The Philadelphia 76ers still have yet to find out who their next playoff opponent will be, seeing how the Boston Celtics and Atlanta Hawks are still battling each other in the first round. Should the Sixers match up against their division rival, that should be a challenge for Tyrese Maxey.
In four games against the Celtics, Maxey averaged 10 points a game while shooting 35.4% from the field and 21.4% from three. Maxey explained his struggles against the Celtics this season while adding that beating them is not about how well he plays.
“The.. two games in the middle of the season that was kind of mental stuff,” he told reporters, per Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. “That last game, I think I hurt my back messing with [P.J. Tucker] getting a rebound.
“But I mean, the ultimate goal, it’s not about me. It’s about winning. So it’s like what can we do to stop either Atlanta or Boston as many times as we can, so at the end of the game when there’s zeroes across the board have more points that they do.”
Maxey had a good performance against the Celtics on opening night, scoring 21 points in the Sixers’ loss.
Doc Rivers, Tyrese Maxey Talk Extended Absence
The Sixers have not played since April 22, and will not play again until May 1, regardless of who faces them in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Head coach Doc Rivers gave his thoughts on having an extended layoff.
“You’re ready to go, but the rest, at some point, will kick in and help, but it takes you out of the playoffs in some way, out of the intensity and the flow,” Rivers told reporters, per NBC Sports Philadelphia. “We will take it, I think, at the end of the day. This is the longest (layoff) I’ve ever had, so, just trying to keep our guys as sharp as possible in all that is not easy.”
Maxey revealed what the Sixers should pay the most attention to as they await their next opponent.
“I think the biggest thing that we can do right now is focus on the Sixers,” Maxey said. “Even today, we got to play a little bit against each other, which is really good. We got to focus on our brand of basketball. How we want to play no matter which team we are playing against, how we want to play every single night. I think that’s the biggest thing for us right now.”
Tyrese Maxey Sounds Off on Role Without Joel Embiid
With Joel Embiid dealing with an LCL injury, Maxey told reporters how he’ll approach the playoff games going forward should Embiid miss any more games.
“I kinda prepare the same way,” Maxey told reporters at practice, per Ky Carlin of Sixers Wire. “Of course, if Joel is not playing, then I probably have a little bit of a bigger role, but at the end of the day, I think my role is pretty much the same in both ways, which is to be aggressive, get myself shots, get my teammates shots, play good defense, and try to help us win games.”
Maxey said that no matter what happens, he believes the Sixers will compensate for his absence the best they can because they have during the regular season.
“Joel believes in us and we believe in Jo, so you want him to be 100% healthy when he gets out there and being prepared to play and he has the ultimate faith in us,” Maxey said. “Just like in Game 4, we took care of business. We’ve been doing it all year with guys missing games, myself included, and other guys to step up. So everybody’s gonna have a next man up mentality and we’re gonna try and prepare that day.”
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Tyrese Maxey Sends Message Ahead of Potential Celtics-Sixers Series