PHILADELPHA – The Philadelphia 76ers were without their two established superstars in Joel Embiid and James Harden against the Miami Heat on Monday night, but their budding young star, Tyrese Maxey, rose in a big way and put Philadelphia on an incredible 113- 106 printed victory over the top team in the Eastern Conference.
The Sixers were on the second night of a back-to-back, and with Embiid having a sore back and the Harden still dealing with a persistent hamstring strain, the team decided to give them both a little needed rest. before the start of the postseason to be playing next month. As such, the heat was strongly favored, and expectations for Philly fans were met tonight. Maxey did not hear of it, however, as he made sure to do a show in his displeasure with his teammates.
Maxey was limited to just eight points in the first half thanks to some early foul problems, but it was in the second half where he really came to life, hitting big shot after big shot when the team despaired. needed its production. When all was said and done, Maxey had 28 points, five rebounds, four assists, an entire arena that sang his name and wanted his teammates on the sidelines.
Maxey largely made his mark in the game at the offensive end – he scored 13 points (on 5-of-5 shots from the ground) alone in the fourth quarter. However, his most memorable game probably came on the other end as he punctuated his performance with a game-sealing monster block on Caleb Martin:
That game was indicative of the energy and effort that Maxey the Sixers delivered on a nightly basis. His leap from a promising player as a rookie to a budding star as a sophomore was a sort of revelation for the team, and at just 21 years old, he is still far from a finished product. Which is why everyone in the organization is so high on him, and why he was virtually untouchable in trade talks that led to the deadline last month.
“He’s a heck of a player,” Heat forward Jimmy Butler of Maxey said after the game. “Of course, the way he shot the ball in the fourth, and throughout the game. Drawing help and making the right plays, he did it all year, I hear how hard he works and I respect him and his game. definitely .. he will be in this league for a long time.
Heat center Bam Adebayo added of Maxey: “He’s hooping. He has that look in his eyes. You can tell he wants the big moments, he wants to make the big shots.”
While Maxey was the main catalyst for Philadelphia’s victory Monday night, he was far from the only reason. Shake Milton (20 points, six assists, five rebounds) had his best game of the season, and Furkan Korkmaz came in and scored 18 points and six rebounds for Philly, despite the fact that he was almost completely out of the rotation of the team has been for the last few weeks. He deserves some credit for staying prepared.
On the other side of things, the Heat have a solid production of their big three from Butler (27 points, six assists, five rebounds), Adebayo (22 points, nine rebounds, three blocks) and Kyle Lowry (20 points, six rebounds). Rebounds), six assists), but in the end, their combined contributions were not enough to avoid what must have been a somewhat disappointing loss. If you’re the top team in the conference, you want to do business against a team as shorthanded as the Sixers were on Monday night. They will certainly be back in a few movies, but overall this will not be a game on which the heat will remain.
The Sixers, on the other hand, can draw a lot of positives from their performance – mainly as guys like Milton, Corkmaz, and of course Maxey could have contributed. Also, Paul Millsap (five points, four rebounds) was surprisingly solid in his stint as the team’s starting center in the absence of Embiid.
Depth has been one of the biggest concerns for Philadelphia since Harden’s arrival last month, as their banking game was inconsistent, to say the least. For example, they had just 14 total bench points in their 93-88 defeat to the Toronto Raptors on Sunday night. That was certainly not the case on Monday night, as the second unit had a combined 46 points.
To move forward, the key for Philadelphia is finding a way to get productive performances from its role players as it got against the heat when Embiid and Harden were in the lineup. If the Sixers can do that, their ceiling for the postseason game will be significantly higher.
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