Sixers confident Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey can recapture lethal pairing: ‘We work on it every single day’

Tyrese Maxey delivered a bounce pass to Joel Embiid, who then caught the ball at the top of the key and drove past the Orlando Magic for the finish at the basket.

That sequence late in the second quarter of the 76ers’ victory Friday night briefly sent Embiid to the locker room with a tweaked knee. But it also provided a glimpse at what the Sixers had been missing for two months, while the reigning NBA Most Valuable Player recovered from meniscus surgery.

Embiid and Maxey quickly morphed into arguably the league’s most lethal scoring tandem before the big man’s injury, combining Maxey’s speed and long-range shooting with Embiid’s physicality and abnormal skill for a 7-footer. They made outsiders forget that this season began with the James Harden conundrum, while maintaining the Sixers’ status as an Eastern Conference contender.

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Now, how quickly Embiid and Maxey can recapture and build upon that partnership — starting with Wednesday’s play-in matchup against the Miami Heat — will largely determine how far they can advance in the postseason. Consider their teammates confident that their All-Stars can click back into place.

“It’s going to be easy,” veteran forward Nico Batum said following Saturday’s practice. “I mean, we’ve done it. It was just two months ago. It wasn’t two years ago. It feels like two years ago, but it was two months ago. We’re going to get back to it.

“They’re smart guys. We know how to play as a team, as well. So it’s going to be easy.”

The 2023-24 regular-season statistics now accompanying Embiid and Maxey are eye-popping. They became the first teammates in NBA history to each record three 50-point games. Embiid joined Wilt Chamberlain as the only players in league history to average at least 34 points, 11 rebounds, and five assists over a 39-game span. And Maxey’s career-high 25.6 points, 6.2 assists, 3.7 rebounds (and just 1.7 turnovers) per game made him a first-time All-Star and a Most Improved Player candidate, and squashed any questions about his potential as a lead guard.

Their sample size together since Embiid’s April 2 return, however, has been limited to three games, because of injuries and precautionary rest for both players.

Before last Tuesday’s win over the Detroit Pistons, coach Nick Nurse acknowledged he had not yet seen as much Embiid-Maxey two-man action as earlier in the season. The last time Embiid and Maxey shared the floor was during that victory over the Magic, when Maxey said they used Orlando’s defensive tendency to switch late on screens to free him up for three-pointers, and get Embiid posting up on smaller guards.

And after that game, Maxey added that he and Embiid had already discussed a handful of plays when he needed to cut, or Embiid should have slid over while taking the ball in an isolation situation. Embiid has not spoken to the media since last Tuesday’s victory over Detroit.

“But one thing that I think will always be there is the little two-man game,” Maxey added. “I think we’ve … not mastered [it], but we kind of know where each other wants the ball [and] how to get each other shots.”

Back in mid-January, Nurse said he was “fairly happy” with how Embiid and Maxey’s pick-and-roll cohesion had developed during the first half of the season. Yet the coach still saw potential to weaponize the duo in other ways, from dribble-handoffs, to a variety of screens and cuts, to “whatever two guys can be involved in.” Hours before Embiid dropped 70 points on the San Antonio Spurs, however, legendary coach Gregg Popovich conceded that the pairing was already “difficult to deal with” because of its versatility.

“I mean, I don’t know what you want me to say,” Popovich said. " … It’s different than [John] Stockton and [Karl] Malone, in the sense that you’re not always sure what Maxey might do. Joel might pop for a three. He might roll. He might go to the nail and go one-on-one. All kinds of different things.”

Maxey has already amassed impressive playoff performances in his first three NBA seasons, including a 38-point outburst against Nurse’s Toronto Raptors two years ago. Yet Embiid’s extended absence further accelerated the point guard’s development, thanks to the array of defensive coverages he encountered as the top priority on an opponent’s scouting report.

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That was evident in crunch time against the Magic, when Maxey scored 11 fourth-quarter points on 5-of-6 shooting, including a step-back jumper and layup through contact on back-to-back possessions to push the Sixers’ lead to 10 points with about four minutes remaining. By the end of the 125-113 victory, Maxey and Embiid had combined for 50 points, 15 rebounds, and 10 assists.

“I wouldn’t say [I] wave him away,” Maxey said of Embiid. “But I just told him, ‘I got us.’ … Him being out was bad, of course. But it was a blessing in disguise, I think. It kind of had me grow up a little bit and kind of grow into this role.”

That also forced the expansion of Nurse’s metaphorical “toolbox” to complement the Maxey-Embiid partnership — in personnel, and in playing style.

Veteran Kyle Lowry, whom Nurse acknowledged was originally signed off the buyout market to be the backup point guard, is now a starter capable of initiating the offense and screening. Kelly Oubre Jr. has become a reliable complementary scorer — and improved playmaker — because of his ability to blow past defenders and into the lane. Buddy Hield, a trade-deadline acquisition, spaces the floor with his outside shooting, while one of Batum’s under-the-radar skills is his passing into the post.

Collectively, that group consistently raised its competitive level while “heavily the underdog, night after night, after night” without Embiid, Nurse said. That mirrors an intangible trademark of the Heat and, if the Sixers get past them, the second-seeded New York Knicks.

“Sometimes, you do have to go to some more unconventional measures,” the coach added. “We had to do that a lot, and I think it did speed up some of our schemes and things. I feel really good about where the toolbox is now.”

Those options were at Nurse’s disposal during practice Monday and Tuesday, where the coach said Embiid was a full participant after missing Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Brooklyn Nets. The Sixers dissected ways the Heat might try to defend Embiid Wednesday, which in the past has included shifting to a zone or switching star (and former teammate) Jimmy Butler onto the big man. Teammates have refocused on how to cut around Embiid, to find gaps on the floor and become potential pass recipients when the MVP is double-teamed.

“We’ve been really drilling and figuring out the spots when he’s in his iso position,” Oubre said. “I think that we’re in a better space than we were before he went out, because now we know exactly the reads and where he wants us to be and where we can get our shots at.

“I think we’re real polished in that aspect, so we’ll see in the game.”

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And in between those team sessions, Maxey and Embiid have run two-man action after two-man action, with the goal of re-sharpening their timing and chemistry. Because to push out of the play-in and make a legitimate postseason run, the Sixers’ dynamic duo will need to be just that.

Consider Maxey confident, as well.

“We know the moments that he needs to score the ball, or I kind of need to be aggressive,” Maxey said. “We work on it every single day.”