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What a performance from Tyrese Maxey. The Philadelphia 76ers defeated the Indiana Pacers in a track meet by a final score of 137-126 thanks to a stellar game from the Sixers' young guard who continues to defy what anyone thinks his ceiling is.
Maxey scored 50 points while also recording seven rebounds, five assists and three blocks. Joel Embiid had a ho-hum 37 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists. Tobias Harris chipped in 18 points, nine rebounds and four assists while De'Anthony Melton had 10 points and six assists.
While Maxey is deservedly going to be the focus of this game, the Sixers still have to sharpen up in numerous areas and got contributions from tons of players in their win over the Pacers. Let's peep the film.
5. Blocks on blocks on blocks
The area of Maxey's game where he's shown the most improvement that has flown under the radar is his shot-blocking.
Maxey's 2.3 block percentage is a career-high — every single one of his rate stats is a career-high at the moment — and he already has more blocks this season (nine) than last year (eight) in nearly 1,700 fewer minutes. He had three against the Pacers, one of which he turned into points on the other end.
After letting Bennedict Mathurin get by him on the baseline, Maxey stays with the play. Like a wise veteran, he allows Mathurin to keep his step on him and raises up to block the shot as Mathurin goes up for it. It's not easy to block someone from behind when they’re taller — or, at least, it shouldn’t be.
Maxey corrals the board and takes off. Tyrese Haliburton is a talented player who can do a lot of things but defending a spending Maxey is not one of them. Maxey goes right at him and then euro-steps to his right to avoid Bruce Brown's (commendable) attempt to deny him. Jumping off of his right leg while going right doesn’t make it any more difficult for him.
Maxey may not be spiking balls into the stands or snatching them out of their air but he's hustling back and timing his jumps perfectly. The breakout is happening on both ends of the floor.
4. A dive and a diversion
The Sixers have been great at utilizing slot cuts to open up shots on the weak side by forcing help defense into the paint and away from the corner. Using Embiid as the cutter makes it so much more effective, as shown in a play in the third quarter. While it technically wasn’t a slot cut, it's very close.
With the Pacers threatening to take the lead, the Sixers have Embiid screen for Maxey and then roll to the middle of the paint. Because Indiana switched, Obi Toppin has to run over to cover Embiid, leaving one man to guard two on the backside.
Watch Haliburton jump back and forth as he tries to cover both players on the wing. With Brown stumbling, Haliburton jumps the passing lane to see if Maxey will bite on the quick pass. He doesn’t. He waits for Haliburton to get back to the corner and gets it to Batum as Brown runs to contest him.
From there, with the defense scrambling, it's too easy for a player of Batum's intelligence. He pump-fakes Brown, drives, kicks it to Harris and backpedals to the three-point line. Harris showcases his quick decision-making again by attacking off the catch and kicking it out to an open Batum. Cash.
3. They say he's like Iverson
Maxey entered Allen Iverson territory as one of the youngest players in Sixers history to cook up a 50-burger. The Sixers' new dynamic guard took a page from the old one to help him get there.
On the Sixers' first play in the fourth quarter, they ran a play for Maxey that used an Iverson cut out of a horns set. Maxey relocates the foul line with Andrew Nembhard wisely staying above Maxey to make sure he doesn’t get a runway when he gets the ball. But instead, Maxey takes the runway to the hoop.
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Some refs might have called Danuel House Jr. for an illegal screen but he gets the benefit of a no-call here, allowing Maxey to streak to the paint wide open. Harris finds him for an open layup.
The Sixers are spaced out well on this play thanks to Paul Reed standing in the corner and Aaron Nesmith showing him way too much attention. There’s no need for Nesmith to be that far out on Reed, who hasn’t made a triple yet this season and rarely shoots from the corner anyway. Whatever makes Bball Paul so magnetic to his defender here helps Maxey score one of his easiest looks of the night.
2. Helping a playmaker make plays
After the game, the Sixers sounded exasperated when discussing what it was like to play these Pacers. The unreal pace they play at and Haliburton's genius-level ability to pick apart defenses makes them so good. But what makes them even better is that the guys around him know how to get open.
With the Sixers in a zone, Brown does what Embiid said works best against a zone: get the ball to the middle. He dished it right back to Haliburton as Nesmith cuts too, setting an impromptu screen that frees Brown up for a floater. Batum could have been right there to shut it down but he was caught so off-guard by the cut that he isn’t of much help.
On one of the Pacers' best highlights of the game, Toppin recognized a lane he had that Haliburton fed him for a driving dunk over Embiid. Brown and Toppin are both newcomers to the Pacers by way of the Denver Nuggets and New York Knicks, respectively. Yet they already know what openings Haliburton can find them in while playing at one of the highest tempos in basketball.
As their chemistry grows and first-round rookies Jarace Walker and Ben Sheppard potentially find their footing, this Pacers team could be very, very dangerous by the time April rolls around.
1. A nudge to 50
Maxey said after the game that Embiid wanted him to get to 50 more than he did. The big man admitted he was guilty as charged in this regard.
“I wanted him to get it,” the Sixers' superstar said. “There's a difference between, you know, 47 and 50 or 49 and 50. So I want him to have that feeling. But that's not the only one that he's going to have. He's gonna have a bunch of those.”
After Embiid came a point short of a 60-burger last season, he wanted to make sure his teammate got all the way to the milestone. With Maxey at 47 points, the Sixers lead by 11 with just over a minute left but it might as well be a one-possession game against this Indiana team. Melton has the ball and Embid gets it right from him because he knows what has to happen: Maxey must get to 50.
Embiid flips it to Maxey and screens his man to get Maxey some space. Maxey continues left and takes a big step forward before getting right into a step-back triple. The excitement of the Wells Fargo Center crowd bubbled as he got the ball and burst when he drained the shot. The Philly fans know that they are witnessing a superstar in the making who just had his signature game— at least so far.
