Tyrese Maxey’s second-half shooting misses the mark
Was it the Orlando Magic defense? Was he feeling ill? He says it was neither, but he struggled to score in the key moments late.
ORLANDO — Tyrese Maxey looked exhausted and sounded congested.
Asked if he was battling an illness, the 76ers point guard responded by repeating the question.
“Am I sick?” he said after Sunday’s 104-99 setback to the Orlando Magic at the Kia Center. “ … No, I’m not sick today. I’m feeling great.”
But something was amiss with his game after intermission and his voice during the postgame interview. That’s why reporters wondered if he was concealing something so that he wasn’t making an excuse for his second-half struggles.
» READ MORE: Paul George fouls out and the shorthanded Sixers see a game slip away against the Magic
“No, I’m not sick,” he said later. “Thank you, though, I appreciate you asking,”
Maxey finished with a game-high 29 points while shooting 7-for-19 and making 12 of 13 free throws. He also had four rebounds, five assists, three steals and six turnovers. However, he didn’t attempt a shot in the third quarter before scoring seven points on 2-for-8 shooting in the fourth quarter.
The Magic (23-18) switched their defensive coverages on Maxey in the second half. They ended up having lengthy defenders guarding him after intermission.
“Obviously, he got to the free-throw line a bunch, and most of that was in the first half too,” coach Nick Nurse said of Maxey going 10 of 10 from the foul line before intermission. “Just didn’t have quite as many openings I didn’t think in the second half just because of kind of putting one and a half or two on him a lot of times. I thought he made a lot of right plays though; he didn’t force too many.”
But Maxey did take a couple of tough shots after Paul George fouled out with 2 minutes, 49 seconds remaining.
He made an eight-foot floater while being fouled by former Sixer Trevelin Queen to give his team a 96-93 lead 16 seconds later. Maxey missed the ensuing free throw. Then he missed an eight-foot fadeaway and a driving layup on the Sixers’ next two possessions.
» READ MORE: Sixers takeaways: Athleticism needed; clutch foul shooting; Maxey roughed up
Maxey followed that by making a 27-foot three-pointer to pull the Sixers within one point with 1:07 remaining. However with the Magic up three, he missed a 26-foot right-wing three-pointer with 9.6 left.
Maxey didn’t think the Magic’s second-half defensive scheme impacted his shooting.
“I missed a layup and I missed a three,” he said. “So it happens.”
But he also took some of the blame for the Sixers being outscored 13-5 after George fouled out.
“I missed some shots,” he said. “We got some good looks, and we couldn’t stop them from scoring.”
Maxey took all five of the Sixers' shot attempts, making two, after George exited the game.
“I think [fouling out] put a lot of pressure on guys,” George said. “It put a lot of pressure on Tyrese down the stretch. I wish I was out there to kind of negate that.”