LOS ANGELES — Tyrese Maxey sat along with his again to his locker alongside the far facet of the cramped customer’s dressing room at halftime Friday evening when his coach, in entrance of the complete 76ers crew, ordered from him a sure transfer for when the sport resumed.
Nick Nurse wished Maxey, one of many quickest gamers within the NBA, to burst towards the lane with the ball, cease in his tracks, take a step again and hoist a 3.
“It appeared like nice recommendation … like, his first possession within the second half, he raced in there, pulled again (and shot it), and it ended up being his solely 3-point make of the evening,” Nurse mentioned.
There have been really two messages Nurse delivered to Maxey at halftime of what turned out to be one other irritating Sixers’ loss, this time to the Los Angeles Lakers. The primary: Try that pull-back 3, will ya?
The second factor Nurse wished to verify Maxey understood, as a result of it transcends any single transfer obtainable to him on any given evening, it doesn’t matter what the opposing protection has cooked as much as try to cease him.
“Like, you gotta hold attacking,” Nurse informed Maxey. “You might be our greatest choice.”
No one on the Philadelphia facet has time for reflection. The Sixers are in survival mode, making an attempt to keep away from the Jap Convention Play-In or in any other case be ready to reap the benefits of a 7-foot-sized reinforcement coming in due time.
However there was a thought that crossed Maxey’s thoughts as he heeded Nurse’s name for extra, a serendipitous contemplation given what’s on the Sixers’ plate this week particularly, and what they’ve been coping with over the previous seven weeks.
If Joel Embiid weren’t damage to start with, and, if the Sixers hadn’t traded James Harden to the LA Clippers on Oct. 31, Maxey, who’s simply 23 and an All-Star for the primary time this season, wouldn’t have heard these phrases from Nurse, as a result of Nurse wouldn’t have been in place to say them.
“Yeah, I take into consideration Joel being damage, about James being traded, and him discovering happiness right here in L.A., I take into consideration all of it,” Maxey mentioned Sunday, after tying for a team-high 24 factors in a 121-107 win towards Harden and the Clippers. “I’m glad for James, glad he’s glad and enjoying for the Clippers, however for me, I simply attempt to get a little bit bit higher every time.”
After practically 5 months with no interplay for the reason that mega commerce Harden pressured the 76ers to make, the 2 sides see one another twice this week.
Maybe an excessive amount of time has handed for the standard facet salad of cleaning soap opera that arises when a star participant forces a commerce after which goes towards the previous crew.
“It looks as if it’s been a very long time – I don’t know if anyone is even mad anymore,” Nurse quipped.
Harden, who scored 12 factors with 14 assists within the lopsided loss to the Sixers, dressed and left the locker room so quick on Sunday that coach Tyronn Lue hadn’t even addressed the media but. Harden’s skirting of postgame media duties is a violation of league coverage. He may have extra questions, and, far more boos and jeers than he heard Sunday from the smattering of Sixers followers who spent the weekend in L.A., ready for him when the Clippers play in Philadelphia on Wednesday.
Of the 2 famous person, NBA-MVP, scoring-champ gamers not at the moment in uniform for Philadelphia, the Sixers’ minds are on the one who will sooner or later play for them once more. They miss Embiid, who’s again in Philadelphia ramping up his conditioning and on-court work after surgical procedure to restore a meniscus tear in early February. Robert Covington and De’Anthony Melton, two different key Sixers, are additionally out with accidents.
Harden could also be entrance and middle this week, however the Sixers’ gamers don’t appear to thoughts.
“We didn’t take it private in any respect,” mentioned Maxey, who known as Harden “my brother” and mentioned the 2 nonetheless discuss. “Even when James got here to coaching camp, each time he was there, he was good to us, he was good.”
Mentioned Tobias Harris: “James is a hell of a participant and I’ll at all times have an enormous quantity of respect for him. Taking part in with him right here, it’s good to see him enjoying in L.A., flourishing and enjoying his recreation and simply ballin’ out. It’s all love and respect. He’s a hall-of-fame participant, and for me it was an honor being right here, enjoying with him.”
And Paul Reed, one other former teammate of Harden’s in Philadelphia: “It was cool seeing huge bro on the market.”
Harden’s chief criticism was not with any of the Sixers gamers, not less than not those who have been on the courtroom Sunday, nor was it with Nurse, who’s in his first season teaching Philadelphia. Harden felt he was requested to defer an excessive amount of to Embiid, and maybe bristled at former coach Doc Rivers for doing the asking, however the actual breaking level between the group and Harden was the disagreement over his contract scenario with Sixers GM Daryl Morey.
On Sunday, Reed mentioned Harden’s prolonged absences from the crew throughout camp, as he labored to power the commerce, was a “loopy” time. Requested if he was upset that Harden just isn’t on the Sixers, given how extremely he and his teammates nonetheless discuss him, Reed mentioned “I used to be upset, however I wasn’t like ‘upset, upset.’”
The Harden-Sixers breakup dominated NBA headlines over the summer season and fall, and positions from both sides have been effectively documented. The time lapse between the commerce and a reunion recreation possibly mitigated a few of the feelings which may have in any other case welled up, however so did the success loved by the Sixers after buying and selling Harden, up to some extent.
With Harden gone to the Clippers, the Sixers flourished for some time with a dominant, repeat-MVP-style efficiency by Embiid and with Nurse’s contemporary voice and training model welcome within the locker room. Philadelphia is the one crew apart from Boston to be alone in first within the East this season, a place the Sixers held from Nov. 8-13. They have been in any other case cruising alongside in second or third place till late January, when Embiid went down and the losses got here in bunches.
To be clear, any crew would wrestle when a 7-footer averaging 35 factors and 11 rebounds is out of the lineup. With Sunday’s win over the Clippers, the Sixers snapped a two-game slide and improved to 10-16 since Embiid crumpled to the courtroom that fateful evening in San Francisco on Jan. 30. The Sixers are eighth within the East, having the identical file because the Miami Warmth one-half recreation behind the Indiana Pacers for the No. 6 seed.
“I believe that we’ve received to see ourselves with Joel as a very good crew, like a very good crew,” Nurse mentioned. “Like, we are able to play each evening with anyone. We proved it. … I hold saying, we received to choose a few of these off (with Embiid out).”
Nurse mentioned the crew has performed higher collectively on protection in Embiid’s absence, largely due to the trouble on the perimeter to make up for him being out. He has requested Maxey to be the point of interest of the offense, needed to rely extra on Harris as a second scoring choice, whereas that includes Mo Bamba in Embiid’s place within the lineup.
Nurse additionally mentioned he is aware of he’s requested extra of a few of the Sixers than they’re able to doing, although he didn’t present any particular examples.
“When Joel is again, or when he’s enjoying, these guys play a sure function,” Nurse mentioned. “They’re now, like, approach exterior these roles, proper? So it’s good I believe it improves us total, however you’re additionally seeing that, , possibly, there’s solely incremental beneficial properties you can also make.
“All people simply form of performs off of Joel when he’s on the market. And now we’ve received to determine methods to use these guys in different methods.”
In 20 video games performed since Embiid’s damage, Maxey is averaging practically 26 factors on 21 pictures a recreation – roughly his averages for the complete season. Maxey marvels on the totally different coverages he faces every recreation with Embiid out, as groups now recreation plan to cease him first, and infrequently appears to be like to cross early in video games when opponents ship a number of defenders to power the ball out of his palms.
Maxey, who known as it “cool I suppose” that Nurse considers him the Sixers’ best choice, mentioned he desires of the day when Embiid re-joins him to remove a few of the consideration he will get. And that day is coming, most likely a while in early April, the place the Sixers have focused a return for Embiid to get him re-acclimated and in form earlier than the postseason begins. Embiid returned to observe final Monday, however didn’t accompany Philadelphia on this present four-game journey, so he might work out on the crew’s coaching complicated.
The place the Sixers match into the East bracket, as a top-six crew — with a assured first-round opponent, or as a Play-In crew that should win to get into the playoffs — remains to be very a lot undecided.
“We all know what the scenario is,” Maxey mentioned. “We all know we gotta go on the market and combat. He’s not right here, he’s not strolling by these doorways proper now. What we’ve got on this locker room, that’s who has to go on the market and compete. I imply, it may be achieved. We’ve achieved it. We’ve gone out and overwhelmed good groups. It’s doable.”
The Sixers end this street journey Monday in Sacramento, after which it’s house for a rematch with Harden and the Clippers. Philadelphia followers’ collective status precedes itself, and a raucous, rowdy environment is predicted for Harden’s return. Even Nurse admitted that, if he’s to really feel something about teaching towards Harden, it could be at house Wednesday.
However what’s of much more concern to all of the Sixers just isn’t the famous person who left for good. It’s the one who’s coming again.
“If we get wholesome, we’ve got an opportunity,” Maxey mentioned. “We have now this one man on our crew who’s like 7-2, he averages like 40 (factors) a recreation. He’s fairly good. We get him wholesome, we get (Melton) wholesome, we get (Covington) wholesome, we’ll be all proper.”
(Picture of Tyrese Maxey and James Harden: Kevork Djansezian / Getty Photos)
