May 01, 2024
Brad Penner/USA TODAY Sports
Tyrese Maxey revived the Sixers' season with a 46-point masterpiece in their Game 5 victory over the New York Knicks Tuesday night, including seven points in the final 25.1 seconds of regulation.
NEW YORK, NY -- Tyrese Maxey is perhaps best-known for his signature smile and optimism. But he says, more than anything else, he hates to lose.
After pulling off one of the greatest shot-making sequences in the storied history of the Philadelphia 76ers, saving his team's season and forcing an overtime in the Sixers' Game 5 victory over the New York Knicks Tuesday night, he let it all out: the joy of coming through for his teammates, the relief of avoiding elimination, the satisfaction of relentless work paying off in the most enormous of ways, all encapsulated in about 20 seconds of pure emotion.
Raw emotion from Tyrese Maxey at the end of regulation, from the TNT OT feed. pic.twitter.com/E8EebMgQem
— Steph Noh (@StephNoh) May 1, 2024
The Sixers trailed by six points with fewer than 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter -- the exact position the Knicks were able to recover from the last time these two teams played on the Madison Square Garden floor in New York's Game 2 victory last week. Only if the Sixers did not come through, their season would be over.
Maxey put his foot down. His team would live to see another day.
Out of the Sixers' final timeout, Maxey drilled a remarkable four-point play to trim the lead to two. When Knicks wing Josh Hart split his two free throws on the other end of the floor, suddenly the Sixers had life. They trailed by three points with 15 seconds left. Maxey took the moment not as a pressure-inducer, but as a call to action. It was his time -- again.
Maxey retrieved the ball and knew exactly what he was going to do with it. He calmly dribbled up the floor, received a screen from Joel Embiid at half-court, and as he stood on the Knicks' logo -- 34 feet away from the basket -- he pulled up and took a shot he practices dozens of times before every single game.
Cash.
HIM. pic.twitter.com/Zs38RDxiEs
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) May 1, 2024
Seconds later, the Sixers -- devastated by fatigue for much of the fourth quarter -- had new life. The always-energetic 23-year-old superstar in the making, who seems to always deliver, did just that in the most meaningful moment of his eventful four-year NBA career.
In overtime, adversity struck again when Knicks All-Star Jalen Brunson punched back with a personal 5-0 run to open the five minutes of free basketball. But Maxey would not let his epic moment go to waste. Sixers head coach Nick Nurse called timeout, and Maxey instantly knocked down another tough triple. Finally, Embiid and others were able to carry some of the offensive load. Minutes later, Maxey exhaled. He had done it. He had saved the season.
Maxey, obviously, has seen a lot since he was drafted by the Sixers in 2020. Three horrific playoff exits, two All-Star point guards demanding trades in public (and, for the Sixers, embarrassing) fashion, Embiid injuries and all other sources of turmoil. Last summer, Maxey was not offered the contract extension he had earned as the Sixers continue to maneuver in hopes of creating the greatest amount of cap space possible for the upcoming offseason.
He has stared it all in the face with a big smile and just kept moving forward. He has an All-Star appearance to show for it, a Most Improved Player trophy to show for it, and now, a signature moment that could go down as one of the greatest in franchise history.
Forget that Maxey is just 23 years old: most people, regardless of their age, would want to bask in the glory of what they had just done after a moment like that. Instead, when he was asked how he felt when realizing he had saved his team's season, he changed the subject and shouted out his struggling teammate -- Buddy Hield, who now finds himself out of the Sixers' rotation after scoring two points in the first three games of the series.
Maxey uncharacteristically missed three consecutive free throws in the first quarter, and the competitive spirit in him dragged him down because of it. Maxey was upset and needed a jolt of confidence. He says he got it from Hield.
"Buddy Hield just kind of grabbed me and said, 'Listen, dude, you know what you can do. Go out there and make up for it,'" Maxey said. "I really do appreciate Buddy for that, man. I know it will go unnoticed but it was big-time of him."
It will not go unnoticed now, because in one of the greatest moments of his life, Maxey had the thought to put the spotlight on someone who otherwise would have never received recognition of any kind.
What Maxey did Tuesday night was special, and special moments evoke memories. For one seasoned reporter present at Maxey's press conference at Madison Square Garden, 45 minutes after the buzzer sounded, the opportunity presented itself to ask the Sixers' All-Star guard if he had thought about the parallels between his fourth quarter heater and that of Reggie Miller in the same building in 1995.
Maxey, born in 2000, drew laughter from some and age-related self-consciousness from others with his response.
"That was a long time ago," Maxey said with a smile.
For Tobias Harris, the memory was a bit more recent, but still somewhat distant: nearly three calendar years before Maxey's Game 5 triumph at the world's most famous arena, Maxey helped save the season in Atlanta. It was Game 6 of the second round of the 2021 NBA Playoffs, and the Sixers were one loss away from elimination at the hands of the Hawks. The Sixers' starting point guard at the time, Ben Simmons, found his way into foul trouble.
Doc Rivers, in his first elimination game as head coach of the Sixers, called upon a rookie named Tyrese Maxey -- who had played just 4.8 minutes per game in the prior four contests -- and a future star rose to the occasion. Maxey scored 16 crucial points that night to keep the Sixers' championship hopes alive.
"I think it was in Atlanta," Harris said. "You saw flashes of how good he can be and how he embraces the moment... he's totally just took that to another level tonight."
"He carried us right then and there and really just willed us into overtime."
Maxey himself spent the morning before his masterpiece reminiscing as well, he said after the game. Maxey and his closest friend on the team, Sixers guard De'Anthony Melton, talked about the first "DNPs" of their careers: games in which they did not play despite suiting up. Maxey recalled shedding tears following that game.
That game came on Feb. 9, 2021. 1,176 days later -- perhaps a fitting final two digits -- Maxey never has to worry about donning his team's uniform but watching the entire game from its bench ever again. Certainly not after a performance as legendary as this one.
Follow Adam on Twitter: @SixersAdam
Follow PhillyVoice on Twitter: @thephillyvoice
