How Tyrese Maxey Bounced Back vs. Hawks After Struggling

A rough three-game stretch in matchups against the Knicks, Suns, and the Hawks didn’t allow Philadelphia 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey to lose his confidence.

Shooting just 30 percent from the field while hitting on only 26 percent of his seven three-point attempts per game, Maxey wasn’t nearly as efficient as he was when the third-year guard started the season playing alongside James Harden.

But a lack of efficiency hasn't led to a lack of confidence for the third-year guard.

“I’m not worried about confidence, I ain’t gonna lie,” said Maxey after his 15-point night in Atlanta on Thursday. After acknowledging that too much thinking and not enough aggressiveness played into his shooting struggles over the last few matchups, Maxey knew exactly what kind of adjustments he needed to make in Saturday’s rematch against the Hawks at home.

Despite getting off to a slow start by taking just two shots in his first nine minutes of action, Maxey turned his offensive production up a notch in the second quarter of Saturday’s game. As the young guard went 4-5 from the field in eight minutes, Maxey went into halftime with 14 points.

In the third quarter, Maxey continued shooting efficiently from the field as he knocked down three of his next five shots for six points. Then in the fourth quarter, the young veteran took six more shots from the field, snagging another two buckets.

“Last game, I felt like I played with a passive mindset,” Maxey said after Saturday’s game. “I can’t play that way. That’s not who I am. That’s not the person the team needs me to be.”

Without James Harden running the Sixers’ backcourt, Maxey’s role became bigger in the ten-time All-Star’s absence. While he’ll have to put the facilitator cap on at times, the Sixers don’t want Maxey to try and mirror what Harden brought to the floor. Instead, they want him to play his game and continue to thrive on offense, just as he was doing prior to Harden’s injury.

“They need me to be aggressive for myself and for others,” Maxey continued. “I think that’s what I did tonight. It’s not always going to be scoring, scoring, scoring, especially with James not here. It’s going to be me getting to the paint, collapsing defenses, spraying out to shooters, pocket passing to Jo, hitting Jo on rolls, and getting guys to where they need to be. It’s a process. It was good today, and we got a game in less than 24 hours.”

Maxey hit on 55 percent of his shots Saturday night, which was a notable boost over the last few games. He wrapped up the game with 26 points in the scoring department and produced a season-high of nine assists as well.

While the Sixers are going to want to see consistency from the young guard as Harden remains off the floor for at least the next couple of weeks, Maxey has proven plenty of times that his confidence won’t waver, and he’ll continue building on the momentum he built in Saturday's 121-109 win against Atlanta.

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