Tyrese Maxey survives a scare and lifts the Sixers past the Mavericks in a homecoming

DALLAS — Tyrese Maxey had a great homecoming.

After practice Saturday at Buddy Hield’s Big D residence, Maxey took an Uber to his parents’ home. The next day, the native of Garland, Texas, led the Sixers to a 120-116 victory over the Dallas Mavericks with family members and friends in the stands at American Airlines Center.

Sunday’s victory was the second straight for the Sixers (35-25) since Kyle Lowry and Mo Bamba were inserted into the starting lineup.

The grouping of Hield, Tobias Harris, Bamba, Maxey, and Lowry has played with a lot of cohesiveness and great communication. Lowry, a six-time All-Star, has also been the unquestioned leader. Harris had 28 points in his second straight quality game. But make no mistake, this moment — and weekend as a whole — was all about Maxey.

» READ MORE: Kyle Lowry is the Sixers’ leader. They’re wise for keeping their best pure point guard in the starting lineup

“It’s been great,” he said of the homecoming. “I don’t know what time we left my momma’s house last night, probably like 11:30, something like that. So I spend all that time over there. She had all my cousins and my aunts and people I hadn’t seen in years — people who always send me text messages and prayers. So I appreciate them for stuff like that.”

Maxey played cards and ate while enjoying the company of family members and friends at his mother’s house. “I was able to hang on them and love on them a little bit,” he said. “So it was great.”

The Sixers’ All-Star guard finished with 24 points, three assists, and two steals. Maxey set the tempo with 17 first-quarter points on 7-for-10 shooting before Harris and Kelly Oubre Jr. (21 points) took over.

Maxey’s play in the first quarter might have been the most vital part of the game for the Sixers. Dallas scored the game’s first 11 points. But after Maxey took over, the Sixers took a 32-22 lead into the second quarter.

The Mavs (34-27) did pull within 115-110 after Luka Dončić’s three-point jumper with 34.3 seconds remaining. The Sixers called a timeout with 26.7 seconds left. Maxey was fouled by Josh Green after receiving the inbounds pass and hit a pair of foul shots to put the Sixers up seven 1.6 seconds later. That led to the Mavs calling a timeout.

After Kyrie Irving drained a three-pointer, Nico Batum was fouled with 10.8 seconds remaining. The Sixers forward hit a pair of foul shots before Irving drained another three to make it a 119-116 game. Oubre, however, responded a foul shot with 5.1 seconds left as the Sixers escaped with a four-point win.

Maxey did have a scare, though.

» READ MORE: Buddy Hield hosts Sixers practice at his home gym: ‘It was cool to come out here’

While driving the lane, the fourth-year player fell to the floor and was inadvertently struck in the back of the head with four minutes left in the third quarter. Maxey rolled around for a few minutes in pain before getting up and walking to the Sixers bench. Moments later, Maxey, his father, and the medical staff from both teams went to a room where he was evaluated. After being assessed by the Mavs’ doctors, Maxey was cleared to play and resumed action at the start of the fourth quarter.

Maxey said he was moving too fast and slipped on the play, causing the incident. Asked if he was scared, Maxey jokingly responded, “I ain’t never scared,” a lyric from Bone Crusher’s hit song “Never Scared.”

“I will say this, when I did hit my head, I saw my twin nieces,” he said. “They were up, like, ‘Boy, you better get up and you better be OK, or we’re coming down there.’ ”

Maxey is making a lot of adjustments, from having the luxury of playing off Joel Embiid to having the scoring load on his shoulders.

“I think it’s been a tremendous experience for him,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse said. ‘I think we’re learning a lot and he’s learning a lot. I think there’s a lot of room for growth here.”

But it has been an interesting situation for Maxey and the Sixers. He has never been in the situation where he had to provide the scoring load at the beginning of the season. Maxey’s focus was on running the team and deciding when to shoot and when to get others involved. At the same time, the Sixers were asking him to get better defensively.

“And then Joel goes out [after knee surgery] and now he has a whole other scenario,” Nurse said. “He’s clearly our best offensive player, like, clearly, and we need him to shoot a lot. And he’s still not quite thinking, ‘I’m coming down, I’m going to shoot it like five times in a row if I make one.’ I’m still pushing the aggressive part of it first and foremost, because it’s really not his total nature yet.”

That being said, Maxey still has to see the floor and spread the ball around a little bit. But the addition of Lowry has taken some of the facilitating duties off him. The North Philly native, who signed with the Sixers on Feb. 13, made his second consecutive start on Sunday.

Maxey attempted just 15 shots against the Mavs after attempting 33 against the Charlotte Hornets on Friday.

» READ MORE: Reserve point guard Cameron Payne asked to be more aggressive in Sixers’ offense

With Maxey leading the way, the Sixers outscored Dallas, 32-11, in the first quarter after Nurse called a timeout 2 minutes, 13 seconds into the game. The Mavs were shooting 4-for-4 before the timeout, and made just 3 of 16 shots in the quarter afterward.

Maxey began the second quarter on the bench. But with Harris scoring 12 points in the quarter, Maxey was more of a facilitator once he checked in with 7:18 remaining. He didn’t attempt his first shot of the quarter until the 4:41 mark. He scored two points in the quarter on 1-for-3 shooting. Maxey scored five points — all from the foul line — after intermission. He attempted only two shots while making the right decision to quickly get the ball out of his hands while the Mavs kept blitzing him.

“It takes some guys a long time,” Nurse said. “They still want to dribble around and split [defenders] and dribble around forever. But we work on that a lot, because we have been seeing that since Joel has been out [after knee surgery].

“We worked on it yesterday at Buddy’s house. We get in position to make sure we understand what our spacing is.”

This game pitted two former Westtown School centers against each other in the starting lineup.

Bamba, a 2017 Westtown graduate, got his second consecutive start for the Sixers. Meanwhile, standout rookie Dereck Lively II, a 2022 graduate, started for the Mavs.

Both were McDonald’s All Americans in high school and among three former Westtown School standouts in the NBA. Cam Reddish, a 2018 Westtown grad, plays for the Los Angeles Lakers.

On Sunday, Bamba had eight points and five rebounds while splitting time at center with Paul Reed (13 points, seven rebounds). Meanwhile, Lively had four points and three rebounds. Dončić scored 38 points for the Mavs.

» READ MORE: Third-stringer to All-Star: Tyrese Maxey finds his place among the NBA’s best

“It was amazing, honestly,” Bamba said of starting against Lively. “I didn’t know Dereck, too, too much when I was there. He didn’t go to the school when I was there. But as soon as I left, I think like a year or two after, Coach Seth [Berger] was telling me like we are going to have another one [pro] come out. And it wasn’t just because he was tall, it was because he had all of the intangibles.”

Reserve Sixers point guard Cam Payne did not play because of an illness. He exited the arena before the game.