ORLANDO, Fla. — The Philadelphia 76ers needed a bounce-back effort from Tyrese Maxey after the Christmas Day loss to the Miami Heat. Maxey shot just 4-for-20 that night.
The Sixers received that bounce-back performance in a 112-92 win over the Orlando Magic. The rising star had 23 points, and he knocked down three 3s.
Poor nights happen in the league. Maxey, in his fourth season in the NBA, hasn’t had many rough shooting nights. Veterans on the team wanted to let him know those things happen and the key is being better in the next game.
“That’s what I told him,” started Marcus Morris Sr. “I told him that last game that great players miss shots. Great players have bad games. That’s just the nature of the league.”
With Maxey being so young at this stage of his career, the performance against the Heat could have been the start of a slump for the rising star. Instead, he bounced back against a very solid Magic team on the rise.
“This is his first time having the keys to the team like that,” Morris added. “It’s hard being a young player. That can mess with you mentally while you’re playing because it’s the same shots that you take and you normally make, but it wasn’t going in. Me being a vet, I just told him, ‘Hey man. Players miss shots. The best players bounce back.’ And that’s the beauty of the league. You’ve got games back-to-back and it can change very quick.”
Patrick Beverley, who has been in Maxey’s ear since he arrived, was proud of the way the young guard bounced back. He didn’t view the performance against the Heat as a tough night. The ball just didn’t drop.
“You think it was a poor performance?” asked Beverley. “I mean, you go and write a paper and misspell some words, it’s a poor write up? Or you just misspelled some words? Just because you miss shots doesn’t mean it’s a — I think his plus/minus was a 4. I honestly think the bench didn’t do a good job last game. I don’t really think it was a poor performance. He just missed shots. Just like any writer that misspells words or anything else. You know what I’m saying?”
To Beverley’s point, Maxey was a plus-3 despite the rough shooting night. He was then able to find his rhythm against the Magic.
“It’s expected, right?” Beverley added. “He’s a perennial All-Star. I hope he’s in the starting lineup of the All-Star this year. Everybody wants to see him do it without Jo which is a great thing, a motivated thing, and he made shots tonight. We all made shots tonight. A great team win.”
[lawrence-related id=88270,88267,88264]