Tyrese Maxey Leads Sixers to Shorthanded Upset Win Over Heat

When the Philadelphia 76ers closed out last week’s slate of games, they fired up a back-to-back beginning with a Sunday night matchup at home against the

When the Philadelphia 76ers closed out last week’s slate of games, they fired up a back-to-back beginning with a Sunday night matchup at home against the Toronto Raptors. While they got off to a hot start in the first quarter, the Sixers failed to find success the rest of the way.

After scoring nearly 40 points in the first 12 minutes of action, the 76ers scored just 51 points in three quarters. While the game went down to the wire, the Sixers failed to execute down the stretch and found themselves taking on an ugly 93-88 loss against a shorthanded Raptors team while fully healthy.

After Sunday’s game, Sixers star James Harden mentioned he planned to play on the second night of the back-to-back. However, the team didn’t follow up with his plans. A few hours before tip-off, the Sixers ruled out Harden due to hamstring injury management.

As for the star center Joel Embiid, he was in a similar boat. For the last three games, Embiid entered matchups listed as questionable due to back soreness after taking a hard fall on it last Monday. Going into this Monday’s matchup, he was questionable once again but quickly downgraded to out.

Without their top two stars in the lineup to face the Eastern Conference’s top seed, the Miami Heat, many believed the Sixers were going to take on a scheduled loss. But the shorthanded Sixers had other plans on Monday night.

Back on Track

Lately, the Sixers’ second unit has struggled to produce outside of the backup forward Georges Niang. Shake Milton, who’s remained in the rotation as it minimized lately, hasn’t found too many opportunities to score.

Before Monday night’s game, Milton hadn’t taken a shot in three matchups. Against the Heat, he led the Sixers’ bench with 20 points off of 18 attempts. 

Milton wasn’t the only Sixer to bounce back. Furkan Korkmaz, who’s been on the outside looking in for the last few games, picked up more than garbage time for the first time since the March 10 matchup against the Brooklyn Nets. 

With 27 minutes of playing time, Korkmaz found a rhythm as he drained seven of his 12 shots for 18 points. With Georges Niang playing with the starters for the night, Milton and Korkmaz held the fort down coming off the bench.

Maxey Magic

This season, Sixers’ second-year guard Tyrese Maxey has emerged as one of the team’s most reliable players. And when the young guard is aggressive, he can help lead the Sixers to victory on his own as long as they play through him.

Against the Heat, Maxey didn’t have Embiid or Harden to defer to — he had to take matters into his own hands. Right out of the gate, Maxey led the Sixers in scoring by putting up eight points in nine minutes. Although Miami outscored Philly 32-26 in the first quarter of action, Maxey was a primary reason why the Sixers stayed in it.

It wasn’t Maxey’s most efficient shooting night from the floor through the first three quarters. Going into the fourth quarter, he drained just four of his ten field goal attempts in the 21 minutes he appeared on the court. From three, Maxey struggled as he went 1-5 from beyond the arc. 

However, he turned it up a notch down the stretch. In the fourth quarter, Maxey couldn’t miss. During his final seven minutes on the floor, he was a perfect 5-5 and knocked down both of his threes. With a team-leading 13 points in the fourth quarter, Maxey snagged a game-high of 28 points and led the Sixers to an unlikely 113-106 victory. 

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