When one sees how the Philadelphia 76ers were able to defeat the Houston Rockets on Friday by a score of 131-127, one will see how dominant Tyrese Maxey was.
The rising star had 42 points on 13-for-26 shooting for Philadelphia on the night. He had 27 points by halftime and he was absolutely fantastic all night long. Maxey did what he was supposed to do to help beat the Rockets.
However, one could argue that the Sixers don’t win that game without the production of Marcus Morris Sr.
Morris was fantastic off the bench. He finished with 14 points and 10 of those came in the fourth quarter. He converted a huge 4-point play to help the Sixers seal it and Philadelphia needed it in the worst way possible.
“He’s been huge,” Maxey told reporters of Morris. “He’s been huge since we got him. Since he’s settled into his role, he knows what the coach wants from him, he knows what we need from him, and it’s been big. He’s going out there and he plays his role. A tough guy that we need, you know the toughness he brings to that leadership. We appreciate him.”
Coach Nick Nurse turned to Morris down the stretch because of the trouble Alperen Sengun and Fred VanVleet were giving the Sixers. Houston spammed the pick-and-roll combination between the two of them and it was a tough matchup for Paul Reed and Mo Bamba to try and slow down.
Therefore, Nurse turned to Morris and he rewarded his coach’s faith in him.
“I just think he (Sengun) was such a tough matchup for both Paul and Mo, right?” Nurse told reporters. “I thought Paul played pretty good in the second half and Marcus did have five (fouls) and we were ready to go back with Paul if we needed to late but I mean, that crew just kind of got it going and it’s kind of one of those things where you just want to let the guys playing it and out there keep trying to figure it out and they did eventually.”
While Morris was obviously huge, Patrick Beverley also made clutch plays. He scored nine points on 3-for-3 shooting in the fourth quarter and he came up with the big rebound to find Morris to convert the 4-point play late. Maxey was blocked at the rim by Houston’s Tari Eason and Beverley then swooped in for the rebound.
“First of all, Maxey did a great job of keeping us in the game,” said Morris. “Early on, we started very slow and he was very aggressive and then down the stretch a lot of the veterans came in and stepped up. Pat just being in the right place at the right time, like always, was able to corral the rebound and kick it right to me. It was what it was after that.”
The Sixers will now look to finish the road trip the right way on Saturday against the Chicago Bulls.
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