ORLANDO, Fla. — The Philadelphia 76ers walked away with a 124-109 win over the Orlando Magic on Friday night thanks to the stellar play of their two leaders: Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey.
Embiid had 36 points on 12-for-22 shooting with seven rebounds and four steals. Tyrese Maxey had 32 points on 10-for-20 shooting with five assists in support of the big fella.
At the half, Embiid had 28 points on 10-for-14 shooting; he was doing it all for Philadelphia. In the second half, Maxey got going. He scored 15 after halftime with seven coming in the fourth quarter to keep Embiid on the bench.
“I told him it was time,” Embiid said of what he told Maxey at halftime. “I told him I couldn’t do this all game so he needed to wake up and do his thing and carry us. I mean, he’s our best player. So we got to make sure that he’s always on and getting the ball so he gets going and make plays for everybody else.”
Maxey had 17 points at halftime with five assists, but Embiid wanted more out of his star sidekick. Maxey was shooting 2-for-8 from deep and the big fella wasn’t having that.
“I thought my first half was decent. I mean, I don’t know, I had like six assists, I don’t know, but I was messing with coach (Nick) Nurse when we was walking out, I said I ain’t gonna miss too many more,” Maxey said after the win. “I already know I missed enough and from 3 and Joel, he was messing with me. He said ‘I got zero assists because of you.’ Gotta love him.”
Nurse added more to the conversation he had with Maxey as the rising star put his imprint on the game.
“I just like it that he gets going,” Nurse explained. “It’s his time to go out there and be the primary option and I kept watching his shot numbers and he got to his number tonight. He was pretty confident I thought in the second half. Coming out of halftime, I was walking with him and he said he was gonna have a good half and he did.”
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