Isaiah Joe, Sixers Discuss Tyrese Maxey's Absence vs. Celtics

The Sixers were on quite the roll heading into Saturday night's game against the Boston Celtics. After picking up a dominant win against the Dallas Mavericks and a thrilling overtime victory versus the Atlanta Hawks, the 76ers were entering Saturday's game looking to go 3-0 in the NBA Summer League.

But they ran into a tough obstacle on Saturday. Hours before the Sixers tipped off their third outing of the summer, their starting point guard Tyrese Maxey parted ways with the team as he flew out of Las Vegas back home to Texas.

As the second-year guard was granted permission to leave and host a youth basketball camp in his hometown of Garland, Texas, Maxey concluded his debut Summer League season after appearing in just two games.

Despite only performing in two matchups, Maxey proved to be one of the most dominant players in the tournament. As he led the Sixers in scoring during both matchups, he was a key reason why they were undefeated going into Saturday's game.

Without Maxey on the floor, the Sixers started 27-year-old veteran guard Frank Mason III. While Mason has plenty of experience, the void of Maxey affected the Sixers in a big way on Saturday night, and it was clear from the jump that a victory was not going to come nearly as easy without him.

“Any time you lose your point guard, your team is going to suffer from the standpoint of that’s been your leader the whole camp and whatnot," said Sixers' Summer League head coach Brian Adams. "At the same time, though, we were ready for this. We prepared for it. I thought Frank did a pretty good job. He was very aggressive, and he got downhill.”

Mason III didn't bring the same offensive dominance as Maxey, which didn't come as much of a surprise considering he missed the first two games earlier in the week due to injury. Shooting just 4-10 from the field and 0-3 from three, Mason III collected just nine points in 23 minutes of action on Saturday. 

“A guy of Maxey’s caliber is always going to make a thing, but that can’t be an excuse at all,” Adams continued. “I thought we were ready and we were prepared, and then when the game started, I was happy with our first half overall and then the third quarter. I have to go back and watch, but things kind of fell apart a little.”

Sixers second-year guard Isaiah Joe has established himself as another standout this summer playing alongside Maxey. Trying to make up for the loss of his team's top scorer, Joe led the Sixers with 15 shot attempts on Saturday. Although he led the team in scoring with 15 points, efficiency wasn't his strength on Saturday night as he drained just 33-percent of his shots from the field. 

“Tyrese is a big part of this team, but just like any NBA game, sometimes you got to play without great players,” Joe said after the game. “You got to learn how to use what you have. Today was a test of that. So I think we just got to keep getting better with what we got because we have the pieces. We have the coaching staff, we have the layout, we just got to put it together.”

Without Maxey, the Sixers suffered their first loss of the summer and fell short to the Celtics 100-80. While it was a tough loss to stomach, the Sixers have to keep a short memory as they're set to face the Minnesota Timberwolves a little over 24 hours later. 

With Maxey finished for the summer, the Sixers have accepted their top guard won't be returning to the lineup. Now that Mason's got his feet wet, though, the Sixers hope to bounce back with much better results on Sunday night.

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