Rivers Credits Tyrese Maxey for Leading ‘Team Win’ vs. Raptors

It wasn’t hard to tell who the Philadelphia 76ers’ star of the night was on Friday night against the Toronto Raptors. Right out of the gate, the third-year guard Tyrese Maxey looked like a man on a mission.

As Maxey checked in for the first nine minutes of the game, he was perfect from the field, draining all five of his shots. Four of those attempts were launched from deep. By the end of the first quarter, Maxey scored 14 of Philadelphia’s 28 points.

Maxey didn’t slow down in the second quarter, either. Coming out onto the court for another 11 minutes, Maxey maintained his perfect shooting as he drilled five more shots, with three attempts from beyond the arc. By the end of the first half, Maxey scored 27 points, the most points he’s ever produced in one half of basketball.

The Sixers slowed down in the third quarter offensively, and a lot of that had to do with Maxey temporarily going cold. However, his 1-5 shooting from the field would not lead to a bad trend in the second half. Once the fourth quarter rolled around, Maxey would heat up once again by going 4-5 from the field and knocking down two more threes to total nine on the night.

Maxey finished Friday night’s game with a new career-high of 44 points. His scoring leadership allowed the Sixers to get revenge on the Raptors with a 112-90 victory.

76ers head coach Doc Rivers wasted no time crowning Maxey the MVP of the night. While Rivers believed that the Sixers’ success could be attributed to an all-around “team win,” it was hard not to praise the third-year guard for what he put on display Friday night.

“I just think he’s a heck of a basketball player,” said Rivers after the game. “We came into the game knowing Joel wasn’t gonna play. We talked to him this morning, the whole team, not him, about trying to find matchups and then spacing the floor and attacking. They are a great help defensive team, and they can’t stop it. They’re just good at it. Us getting into the paint sucked everybody in, and that’s where we got shots. I thought we were ready for that, and we did a good job.”

Maxey found success against the Raptors on Wednesday as he put up 31 points, which marked his season-high scoring at the time. Although Maxey matched the production of his star center Joel Embiid, the Sixers struggled to make it out of Toronto with a win on Wednesday night.

Without Embiid on Friday, Maxey and the team stepped up and countered Toronto’s defensive attack with a fast-paced offense and highly-efficient shooting, especially from Maxey. With the young guard’s success, the Sixers split the regular season series against Toronto 1-1 while picking up their second victory of the year.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.