play. If he sees the space to attack, he should go after it and not overthink things. That is when Maxey is at his best.
“If you see the space, you don’t gotta call the play,” Embiid finished. “Attack because you’re gonna create the same look anyways. He’s gonna score or the defense is gonna collapse and somebody’s gonna be wide-open.”
As terrific as Maxey has been to begin the season, this will still be a work in progress for him. Nurse and the Sixers know it, and the way he handles this balance of scoring and playmaking will decide how far they go as a team.
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