PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers won their eighth game in a row on Sunday when they outpaced the Indiana Pacers, 137-126. In what ended up being a track meet on a night the Sixers had to hold off the hard-charging Pacers, Tyrese Maxey who stole the show.
Maxey was unstoppable. He put up a career-high 50 points on 20-for-32 shooting. He was 7-for-11 from deep, had seven rebounds, five assists and three blocks in the win. The Pacers had zero answers for him, and the Sixers took advantage.
Joel Embiid, who had 37 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists, is normally the one with all the headlines at the Wells Fargo Center. On this night, it was all about Maxey.
“He didn’t steal the headlines,” said Embiid. “That was all him. It was amazing to watch. I said it at the end, I’ve got a bunch of 50s, but it’s fun to watch someone else do it. Especially, because when I do it, I usually have 20 free throws and him just the shot-making ability and step backs and crossovers and it goes back to the work that he put in in the offseason with his people, with his trainer, and it’s paying off. I’m just so happy for him.”
Coach Nick Nurse, who watched Maxey put up 44 points on his Toronto Raptors early in the 2022-23 season, is happy to now be on his side rather than on the other side watching it.
“It’s a lot more fun,” laughed Nurse. “A lot more fun being on this side of it and the same goes for Joel. When you prepare against them and play against them, you do have a level of how tough it is, but now that I’m here and see them every day and see them do it a lot, it’s like that level even goes up for me. It goes up for me watching them play.”
With Maxey at 47 points, Embiid made sure the young guard got the ball. He took the ball from De’Anthony Melton, gave it to Maxey, and told him to shoot. Maxey obliged and drilled a triple with 1:05 remaining to get to 50 points.
“I mean, I had to,” Embiid laughed. “Melt had the ball and I went and snatched it from him and I wanted him to get it. There’s a difference between 47 and 50 or 49 and 50 so I wanted him to have that feeling, but that’s not the only one he’s gonna have. He’s gonna have a bunch of those.”
Maxey did it in a variety of ways on Sunday. When the Pacers took away one aspect of his game, he went to the others. Indiana tried to take away his drives, so he drilled tough 3s. The Pacers adjusted and got after him on the perimeter. He then used his speed to get to the rim. There was no stopping him.
“I thought just, again, he just mixed in what he does so well,” Nurse added. “I thought he blasted to the basket with speed a bunch of times. I thought he did his step back or separation for 3s, just a heavy dose of both. I think it was really hard to guard tonight, but it’s really hard when he’s that fast one way and he’s so deadly a shooter the other direction. So it’s kinda like which one do you try to take away? It kinda makes it hard.”
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