Tyrese Maxey didn’t need to carry the Philadelphia 76ers from the opening tip Monday. He spent most of the night in a different lane, working as a setup man and keeping the offense moving, then flipped the switch when the game reached the fourth quarter.
Maxey entered the matchup averaging 29.6 points per game and fresh off a 38-point outing against the Hornets. He had also scored at least 26 points in each of the previous seven games, a run that seemed in danger of ending after three quarters.
He had just 11 points at that stage, but the quiet scoring line had more to do with volume than efficiency. Maxey had taken only nine shots by then, well below the 21.1 he had been averaging to start the season.
He finished with 15 attempts, still under that mark, but he made five of six shots in the fourth quarter and missed only one three-pointer.
That final stretch is where Maxey has been separating himself. He leads the league with 88 points in the fourth quarter, and he’s making an early case for Clutch Player of the Year. Against the Bulls, the 76ers didn’t even need him to take over, but he did it anyway, helping turn an 11-point lead into a 19-point win.
No one in Philadelphia is going to complain about that kind of overkill.
The bigger picture is just as encouraging for the 76ers. Maxey was the headliner in the fourth, but he wasn’t alone.
Every other starter scored in double figures, with Jaylen Brown adding 25 points. VJ Edgecombe turned in his best game of the young season with 21 points and at one point looked like he might finish as the team’s top scorer.
LeBron James and Embiid each had 15.
That kind of balance is a far cry from the burden Maxey carried two seasons ago, when he was asked to keep the 76ers afloat while Embiid and Paul George were dealing with injuries. That stretch is probably one fans would rather forget, but it did sharpen Maxey and, as the source of this current group suggests, helped bring Edgecombe to town.
The old version of the 76ers was defined by the question of whether the talent could stay on the floor. This version doesn’t have that same problem of talent.
The roster is loaded, and Maxey is still the engine. He just doesn’t have to be the whole machine every night.
In the fourth quarter, though, it still looks an awful lot like his team.
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