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November 21, 2025

Friday film: The best game Tyrese Maxey has ever played and more from Sixers' 2-2 week

Breaking down all of the latest Sixers film, including Tyrese Maxey's absolutely dominant showing in Milwaukee on Thursday night.

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By Adam Aaronson
PhillyVoice Staff
Sixers NBA
Maxey 11.21.25 Benny Sieu/Imagn Images

Tyrese Maxey just keeps finding new heights to reach.

Typically, our weekly Friday film story here opens with three or four paragraphs about the week that has been in the world of the Sixers and introduces the main players or trends that are going to be evaluated. But doing that this week would waste time that could be spent rewatching what Tyrese Maxey did on Thursday night in Milwaukee.

On another superstar moment for Maxey, plus some more standout performers from the last week:

The best game Tyrese Maxey has ever played

On Wednesday night in Philadelphia, Maxey got whacked in the face. He also played 40 minutes in a loss to the Toronto Raptors. He also boarded a flight to Milwaukee, where his team would take on the Bucks the next night in a game for which he was listed on the injury report with a quadricep contusion.

On Thursday night in Milwaukee, Maxey was upgraded to available shortly before tip-off. He also played nearly 47 minutes. He also had the best offensive game of his NBA career. He also had the best defensive game of his career.

In a season already full of superstar moments for Maxey, his work on Thursday – absolutely carrying his team through 53 minutes to get back in the win column – was the finest performance of the year. In fact, it was the single best game Maxey has played in five-plus NBA seasons.

We'll start with the offense. Maxey totaled a career-high 54 points, scoring at all three levels. He connected on six triples – a few of them were completely absurd shots to take and make – used his blazing speed to get downhill and likely had the best in-between scoring night of his NBA career. Here are all of his baskets:

Speaking of Maxey's in-between game – his floater was comically good – a remarkable stat from ESPN's Bobby Marks: Maxey made seven left-handed layups on Thursday, the most off-handed layups in a game by any NBA player this season. Here are all seven of those lefty buckets:

Maxey might have been able to call this the best game of his NBA career based on his torrid scoring and subsequent playmaking. If anyone had a right to take plays off defensively, it was Maxey in this game. But his defense came as close to matching his offense as possible; Maxey recorded three steals and three blocks, never appearing to take a play off. Motor and energy are skills:

Before moving on from Maxey, if you want to watch a video with all of his exploits – the scoring, the playmaking and the defense, all in one – here you have it:

Jared McCain is finding something

After 36 scoreless minutes spanning four appearances, McCain no longer has to worry about finding his way on the board. In the Sixers' loss to Toronto on Wednesday, McCain threw his arms in the air with relief after seeing his first shot go down, and shortly thereafter knocked down a pull-up triple:

"Pure joy," McCain said. "Nice to see a shot go in on the Sixers floor. My friends already sent me the picture of what I looked like. Pretty funny, but just good to see one go down."

McCain's overall movement looked much better in the Toronto game; perhaps the removal of the bulky knee brace previously limiting the movement of his left leg is becoming more and more productive. McCain is now using a sleeve called "Incrediwear" instead; he also has a protective brace on his right thumb, which appears to be impacting his shooting stroke a bit. It is not perfect for McCain right now, but he is finally achieving real progress.

That progress continued in Milwaukee, as McCain knocked down a pair of triples, bookending the most encouraging play of his season so far. Early in the second quarter, McCain grabbed a defensive rebound, brought the ball up the court and drove to the basket, getting all the way to the rim and converting:

The most encouraging thing of all is that McCain was available to play in Milwaukee at all. He has officially been cleared to play in both legs of back-to-backs, a key step in his recovery.

Paul George returns and swings a game

The same is not yet true for George, who sat against Toronto so that he could suit up in Milwaukee. The Sixers should be pleased that he did, because the Sixers would not have beaten the Bucks without George's standout showing. He scored 11 points across the team's opening four possessions, finishing the game with 21 points despite a minutes restriction that appears to be at about 25 minutes.

The rest of George's line – five rebounds, three assists and two steals – probably does not paint quite a strong enough picture of how good he was elsewhere. He filled in all of the gaps as necessary while Maxey took over the scoring.

George had been aggressive in his season debut on Monday against his former team, the Los Angeles Clippers. But he could not get shots to go down:

On Thursday, though, George looked like something much closer to an actualized version of himself. His full highlights:

But in both of George's appearances this season, the value of his mere presence has been evident. Even when the nine-time All-Star is not at his best, opposing defenses think of him as, well, a nine-time All-Star. George commands lots of attention and has acknowledged with his play and his words over the last week that he is eager to utilize that for the benefit of his teammates:

Two of George's baskets are worth isolating here. Twice, George found himself on the right side of a mismatch against Bucks center Myles Turner. Last season, George struggled mightily to create any sorts of advantages as a one-on-one operator, even when he should have theoretically had the upper hand athletically or physically. It often looked like this, and it capped George's scoring upside:

But on Thursday, George blew by Turner twice en route to rim finishes:

George being capable of consistently pummeling mismatches in either direction – bigs too slow to keep up with his burst or guards too small to contain him in the post – would go a long way.

Quentin Grimes, closer

Grimes had some critical points down the stretch of the Sixers' win in Milwaukee, matching Maxey's six points in overtime. But that paled in comparison to his heroics in prior fourth quarters. Grimes has been clutch for the Sixers all season long, but he has been particularly excellent on both ends of the floor down the stretch this week.

In Monday's win over the Clippers, Grimes scored 15 of his 21 points in the final frame and did a stellar job defending James Harden:

When the Sixers nearly staged a dramatic comeback over the Raptors, it was Grimes who once again scored 15 points in the final 12 minutes to give them life:

Is there any specific adjustment or mindset that has enabled Grimes to get better as games go on and become particularly productive in fourth quarters?

"I'm just trying to win," Grimes said. "I want my team to win. I feel like when I'm aggressive, when the team's aggressive, when everyone's in attack mode, it kind of puts the defense on their heels. So I feel like when I'm attacking, getting downhill, making plays for myself and others, we're in a pretty good position."

Follow Adam on Twitter: @SixersAdam

Follow PhillyVoice on Twitter: @thephillyvoice

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Adam Aaronson
PhillyVoice Staff

Read more Sixers NBA Philadelphia Philadelphia 76ers Quentin Grimes Paul George Jared McCain Tyrese Maxey

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