The Sixers waited to flip the switch against the Nets in Game 2, but they won’t have that luxury much longer

The star of Game 2 was sitting at the postgame interview podium when he heard a voice off stage to his right. It was faint, like a whisper, but the word it repeated was clear to all within earshot. A two-syllable chant.

Max-ey.

Max-ey.

Max-ey.

As Tyrese Maxey rolled his eyes, Sixers assistant coach Sam Cassell headed out of the Wells Fargo Center with a cackle, punctuating his mock cheer with a loud proclamation.

“That’s my protege!” Cassell yelled before departing.

That everyone understood it to be a joke is a testament to nights like Monday. As preternaturally gifted as Cassell once was as a player, starting at point guard for the Rockets’ back-to-back championship teams during his first two seasons in the league, he was never the sort of player who could be counted upon to score 33 points and rescue his Hall of Fame teammates from the clutches of a Game 2 stinker.

But, then, few players are.

The Sixers have one in Maxey. Granted, they knew that before he put them on his back and led them to a 2-0 series lead with a 96-84 win over the Brooklyn Nets on Monday night. But it was still something to see and to behold. On a night when Joel Embiid and James Harden spent long stretches of the first half looking lost and confused, a 22-year-old kid looked around the room and realized that a couple of all-time greats could sure use his help.

The realization arrived when it needed to. Six minutes into the first quarter, the Nets were playing as if they were down to their last life and the Sixers were playing as if they had several to spare. Embiid was in the midst of one of those performances that in previous postseasons might have spelled doom. Harden was right there with him. Tobias Harris was about to head to the bench with his second foul of the opening quarter. The Sixers seemed to be running out of options.

Then came Maxey, first on a fadeaway, then on a layup, then on a catch-and-shoot three. Seven straight points, and the Sixers were within one.

“We all have our games, our days, scoring, playmaking, whatever the case may be. Tonight was his game,” Harden said. “He was aggressive, he made shots. He was one of the reasons we won the game.”

» READ MORE: Sixers rally to overtake Brooklyn Nets in second half, take home 96-84 win and 2-0 series lead

There were other factors, for sure. Embiid deserves plenty of credit for the way he helped to steady the ship. In the first half, the Nets swarmed him from all angles, frustrating him with their physical energy. In the second half, the Sixers figured out their spacing around Embiid, and the big man responded, hitting four of his six shots in physical fashion and scoring another four points in a couple of trips to the line. He was complemented by Harris, who scored nine of his 20 points during a 20-7 run that saw the Sixers seize control of the game in the third quarter.

“It’s the playoffs; you’ve got to do whatever it takes,” said Embiid, who finished with 20 points, 19 rebounds and seven assists to go with his eight turnovers. “I’m double-, I’m triple-teamed. If I want to, I can get a shot. Is it a good shot? Probably, for me, I think so, but probably not most of the time. You just have to trust it and keep making the right plays. In the first half, we were cold, but I knew that at some point we were going to knock down shots.”

If this was the second round, they might not have survived. The Boston Celtics might have been up 30 by the time the Sixers decided to play. To a certain extent, you can understand the disinterest. The Sixers played like a team that knew it could flip a switch and still cover the spread. It took a couple of quarters, but the Sixers finally flipped it.

“Honestly, that’s what the playoffs are all about,” said Harden, who finished with just eight points on 3-of-13 shooting after an electric performance in Game 1. “Obviously, you want to make every shot, score every time, but when you are a good enough player and you can impact the game in multiple ways and your team still wins, that’s all that matters.”

They are probably going to need much more from Harden in future rounds of this postseason. Same goes for Embiid, who can’t afford to spend too many first halves figuring out how to attack an opponent.

That said, the big takeaway from Game 2 was how comfortable they can be looking elsewhere. In Maxey, the Sixers have the sort of player who may just be the answer to their string of early playoff exits. His 33 points included a 6-of-13 performance from the three-point line, a potential antidote to the physicality that teams like the Celtics routinely use to limit Embiid. Given Maxey’s own struggles against the Celtics — he has a total of 19 points in his last three regular-season games against them — it was imperative for him to use the first round of the playoffs to build a head of steam.

They did that in Game 2. It wasn’t great that they needed it. But at least they know they have it.