PHILADELPHIA — Tyrese Maxey's quest to stardom is a huge driving factor in the Philadelphia 76ers' success this season. The difficulty sliders are turned up for Maxey as the Sixers' second star and lead guard and he has taken the challenge head-on. Even as a smaller, slimmer engine of offense, he does what he can to fight through physical defenses and generate points for the Sixers.

In the Sixers' win over the Chicago Bulls, Maxey had himself a solid game (21 points on 6-12 shooting, five assists) while Joel Embiid did a lot of the heavy lifting. After leading Philly for four games without Embiid, Maxey took a back seat and did plenty to pitch in on a blowout win. One thing Nick Nurse took away from Maxey's performance was a tone-setting foul from very early in the game.

Nurse took note of when Maxey fouled Alex Caruso as he guarded him on the ball. Maxey threw his chest right at him, followed him tightly through a screen and used his hands to get him off course.

“I don’t know if you saw it the first couple possessions,” Nurse said. “He bumped, bumped, bumped and hit Caruso and fouled him. And then he told the ref. He said, ‘That's what they do to me, so I'm gonna start this game doing it today.’ He just came in there with that mindset of like, ‘I get bumped around like this all game long and I just wanted to let you know if that's the way it's gonna be, I'm gonna do it back.’”

The foul on Caruso came back to bite him when he was whistled for a shooting foul against DeMar DeRozan a few minutes later. But it shows Maxey's willingness to fight back against the physical defense teams have shown him this season.

“So I think the physicality, he's getting there with it,” the Sixers' head coach continued. “I've asked him to get into the ball, use his speed, use his quickness. He's stronger than you think he is. He can, he can navigate people off of screens and we'll just continue to work on that.”

Nurse said that Maxey growing accustomed to physicality is key on defense, too, since teams are likely to pick on him as the smallest defender in just about every Sixers lineup he's in. The response to that tactic is to simply let Maxey handle it and showcase his defensive chops.

When asked about the foul himself, Maxey confirmed that he was just looking to bring the physicality to his opponent first rather than the other way around.

“I just wanted it to be known we were gonna be physical tonight,” Maxey said. “A lot of teams are extremely physical with me. I just wanted to push back a little bit. So, that was great.”

Tyrese Maxey's .287 free-throw rate is a career-high and a figure that's well above the league average. The Sixers guard is no stranger to being knocked off balance, sometimes not getting the benefit of a whistle. Those calls he and Nurse believe he should get don't deter his drive to improve and lead wins for the Sixers.