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‘If not the fastest’: How Maxey’s speed drove Sixers when shots didn’t fall originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Joel Embiid had something to tell Tyrese Maxey after the Sixers walked off the Madison Square Garden floor victorious Tuesday night.
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“I told Tyrese after the game, I was like, ‘We’ve been going against these guys for the last couple of years, and tonight felt a lot different than in the past,'” Embiid said.
In one important way, it was.
The Sixers scored 24 fast-break points, their most against the Knicks since Feb. 4, 2011, when they scored 26. Only that 2011 total was higher across the 63 Sixers-Knicks meetings covered by Sportradar’s game logs dating to the start of the 2010-11 season.
Maxey accounted for half of the 24.
That production carried the Sixers through a difficult shooting night in their 106-100 season-opening win. Philadelphia shot 41.6 percent from the field and went 11 for 40 from three-point range. Embiid went 5 for 15. LeBron James went 5 for 13. Jaylen Brown missed 11 of his 18 shots.
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The Sixers made up for it by forcing 14 turnovers and converting them into 22 points. Maxey scored nine of those points and finished with 12 on the fast break. He led Philadelphia with 28 points in a team-high 39 minutes and 34 seconds.
“He doesn’t seem like he gets tired,” James said.
Brown wants Maxey applying that pressure throughout those minutes.
“I want him to continue to do that for the whole game if he can,” Brown said.
“They’ve all been on me about being aggressive,” Maxey said. “Every last one of them.”
The Sixers spent the offseason talking about playing faster. Maxey was always going to be central to that plan. It took less than a minute for him to show why.
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With 11:04 remaining in the first quarter, Maxey stole a Karl-Anthony Towns pass. Three seconds later, he pulled up from 26 feet and gave the Sixers a 6-0 lead.
The play showed why Maxey can be so damaging before a defense gets set. Rather than drive toward a retreating defender, he stopped behind the three-point line and took the open shot New York’s turnover created.
“Speed. Speed,” Brown said…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/not-fastest-maxeys-speed-drove-070000916.html
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Publish date : 2026-10-21 07:00:00
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