Sixers vs. Atlanta Hawks takeaways: Tyrese Maxey is ‘amazing,’ even on off nights; Kelly Oubre Jr.’s selfless play

Tyrese Maxey can get 30 points, even on subpar nights.

Kelly Oubre Jr. displayed his toughness on numerous occasions. And the National Basketball Development League (now the G-League) was a good feeder league for coaches, including 76ers coach Nick Nurse and Atlanta Hawks coach Quin Snyder.

Those three things stood out in the Sixers’ 125-114 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night at the Wells Fargo Center.

After the game, Nurse told his assistants that Maxey made a lot of plays in the fourth quarter.

“One of them said, ‘He’s pretty amazing. He can get 30 when he’s not having a very good night,’” Nurse said. “So he ended up having a really good night because he hit a lot of big shots there late.”

Sixteen of Maxey’s points came in the fourth quarter on 4-for-6 shooting. He also made 7 of 8 foul shots along with a steal and block while playing 10 minutes, 45 seconds in the quarter.

Before that, the point guard had 14 points while struggling through 4-of-12 shooting.

“He’s capable,” Nurse said. “He’s explosive. He’s capable of putting a run like that together at any time. And it was a good time tonight and just stay with it.”

Maxey scored eight of the Sixers’ first 11 points in the quarter to give them a 104-101 advantage.

“I just wanted to be extremely aggressive,” he said. “I didn’t like how I played [during] that second-unit stint in the second quarter. I feel like I was just out there, and I wasn’t aggressive. I wasn’t demanding the ball. And I wasn’t going to let that happen twice.”

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It was hard to tell that this was Oubre’s second game back after fracturing his rib on Nov. 11.

The Sixers small forward sacrificed his body on numerous plays while finishing with 11 points, three rebounds — two offensive — two steals, and a block in 23 minutes, 31 seconds off the bench.

With Oubre showing toughness, Nurse elected to keep him on the floor to close out the game.

“He just looked, again, explosive to me,” Nurse said. “You know, he was up the floor fast. He was at the rim for some cuts. He was on the glass. He was getting over screens and ... was refusing to get screened, and you got to throw your body into people to do that.

“So I am pretty happy where he is, considering how long he’s been out just with his effort and conditioning and he made some plays.”

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Snyder had a successful coaching stint with the Austin Toros in what was formerly known as the NBA Development League from 2007 to 2010. He compiled a record of 94-56, leading Austin to the playoffs in his three seasons.

That led to his joining the Sixers as assistant coach under Doug Collins on June 11, 2010. After one season in Philly, Snyder had stints as the Los Angeles Lakers assistant, CSKA Moscow head coach and Hawks assistant before being named the Utah Jazz head coach on June 6, 2014.

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Meanwhile, Nurse coached Iowa Energy (2011) and Rio Grande Valley Vipers (2013) to D-League titles.

Los Angeles Lakers coach Darvin Ham coached with Snyder in Iowa.

“Darvin was my player-coach,” Snyder said. “He was a player, and I eventually just made him a player-coach because he was trying to coach the team anyway. He and I, obviously, are really close.

“I think certainly coaches have had an opportunity to grow there the same way players have. I still slip out and call it the D-League instead of the G League.”