Tyrese Maxey gives lessons to learn from after Sixers fall to Clippers

Tyrese Maxey gives his lessons to learn from after the Philadelphia 76ers fell to the Los Angeles Clippers.

PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers suffered a heartbreaking 108-107 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday in a contest the Sixers let slip away.

The officials admitted to making a mistake on the Kelly Oubre Jr. final drive, but the Sixers should not have been in that position to begin with.

With Philadelphia leading 104-101 with 1:00 left, Tyrese Maxey slipped on the inbounds pass and it led to a turnover. Clippers guard Amir Coffey came up with the steal and was fouled by Oubre who made one of the two free throws.

“I think that kind of just started with me tripping and falling, like it’s just a domino effect, honestly,” Maxey said downtrodden. “I broke open, tripped, fell, and they get two points off that. It kind of just went downhill after that. A couple of turnovers late, a couple of execution things that we did, and came back and bit us.”

Oubre then committed a turnover which led to Kawhi Leonard giving the Clippers the lead on an And-1 conversion. The Sixers turned to Buddy Hield who drilled a 3 to put the Sixers back up 107-105 with 23.5 seconds left, but Leonard converted another And-1 to give LA the lead again with 15.7 ticks left.

The officials, obviously, made the big mistake of not calling the foul to put Oubre on the line, but the Sixers shouldn’t have been in that position to begin with.

“We have to take care of the ball,” Maxey added. “We have to finish games. I felt like a couple of times we lost Kawhi like on the one that he got the first and one on and then on the second one, that’s just a play where if he beats us we have to let him lay it in. We’re up two, he lays that in, and then we come down and get the last shot, and hey, either one of us makes a shot to win the game or we go into overtime.”

The Sixers will take on the Cleveland Cavaliers on the road on Friday.

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Sixers’ Tyrese Maxey praises James Harden for helping his development

Philadelphia 76ers star Tyrese Maxey gives praise to James Harden for helping him with his development.

PHILADELPHIA — James Harden did good things while he was a member of the Philadelphia 76ers. His numbers were solid: averages of 21 points and 10.6 assists in his 1 1/2 seasons in Philadelphia. And he helped the development and play of Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid.

Maxey, especially, has taken a lot from his time with Harden. The fourth-year guard was a first-time All-Star and showed off his skills in a 108-107 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday.

Maxey went toe-to-toe with Harden and put up 26 points, eight assists and seven rebounds in the loss. The young guard gave abundant praise to Harden for helping him with his development.

“It was a game when he came to our team and he didn’t play in Milwaukee and — right before the All-Star break — and I remember like coming down in the first quarter and just like kind of just throwing the ball to Joel, throwing the ball to Joel, just passing, not really being aggressive,” Maxey recalled from his time with Harden. “He just pulled me to the side and was like, ‘You do understand, like, you’re a special player and you can go out there and you can play your own brand of basketball and still defer to Joel.'”

Essentially, Harden wanted Maxey to understand that he has to find that balance of scoring as well as making plays for others on the floor. Yes, he had to defer to Harden and Embiid, but he had to score as well to make life easier for everybody on the floor.

“‘You have to go out there and you have to be aggressive for Joel to get open,'” Maxey continued on the advice from Harden. “‘If you’re just going to come off the pick-and-roll, you’re going to come out there and just throw the ball to Joel every single time, then the defense is going to be on him and it’s going to make it harder for him.’ So after that day, even when he came and started playing, I still had to defer those guys, but when I had the ball, he wanted me to be aggressive, and I think Joel was the same way so both of those guys have really helped me in my development.”

It’s obvious Harden and Maxey still have a great relationship. The two were messing with each other early in the game when Maxey was called for a foul on a Harden 3-pointer.

“Much love to James,” Maxey smiled. “It’s funny, just messing with him throughout the game, I was telling him that when I fouled him, I didn’t try to hurt him. He was like, ‘No, you tried to hurt me!’ I said ‘No, never bro. Never try to hurt you, man’, but it was great.”

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Sixers’ Nick Nurse talks offensive struggles, Tyrese Maxey in loss to Kings

Philadelphia 76ers coach Nick Nurse discusses the offensive struggles as well as Tyrese Maxey after the loss to the Sacramento Kings.

The Philadelphia 76ers looked to finish their four-game road trip at .500 when played the Sacramento Kings on Monday. The Sixers picked up an impressive win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday to give themselves the chance against the Kings.

However, outside of Tyrese Maxey, Monday night was a struggle.

Maxey scored Philadelphia’s first 16 points, 21 in the first quarter and outscored the Kings by himself at one point. However, Sacramento still led by six after one quarter and then found a way to slow Maxey. As a result, it walked away with a 108-96 win.

After the hot start, the Kings held Maxey to eight points the rest of the way. Philadelphia couldn’t take advantage of the constant blitzing defense Sacramento threw at him.

“They started blitzing everything with him and we didn’t do a great job of taking advantage of that,” coach Nick Nurse told reporters after the loss. “We’ve been really, really good at it lately and tonight (Monday), we weren’t as good so that’s it. They put two on him. Even if we weren’t sending a ball screen, they were sending two guys on him to take it out of his hands and we just didn’t make them pay enough around the perimeter.”

On the night, the Sixers shot 41.5% from the floor. The next highest scorer was Tobias Harris with 12 points.

On the flip side, Philadelphia was solid on the defensive end. Kings star Domantas Sabonis had a triple-double, but he shot 3-for-5 from the floor for 11 points. Malik Monk shot 4-for-11, while De’Aaron Fox still had 23, but Sacramento as a whole shot 44.2% from the floor. That’s respectable defense.

Despite that effort, the Kings built a 22-point lead because the Sixers just couldn’t find a rhythm outside of Maxey.

“I thought, again, we did a good job of some of the things we wanted to do tonight,” Nurse added. “We kept Sabonis in check. We kept Monk in check pretty good. I mean, Fox was really fast and good tonight, but we did execute most of the stuff we were trying to execute tonight. We just didn’t get enough on offense again.”

That was a theme of the road trip. Philadelphia’s defensive effort in all four games was good enough to win. However, it wasn’t there offensively. A big matchup with the Clippers looms on Wednesday back at home.

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Tyrese Maxey proud of Sixers for fight shown in win over Clippers

Tyrese Maxey was proud of the fight the Philadelphia 76ers showed in a win over the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Philadelphia 76ers were in a tough situation on Sunday afternoon when they took on the Los Angeles Clippers. They were still missing Joel Embiid, De’Anthony Melton and Robert Covington, and they added Kyle Lowry to that list.

Philadelphia had a great start and led by as many as 17 in the first half. The Sixers played tough defense all afternoon and made the Clippers uncomfortable despite LA’s offensive talent: James Harden, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

The Clippers kicked into high gear and rallied to tie the game. Instead of wilting, the Sixers responded and pushed the lead to as many as 21 points. They cruised to a 121-107 win as Tyrese Maxey scored 11 points in the fourth quarter.

“For us, our competitive nature has really stepped up over these past few weeks or so,” Maxey told reporters after the win. “Coach got on us after the Knicks game, feeling like they just pushed us around, and ever since then we haven’t had that. I think in Phoenix we couldn’t make a shot, and it happens like that.”

Philadelphia played tough in Phoenix and even in the loss to the Lakers on Friday. Shots just didn’t fall despite some solid offensive execution.

“Even in the Lakers game, I feel like we were extremely aggressive defensively and we just couldn’t make any shots,” Maxey added. “Tonight (Sunday), our defense was solid as always, but missed some shots. So, that was good for us.”

The Sixers have had a solid trip in terms of their game plan. It has worked well. Now, they look to pick up wins while they await the return of Embiid.

“We brought a similar effort from the other night and the ball went in,” added coach Nick Nurse. “We just kind of talked about that before the game and that we were generating good shots and everybody be ready to pull the trigger and they did. I thought when it hit our hands to start the game we were really confident. Obviously, listen, we made a lot of shots and that continues to boost our energy but we played really hard tonight so I’m proud of that.”

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Nick Nurse shared a message to Tyrese Maxey to get going vs. Lakers

Philadelphia 76ers coach Nick Nurse had a message to Tyrese Maxey to get him going against the Los Angeles Lakers.

For the Philadelphia 76ers to have any chance to win without Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey must be great. For the most part, he has been throughout his fourth season in the league.

However, the first-time All-Star has had a tough start to the four-game road trip, and coach Nick Nurse had to get him going in Friday’s 101-94 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

After a 3-for-13 performance in the loss in Phoenix to start the trip, Maxey shot just 2-for-7 in the first half against Los Angeles for five points. The Lakers did a terrific job of walling him off and blitzing him. Nurse had a message for him at halftime to get him going a bit.

“I told him I wanted him to get back to more — it looked like great advice because I asked him to get back into some more race it at them, pull back 3s,” Nurse told reporters after the loss. “Like his first possession of the second half, he raced in, pulled back hit it. It ended up being his only 3-point make of the night.”

In the second half, Maxey was much more aggressive. He shot 8-for-19 and had 22 points after halftime. He made the one 3-pointer, but that type of production is what Nurse is looking for to help the Sixers succeed.

“I just, again, I just kept telling him ‘You got to get the ball, find the ball, find space. You gotta keep attacking. Like you’ve got to keep attacking. You are our best option,’ right?” Nurse added. “So that’s what he did.”

Overall, the Sixers fought hard to steal one in LA. They forced the Lakers into 21 turnovers, held the Lakers to 43.8% shooting, and held LeBron James in check for most of the night before he got going in the fourth.

The issue is the Sixers shot only 34.4% from the floor and 8-for-37 from deep. It also didn’t help that Maxey wasn’t able to get going early.

“I say as long as we play our guts out, I can live with it,” Nurse continued. “I’m having a hard time right now living with it, right? Because I just felt like we really did play so hard and executed so well on defense tonight and I thought we executed on offense, too. We just couldn’t get it in the basket.”

The Sixers didn’t get discouraged and gave themselves a chance. Maxey had a steal late and if he made a corner 3, Philadelphia would have been within two with roughly 15 seconds left.

“I think yeah, you certainly want to — I told the guys I give you a lot of credit,” Nurse finished. “You just kept playing and kept playing and kept playing. Even at the end, we stole the ball. If Tyrese makes that corner three it’s a two-point game with 30 seconds to go. Like we still were there, right?”

The Sixers face the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday to continue the road trip.

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Sixers’ Tyrese Maxey gives keys to bouncing back against Lakers

Philadelphia 76ers star Tyrese Maxey gives his keys to bouncing back against the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday.

The Philadelphia 76ers will take on the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday looking to bounce back from a loss to the Phoenix Suns that began the four-game trip.

Tyrese Maxey, in particular, had an especially tough night. The All-Star guard had six points on 3-for-13 shooting and was 0-for-4 from deep. It was a performance that doesn’t often happen to a guy like him considering the season he’s having and the work he puts in.

Maxey knows he has to bounce back against the Lakers, but he trusts the work he puts in.

“Go back and compete,” Maxey told reporters after the loss in Phoenix. “We dropped one, but that is OK. We will get back into it again. Probably practice and do what we have to do. Get some shots up and be ready for these two games in LA.”

One of Maxey’s worst games of the season came on Christmas Day in a loss to the Miami Heat. He had 12 points on 4-for-20 shooting, but bounced back by scoring 23 points in a win over the Orlando Magic just a few days later.

He will look to do the same against the Lakers. Coach Nick Nurse understands it was a tough night for him, but he has all the confidence in the world in his star guard.

“He just didn’t seem to get any space, any rhythm, anything,” Nurse said of Maxey’s night in Phoenix. “Even when he did, he got to a point where he was having a really off night. I just decided to kind of let most of those guys go and let the other guys play it out because I didn’t think it was going to make a difference in the game. So, he hasn’t had any games like that this year, so we’ll just get him to bounce back and have him play better in the next one.”

The Sixers and the Lakers will tip off at 10:30 p.m. EDT from Crypto.com Arena.

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Tyrese Maxey, Sixers address struggles in loss to Suns to begin trip

Tyrese Maxey and the Philadelphia 76ers address their struggles in a loss to the Phoenix Suns to begin their road trip.

For the Philadelphia 76ers to have any success on this four-game road trip to the West Coast, they need Tyrese Maxey to play at an All-Star level.

That wasn’t the case on Wednesday in a 115-102 loss to the Phoenix Suns. Maxey struggled mightily for just six points on 3-for-13 shooting. The star guard had a tough time finding any rhythm, and he missed all four of his attempts from deep.

“I just couldn’t get in rhythm,” he told reporters after the loss. “I missed some easy ones. I missed a lot of open 3s. There was this one time, they literally forgot to guard me walking down the court and I missed it. It is alright. I will bounce back and shake back. No worries. I mean, I have been playing pretty well so, I was due for one.”

The biggest issue on Wednesday was the second quarter. The Sixers were outscored by the Suns, 39-24, as Phoenix took advantage of the short-handed Sixers. The Suns drilled 10 3s in the first half, including eight in the second quarter, and Philadelphia couldn’t respond.

“A lot of it I blame on the offense. I thought we took a lot of quick shots,” coach Nick Nurse added. “They weren’t awful, but they weren’t good enough. They’re always the ones that — they were OK as long as you make some, but we ended up missing about four straight 3s. We’re playing in transition and we’re not playing very well in transition defensively and I thought in the first quarter we had the game the way we wanted it, barring the offensive rebounding, but that kind of was a sign of the night I thought.”

It was a weird night for the Sixers. They forced the Suns into a number of misses in the opening quarter, but Phoenix grabbed 12 offensive rebounds for 11 second-chance points. Philadelphia wasn’t able to keep them off the glass. The Sixers were outrebounded, 55-40, on the night.

“We just didn’t seem to be moving with the energy we needed to be,” Nurse added. “Reacting the way we needed to be. The offensive rebounding you see me talk about, you’ve got to be in or out. Well, we were in, but we just weren’t getting back out enough. We certainly know they can devastate you from 3 and we talked about trying to limit their attempts tonight and we just couldn’t get it done.”

Throw in the struggles of Maxey and it makes for a tough night.

“They were still trying to put two on the ball so, I was just trying to get into the paint and get out the ball easy and give guys some shots,” Maxey added. “I think I did. We went on a little run in the third quarter. I couldn’t get it going. It is going to be tough for us to win that way.”

The Sixers will face the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday to continue the trip.

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Kyle Lowry sees Tyrese Maxey, Sixers growing without Joel Embiid

Kyle Lowry sees Tyrese Maxey and the Philadelphia 76ers continuing to grow without Joel Embiid.

PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers have won two in a row following a 98-91 win over the Miami Heat on Monday night. The Sixers improved to 12-22 on the season without Joel Embiid, and Philadelphia is now 38-30 on the season.

Kyle Lowry had 16 points in the win over the Heat, and he made some big plays down the stretch. He and Tyrese Maxey have continued to grow as a backcourt pairing, and Lowry knows that the Sixers will rely on Maxey until Embiid returns.

The Sixers have to continue to grow that backcourt. Lowry and Maxey are the leaders of this team with Embiid off the floor. Lowry also wants to make life easy for Maxey.

“We just gotta continue to be together,” Lowry explained. “Repetitions, being on the floor together having the same — we’re on the same wavelength. And I think he respects me and I respect him and he’s just trying to, he’s learning me and I’m learning him and I just want him to — all I’m here to do is make it better. However that is, and make his job easier.”

Without Embiid, the Sixers are still struggling. The 12-22 record speaks for itself. However, there have been good moments of late. Philadelphia gave the Milwaukee Bucks all they could handle in a March 14 loss and then knocked off the Charlotte Hornets and the Heat.

The wins aren’t exactly impressive considering the Hornets have been dreadful all season and the Heat were missing numerous key pieces. However, the wins are evidence the Sixers are growing without Embiid. That’s a positive one can take.

“I think we’re continuing to get better,” Lowry added. “I think we’re just continuing to be more disciplined, more patient. I think guys are starting to find themselves, find their rhythm, find their spots on the floor. We understand what we’re going to do, we’re going to go through Tyrese is going to do this right now. Kelly (Oubre Jr.) is going to lead us right now. Guys that’s going to lead us and they know they’re comfortable with their position so we know what we’re getting so it’s pretty cool.”

The Sixers begin a four-game West Coast road trip on Wednesday against the Phoenix Suns.

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Sixers happy with win over Heat, but know they must still be better

The Philadelphia 76ers are happy with their win over the Miami Heat, but they know they need to be better.

PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers picked up an impressive 98-91 win over the Miami Heat on Monday night, but it didn’t come easy. There were still numerous issues that need to be cleaned up.

For one, the Sixers could be better against the zone defense the Heat throw at them. With the way the season is going, there is a high possibility that the Sixers and Heat face each other in a play-in game. The difference in that game could be how Philadelphia handles Miami’s zone defense.

“Not great, but not bad,” Kyle Lowry said of how the Sixers handled it on Monday. “So I guess mediocre? I think it always can be better. I think we did a good job of getting to the middle of it — me and Nico Batum in the middle of the floor. He’s a heck of a basketball player. So we get in the middle of the floor. we kind of space it out. We had a couple of mishaps with that, but it was it was a mediocre effort, but we could always be better.”

The Sixers were able to get some easy buckets out of it. Guys like Kelly Oubre Jr., for example, were able to get some open corner 3s out of the zone offense. The ball movement was crisper than it had in the past against the Heat, and it led to an important win on Monday, but the Sixers have to find easier success against that type of defensive scheme.

“Better, better,” added Tyrese Maxey. “Last time we played them, they completely changed the game in the zone, and we ended up losing I think because of that. We played them well the entire game they went zone and it just slowed us all the way down last time, but, we were prepared and we worked on it during practice and shootaround and we executed. I mean, sometimes we slowed it down a couple times, but for us to be able to get shots out of it, we found guys that we needed to find, and it was good for us.”

The Sixers built a 12-point lead in the first half as they played their style of basketball and Maxey was able to get going early. Then, like a mad scientist, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra called for his team to switch to a zone and Philadelphia struggled as Miami worked its way back into the game.

“I think that the big thing is that I thought the first half we got a little stagnant and stationary,” added coach Nick Nurse. “Toward the end of the first half, we finally started moving, and cutting, and things like that. We had a whole bunch of open-corner threes and we didn’t make a long stretch of them. I’m going to be pretty happy with a corner 3 against a zone and we found them, and then when you don’t make three in a row it looks really bad, but we were a little stagnant.”

The Sixers found offensive success again in the third quarter, but, overall, there are lessons to learn from this win.

“I think we cut and moved a lot more,” Nurse said. “I thought we attacked some against the zone and when it got on the perimeter, Kelly made some great drives into the teeth of the defense and some kickouts. I thought Nico made a couple of decent passes and we got into the middle of the zone and then I thought we made about three really bad decisions in a row with a guy in the middle who took it kind of slow, like no one was guarding him, and someone from the side got him and there were people out to get it to. Let’s see, B-minus.”

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Sixers’ Nick Nurse discusses how Tyrese Maxey is being officiated

Philadelphia 76ers coach Nick Nurse discusses how Tyrese Maxey is officiated after a win over the Charlotte Hornets.

PHILADELPHIA — Officiating was on the mind of some after the Philadelphia 76ers fell to the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday. Tyrese Maxey had 30 points, but he only took three free throws despite constantly being aggressive and getting into the paint.

Maxey took a number of hits and it appeared he should have been at the line much more often. He is an All-Star, after all, and All-Stars get the benefit of the whistle in games such as that one.

After Maxey went 11-for-12 from the line in Saturday’s win over the Charlotte Hornets, coach Nick Nurse was asked about how Maxey is officiated.

“There’s certainly a level of frustration, and I think that — and I always tell the refs, too, I don’t really care if they’re not going to call them, but you can’t be calling tap fouls for another guy on the other team the whole game,” Nurse said. “You know, when we’re barely scraping on or you’re not even sure they got him on the elbow or really late little bump or all the way through.”

To be clear, officiating isn’t why the Sixers lost to the Bucks. Philadelphia had its chances to put that game away when it went up by double digits, but didn’t capitalize.

However, when Maxey is doing everything he possibly can to get a call while Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo is shooting 18 free throws, it can get a little ridiculous.

“If you’re not going to call them, you’re not going to call them,” said Nurse. “That’s what I’m down with or if you’re going to call them, you’re going to call them, right? It shouldn’t ever be one guy is going in there and barely getting touched and another guy’s getting crashed into and it’s not that way. That’s my only thing and we can adjust either way.”

Maxey will eventually get star calls in this league. That’s how it goes in the NBA. A star gets calls others will not. It is what it is, but the Sixers will just have to continue to play through the whistle and execute their schemes to win games.

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