BOSTON — As the Philadelphia 76ers prepare to enter TD Garden on Tuesday and fight for their lives, they will need Tyrese Maxey to lead the way for this group. Yes, Joel Embiid is back on the floor, but they cannot forget to make sure Maxey gets his shots and he needs to remember to stay aggressive.
Maxey took only three shots in the first half of Sunday’s 128-96 Game 4 loss to the Boston Celtics and finished with 14 shot attempts. After the loss, the All-Star guard revealed that both Embiid and Paul George got on him about the lack of shot attempts as there is an obvious need for him to take those looks and to take advantage of the opportunities he gets against this Celtics defense.
“I think at half he only had three shots,” said George. “I told him, man, you got to come out and be aggressive. We need him to shoot the ball. So, I’m happy he came out. He was a lot more aggressive. He was looking for his opportunities, but, yeah that was just where the conversation was. I wanted him to be a little bit more aggressive for us, and we needed him to. We wasn’t gonna win, or give ourselves a chance to win if he only took three shots.”
Maxey obliged in the second half as he took 11 shots after halftime and had 15 points in order to find a rhythm on the offensive end, but that has to be from the jump in Game 5 on Tuesday. The Sixers are facing elimination and it’s now time for him to unload everything he’s got in order to lead Philadelphia to a season-saving win.
Now, on the flip side, the Sixers do need to make sure Embiid gets his looks and gets involved. He’s one of the best players in the game, but they also can’t forget about Maxey.
“I mean, it’s Jo,” George added. “He’s one of the best players to play this game. So, yeah, for sure, we want to integrate them and get him rhythm and get him comfortable early. We know how effective he is, and he’s a mismatch problem for any center that’s guarding him. So, for sure, we wanted to get him going and find ways to get him some easy ones.”
The Sixers and the Celtics will tip off at 7 p.m. EDT on Tuesday from Boston.
