Sixers-Celtics takeaways: Tyrese Maxey’s desire, Tobias Harris’ woes, and De’Anthony Melton’s sad injury status

Tyrese Maxey is trying to will the 76ers to victory amid a rough stretch.

Tobias Harris’ shooting woes continue, and De’Anthony Melton clearly cannot get a break after suffering another back injury.

Those three things stood out in the Sixers’ 117-99 loss to the Boston Celtics on Monday at TD Garden.

The Celtics were 11.5-point favorites against a Sixers squad that came in with 11 losses in its last 15 games. Philly kept battling back against Boston while playing loose and with great confidence. And no Sixer was more confident than Maxey.

The All-Star point guard had a game-high 32 points along with five assists and two steals. Maxey made 12 of 24 shots. He scored 12 points in the first quarter and added 13 in the third.

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The fourth-year veteran played with a lot of energy. He also got into passing lanes on defense, leading to transition baskets off steals. And as Maxey usually does, the speedster blew by helpless defenders.

His play early on set the tempo for the Sixers (33-25) and established that the Celtics (46-12) would be in for a fight most of the game. Boston pulled away thanks to a 16-0 run that made the score 107-89 with four minutes left.

Tuesday marked the third time in five games that Maxey has scored at least 30 points.

Something’s wrong with Harris.

The standout power forward scored 13 points on 5-of-19 shooting, making just 2 of 7 three-pointers. This comes after Harris averaged 12.5 points on 37.2% shooting in his previous six games. He shot 26.7% on three-pointers in those games.

“I’ve just got to stick with it,” Harris told reporters. “It was a bad shooting night, a bad stretch for me as a player. But at the end of the day, you still have to take those looks, be confident, and stick to your work, and stick to everything that has gotten you up until this point.”

His offensive struggles put a lot of the onus to score on Maxey, which makes the Sixers easier to defend.

But Harris isn’t the only Sixer underperforming.

Kelly Oubre Jr. (three points, 1-for-6 shooting) and Buddy Hield (six, 2-for-8) also continued to struggle. However, Harris is the team’s second-best available player with Joel Embiid sidelined. So he must play better for the Sixers to be successful.

One has to feel sorry for Melton.

The shooting guard was a major part of the Sixers’ early-season success. He was in the midst of his best offensive season. Defensively, Melton was one of the league leaders in steals and deflections.

Then came Jan. 2, when he missed the first of three games because of his back. He then returned for two games before missing the next 18.

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Melton finally returned from a spine injury in Friday’s victory against the Cleveland Cavaliers. He finished with seven points and one assist in that game. The Los Angeles native looked sharp in Sunday’s loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, finishing with 16 points while making 4 of 8 three-pointers. Melton also had three assists and two steals in 18 minutes, 29 seconds.

However, Melton was on the floor for only 8:50 Tuesday before leaving the game with back spasms. He was held scoreless after missing his two shot attempts.

“We’re certainly concerned that it’s the same thing because we’ve taken a lot of time off to try to get it to a position of in a better place,” coach Nick Nurse told reporters.

This has been a tough season for one of the team’s best perimeter defenders.