NEW YORK — Tyrese Maxey gave credit to his elders for the Sixers’ enhanced composure in the final minutes of a deeply uneven win Thursday night to seize a 3-0 lead in their first-round playoff series against the Nets.
“We have a lot of old guys out there like (P.J. Tucker),” Maxey said. “He tells everybody to sit down, be quiet, and listen to (head coach Doc Rivers) — or listen to him. … You have guys like that, and you have a coaching staff that’s been there before.
“You have everybody that’s on our bench — (Danuel House Jr., Montrezl Harrell, Dewayne Dedmon) — all those guys have been there before. So for us to stay calm in that situation was really good and I’m proud of our team for that.”
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Philadelphia sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
With James Harden ejected in the third quarter and Joel Embiid swarmed by defenders wherever he went, the 22-year-old Maxey was the Sixers’ go-to guy late in the fourth period.
Maxey scored 10 of his 25 points over the final 3:08. Even in his third NBA season and with the league’s scoring champion next to him in Embiid, Maxey has tended to trust his work and feel up for any task. With obvious glee, he drained a go-ahead jumper over Spencer Dinwiddie.
“The game wasn’t going right and a lot of guys got in their heads,” Rivers said. “He’s in that group, but he’s a tough kid. He hung in there. We drew up the play with him and Joel coming out of the timeout, and he wanted that shot. He wanted that shot, and that was great to see.”
Post-shootaround three-point contests with draft-night addition De’Anthony Melton have become a new part of Maxey’s game days this season. Maxey is now a strong favorite in any shooting contest. He made 31 of 103 three-point attempts his rookie year (30.1 percent). Since then, he’s hit 292 of 678 (43.1 percent). He’s converted 14 of 26 threes in this series and displayed his ever-expanding variety. Off the dribble, off movement, spotting up, and from well behind the arc all typically appear to be excellent options.
In truth, the results of those Maxey-Melton competitions haven’t been very important. As Maxey rehabbed from a left foot fracture early in the season, he was glad to simply feed Melton passes and laugh with his 24-year-old teammate.
And though Maxey had rough patches personally during a mid-season stretch when he came off the bench, any negativity from the Sixers’ habitually joyful guard was not directed at Melton.
“People thought that we would be beefing or whatever, because of us being in and out of the (starting) lineups,” Maxey said Thursday. “But literally, on the team, we’re really good friends — best friends, if you want to say. We cheer each other on in any circumstances. I get on him for not being aggressive. He gets on me for not being aggressive.
NBA
“I think that’s just something that we have in common: We both want to win really bad, and we both want to see each other succeed.”
Melton looked exceedingly comfortable on a night with wild, unpredictable energy. In games that have serious momentum swings, he's often seemed to have an edge. Catastrophically blown leads, severely shorthanded rosters, rhythm and order elusive … Melton’s fine with all of it.
Among his big plays Thursday were a fourth-quarter steal on Diwniddie and a brilliant, quick-trigger pass from the paint to Tobias Harris for a corner three.
“I’m always good when De’Anthony comes on the floor,” Rivers said. “I really am. He just makes plays. It’s the damnedest thing: There’s certain people in the league that, if there’s a loose ball, he’s always around it somehow. It just works out that way for him. … He’s just a solid player for us.”
While Melton knows that all forms of chaos aren’t good — he committed a turnover trying an ambitious, one-handed pass ahead to Maxey, for instance — he understands that adapting well to anything is a core part of his identity.
“I want to say sometimes it’s uncalled for, but I’m ready for whatever, I think,” he said with a smile. “I’m always trying to make the winning play, I’m always ready, and I’m always going to play hard on defense. So no matter what’s going on — chaos or whatnot — I think I’m always going to be ready.”
Tucker shined on the court in the fourth quarter, too. Rivers praised the 37-year-old’s toughness, offensive rebounding, and defense. He said Tucker “won the game for us.”
Like the much younger Melton and Maxey, Tucker was perfectly fine with a game that wasn’t at all easy or pretty.
“I’m at home,” he said. “I love that. Those are my favorite kind of games because the refs start letting a little more go and it gets chippy. I told Joel before we started the playoffs, ‘These type of games are the ones you remember if you get to where you want to be.’ ... That’s when you know you’re growing as a team, when you do whatever it takes that night to get the win.
“And these are the kind of games that build that foundation to be able to win because then, when you’re rolling, it’s hard to beat you.”