Tyrese Maxey Joins Legendary Sixers Company After Win vs. Spurs
Without Joel Embiid on Sunday night, Tyrese Maxey and the Philadelphia 76ers had a lot of work to do.
In what has shaped up to be a must-win game against the San Antonio Spurs in order to move up in the standings, the Sixers needed to grind one out on the road to close out the week.
It took not one, but two overtimes to get the job done. For Maxey, he spent over 50 minutes on the court, doing everything he could to put the Sixers in a winning position.
Throughout his 53-minute shift, Maxey attempted a game-high 41 shots from the field. While he struggled a lot from three, draining just two of his ten attempts, the guard’s ability to attack the Spurs in the paint was nothing short of spectacular on Sunday.
Maxey would hit on 46 percent of his field goals on Sunday. He also made all 12 of his shots from the charity stripe. By the end of the night, Maxey produced his career-high with a 52-point showing. It was the third time Maxey put together a 50-point outing this year, landing him in elite company within the Sixers franchise.
Heading into Sunday’s outing, just three players in Sixers history produced at least three 50-point games during a single season. Two of them are legends, Allen Iverson and Wilt Chamberlain. The third is Maxey’s All-Star teammate, Joel Embiid.
Maxey’s first 50-point outing came back in November. When the Sixers took on the Indiana Pacers at home, he checked in for 39 minutes and exceeded his previous career-high of 44 points with a 50-burger.
On the first day of February, Maxey went a little higher. With a 41-minute showing against the Utah Jazz on the road, he scored 51 points. Sunday’s game in San Antonio was once again another chance for Maxey to go one point higher, officially marking his new career-high at 52 points.
With a win on Sunday, the Sixers advanced to 44-35. With a little help from their Eastern Conference foes out in Indiana, the Sixers moved up to the seventh seed.