Eastern Conference Recaps, April 17: Tyrese Maxey's 33 Points Leads Philadelphia 76ers Past Brooklyn Nets

The Philadelphia 76ers are much more than MVP candidate Joel Embiid.

They're more than just James Harden, too.

The Sixers' third option, Tyrese Maxey, had 33 points in Monday's 96-84 victory against the Brooklyn Nets. They are up 2-0 in the best-of-7 series.

Maxey made 13 of 23 field goals, including six 3-pointers.

“That’s playoff basketball, man,” Nets guard Cam Johnson said of Maxey’s hot night. “It’s a good team. Good guys are locked in, playing at the highest level, highest focus so you gotta expect to a degree that somebody’s going to step up their game. And it’s not like [Maxey’s] not a usual suspect. That guy can score the ball.”

Embiid and Tobias Harris finished with 20 points each. Harden only had eight points on 3 of 13 shooting.

The Nets led by five at halftime but were unable to get much going offensively in the second half. Johnson led them with 28 points. The Nets are hoping things turn around when the series shift.

Game 3 is Thursday at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

“The only adjustment made was that ball didn’t go into the hole for us," Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said. "We got open looks, they tried to go zone, we had enough shooting out there: the ball just didn’t go in.Harden, Embiid, kept them in check. Offensive rebounds from PJ [Tucker], kept that in check. Give credit to [Tyrese] Maxey — that’s the playoffs. Someone steps up and you hope that step up is on your end.”

Shandel Richardson can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com