Getty Tyrese Maxey #0 of the Philadelphia 76ers.
It looked like the Brooklyn Nets had figured out all of the things that plagued them in their Game 1 loss versus the Philadelphia 76ers but the outcome was the same.
“[James] Harden, [Joel] Embiid – kept them in check,” Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn said via the YES Network on YouTube after the Nets’ fell 96-84 in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series on April 17. “Offensive rebounds from P.J. [Tucker], kept that in check. Give credit for [Tyrese] Maxey tonight.
“That’s playoffs. Someone steps up, and you hope that step-up is on your end…But give them credit.”
Maxey had just 13 points on 37.5% shooting in Game 1, though he was 3-for-5 from three.
He finished with a game-high 33 points on 56.5% shooting including 18 points in the second half and 10 points in the fourth quarter alone. He added three rebounds and one block but, most significantly, knocked down 6-of-13 triples continuing one of the themes of Game 1 for Philly.
In the middle of Tyrese Maxey’s press conference, Sam Cassell started fist pumping and cheering “Maxey! Maxey!” before yelling “My protege, Tyrese Maxey!”
Maxey: “That man’s crazy.”
In line with keeping Philadelphia’s key players from the series opener “in check”, the Sixers only made 11 threes, and the Nets held a 49-44 lead at halftime.
But they got outscored 52-35 in the second half, 24-14 in the third quarter.
“He was the beneficiary of a lot of our rotations,” forward Cameron Johnson said during his media availability. “He was in that corner, kind of just waiting on those threes. And those ones are tough to give up, man, because he just teeing them off, making them. And he’s a guy capable, shoots a high percentage (from three), has been shooting a high percentage. So it’s nothing we should be surprised by. But, man, they were finding him. And they kind of stressed our rotations a little bit. It’s another thing that we just got to go back and look it, try to clean up.”
Johnson – who finished with a team-high 28 points (57.9% FG, 5-for-11 3P) – called out the Nets’ tendency to overhelp in Game 1 as one of the key reasons they lost, noting that it often left them vulnerable wide-open shooters and second-chance points.
The Sixers won the second-chance-points battle 18-0, were plus-seven in fastbreak points, and outscored the Nets 46-22 in the paint in Game 2.
Nic Claxton’s Struggles Continue
There was little expectation for Nic Claxton to hang with Embiid. But he has been neutralized through two games finishing Game 2 with an especially flat stat line of zero points on 0-for-2 shooting to go with his six rebounds and a pair of assists. He also had three personal fouls but saw fewer than 21 minutes for just the fifth time this season as Brooklyn went small.
Claxton has had enough of this MVP buzz just takes a hard shot into Joel’s lower back
The league leader in field goal percentage this season, Claxton had just five points on 2-for-4 shooting in 30 minutes in Game 1, though he did snag 10 boards, three blocks, and one assist.
It’s a stark dropoff from his production against the Sixers in the regular season – 14.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 3.0 assists – and could potentially have a significant impact on his Nets future as he heads into the final year of his contract next season.
Nets Need Someone to Step Up
Outside of Johnson, the Nets shot 31% from the floor in this one, going 8-for-31 from beyond the arc. But it was the overall lack of efficiency that did them in leaving Vaughn to plead for anyone to step up at home for Game 3.
“Do we need some people to step up at home? Yes, we do,” Vaughn asked and answered. “I’ll take all of them. Anyone you want to sign up, put them on the list, I’ll check that thing off.
“We need everybody to show up and be ready to play.”