PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers' win over the Los Angeles Lakers followed a mostly typical script from some of their previous wins. The Sixers took a lead in the first half and cruised to victory in the second while Joel Embiid sat out the fourth quarter. One thing that changed for them was Tyrese Maxey being ultra-aggressive from the get-go.

Maxey scored 20 points in the first half, the most this season since he dropped 25 points in the first half of his 50-burger. Nick Nurse is becoming a one-word dictionary with how much he talks about Maxey needing to be “aggressive” night in and night out. He has hammered that point home and will only continue to do so.

In this game, however, Tyrese Maxey took the initiative upon himself to get into the mindset of playing more aggressively. He did exactly that as he and Embiid each scored 30 points. Maxey finished with 31 to go along with eight assists.

“He had mentioned that he was just gonna come out and be way more aggressive at the start tonight. He did. ‘Man, I gotta get into the game sooner,’ was his comment. He obviously did that,” Nurse said. “And he was moving so good — even all that, you know, back and forth between him and Joel but when he was turning on the jets, he was getting separation, for either for a three left or turning the corner. And I thought he played a little more physical than he's been playing, too. He decided instead of getting run into, he started doing the running into a few times when he turned the corner with a lot of speed and put his shoulder down. I think his mindset was going in there to go a little earlier tonight.”

Nurse said previously that Maxey is too good to be invisible at the start of games, even if he compensates for it with a great second half. This game was more of an inverse, as Maxey did most of his damage in the first half. However, the lack of numbers from the second half was entirely a result of how well he and Philly played in the first two quarters.

Tyrese Maxey said that he felt like, in the Sixers last few games, he was “just kind of out there just trying to go with the flow — and I think that hurts our team more than helps us.” He said that his passivity led to him switching gears and being more aggressive, which he said amounts to “trying to get into the paint, trying to kick out the shooters, and then also looking for my shot as well.”

Getting guys shots and keeping them engaged in the game, Maxey said, is a big focus for him. He said that he tries to get Paul Reed two or three shots per game because of all the screens he sets and the hustle plays he makes. For Nurse, it's hard to envision Maxey being too aggressive barring a shift into full ball-hog mode.

“When he tells me, ‘I'm gonna be more aggressive tonight,’ I say, ‘Well, s**t, I only tell you that every day,” Nurse said with a laugh. “I tell you that every day, but good.”