Tyrese Maxey Has Blunt Take After 76ers' Embiid-Less Loss vs Bucks

Tyrese Maxey had an important message to spread after the 76ers' opening-night loss against the Bucks.

Oct 23, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey warms up before action against the Milwaukee Bucks at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images / Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

Going into Wednesday’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks, Tyrese Maxey and the Philadelphia 76ers knew they would be at a disadvantage. Facing a star duo of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard, the Sixers expected to miss two stars out of their trio.

On Tuesday, the 76ers confirmed Joel Embiid would miss the Bucks matchup, along with the rest of the games on this week’s slate. As Embiid works on ramping up his conditioning, the Sixers are easing him back into the lineup after a busy summer.

As for Paul George, the nine-time All-Star suffered a minor knee injury during his second preseason game. The Sixers wouldn’t rule George out for the entire slate of games this week, but the Bucks matchup was out of the question.

With those two off the floor, the Sixers relied on the one-time All-Star Tyrese Maxey to go above and beyond. The NBA’s reigning Most Improved Player did a lot for his team but struggled to get the result they wanted as they lost 124-109.

That was the story of the 2023-2024 NBA season.

Apr 6, 2024; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Philadelphia 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey (0) and center Joel Embiid (21) talk as they walk off the court at half time against the Memphis Grizzlies at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images / Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

With Embiid last season, the Sixers won nearly 80 percent of their games. Unfortunately, a knee injury prevented him from playing in more than 40 matchups.

Without Embiid on the court, the Sixers posted a record of 16-27. They went from a top-three team in the Eastern Conference early on to cracking the seventh seed via the NBA Play-In Tournament last season. They followed their Play-In win with a first-round loss against the New York Knicks.

Wednesday marked the start of a clean slate for the Sixers, and Maxey won’t be looking back thinking, “Here we go again.”

“We played one game,” Maxey said on Wednesday. “I’m not about to sit here and say that just because Jo was out, we played bad.”

While that might’ve been the trend of last season, the Sixers entered the new hoops year with a lot of different pieces. And they spent a lot of time preparing for the run without Embiid.

“I mean, yes, we did not win the game, which is the ultimate goal, but we’ve been without Jo all preseason and all training camp for the most part,” Maxey continued. “He’s been ramping up. We have to go out there and execute what we worked on. Us winning, it can’t be solely on Joel Embiid—it just can’t. There is no championship team out there that is solely like if Joel doesn’t play, and if we lose every single game like that, then we can’t win like that.”

The Sixers struggled from the field on Wednesday, making 41 percent of their shots. Maxey was critical of his personal performance after he made just ten of his 31 attempts for 25 points.

“I feel like tonight, we got to make shots, and we got to keep playing the right way,” Maxey added.

Never one to lack confidence, the young star is looking forward to his next opportunity to get on the court and improve after a loss against Milwaukee.

“I think we will be better,” he finished. “I’ll definitely be better. I’m not gonna worry about that.”