Pascal Siakam Reacts to Tyrese Maxey's Dominant Performance

Pascal Siakam discussed Tyrese Maxey's performance from Friday night.

Doc Rivers felt his team lacked energy against the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night. Mix that in with the idea that the Raptors were out for revenge after last year’s playoffs and the Philadelphia 76ers head coach believed his team completely failed to match the opponent’s energy earlier this week.

Rivers looked on the bright side, though. As the Raptors got their revenge on Wednesday, the tables turned and gave the 1-4 Sixers a reason to get back at the competition on Friday when the Sixers and the Raptors met for a rematch.

Whatever Rivers told his team between Wednesday night and Friday night got to the young star guard Tyrese Maxey. As the Sixers entered Friday’s matchup shorthanded without their All-Star center Joel Embiid, they relied on the hot hand, which was Maxey, right out of the gate.

In the first half of action, Maxey was a perfect 10-10 from the field and hit on seven three-pointers. He wrapped up the first two quarters with 27 points as the Sixers led the Raptors 65-48.

While Toronto came out better in the third quarter with Maxey and the Sixers slightly struggling from the field, the 76ers never let up. Maxey got hot once again and tacked on another 17 points, generating his first 40-plus performance of his career on Friday.

“He was on fire,” said Raptors star Pascal Siakam. “Credit to him — credit to them. He played amazing. He just couldn’t miss. I think he was ten for ten at the half. He kept going and didn’t stop.”

The Raptors certainly didn’t play their best basketball on Friday, as they shot just 38 percent from the field and drained only 23 percent of their threes. In addition, they turned the ball over 17 times, which helped the Sixers generate 25 points.

Siakam believed that even with an underwhelming performance by the Raptors, they should’ve still had a chance to put up a better fight — but Maxey’s fourth-quarter performance delivered the knockout punch for the night.

“Obviously, we didn’t play our best,” Siakam finished. “It was still manageable, but he just kind of took them over the top. He played amazing for them.” 

Maxey finished the game with 44 points in 39 minutes. With that production, the third-year guard registered a new career-high, exceeding his previous 39-point performance from a matchup against the Denver Nuggets during his rookie season.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.