Sixers’ Tyrese Maxey expected to miss 3 to 4 weeks with a small foot fracture

Tyrese Maxey suffered a small fracture in his left foot during the 76ers’ win over the Milwaukee Bucks Friday night, the team announced Saturday afternoon. The Sixers added that Maxey would be re-evaluated in approximately two weeks, though a league source confirmed to The Inquirer that the third-year guard is expected to miss between three and four weeks with the injury.

“No one feels sorry for you, so I’m not going to feel sorry for us either,” head coach Doc Rivers said of Maxey’s injury before Saturday’s game. “We’ve got to find a way to win, and I know that sounds nuts, but we do. We just have to, and we’ll figure it out.”

Maxey is one of the NBA’s more promising young players, averaging 22.9 points, 4.4 assists, and 3.5 rebounds in 15 games this season. The Sixers, who were 8-7 and had won four of their previous five games entering Saturday, have already played seven straight games without perennial All-Star guard James Harden, who strained his foot tendon during a Nov. 2 loss to the Washington Wizards and is expected to miss a couple of more weeks.

An MRI earlier Saturday revealed Maxey’s injury, which occurred when he inadvertently stepped on the foot of Milwaukee Bucks guard Jevon Carter on a drive to the basket late in the second quarter of Friday’s victory. Maxey briefly stayed in the game to shoot free throws but then went back to the locker room and did not return.

» READ MORE: Sixers’ depleted backcourt turns to Shake Milton and De’Anthony Melton

Maxey left the arena late Friday wearing a walking boot, and Rivers said after the game that he expected the third-year point guard to miss some time.

“He says what he always says, ‘Coach, I’m good,’ ” Rivers said Friday. “But I don’t know if he’ll be good right away would be my guess.”

» READ MORE: Harden is ‘on pace’ to return from foot injury in two weeks

Without both starting guards, Shake Milton (season-high 15 points and six assists) and De’Anthony Melton (10 points, seven rebounds, six assists) filled in admirably in the backcourt in the second half against the Bucks. Rivers said before Saturday’s game that the Sixers will continue to play through All-NBA center Joel Embiid, could experiment with lineups without a traditional guard on the floor, and must be “much better defensively during this stretch to win games” without Maxey’s and Harden’s offensive punch on the floor.

Starting forward Tobias Harris (hip soreness) and reserve guard Furkan Korkmaz (knee effusion) were also ruled out for Saturday’s game against the Timberwolves.

Rivers initially skirted a question about Friday’s postgame spat between Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo and Sixers reserve big man Montrezl Harrell, when both players wanted to put up shots at the same basket and Harrell took the ball away from Antetokounmpo when he refused to move to the other side.

Later, when a ladder was placed in front of the same basket, Antetokounmpo pushed it away twice before it tumbled to the floor.

“I was having a glass of wine,” Rivers said when asked for his thoughts on the situation. “That was my thought. And the wine was good, so I was happy.”

When asked about traditional postgame protocols when players want to get in extra work on the floor, however, Rivers said, “It’s usually up to the arena.”

“The only thing I will say is that was a perfect storm,” Rivers said. “That rarely happens where two opposing [players] are on the floor. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen it, honestly.”

The important follow-up for Rivers: Red or white wine?

“Red, for sure,” Rivers said. ”C’mon.”