More than a ‘heavyweight matchup’: Tyrese Maxey wins point guard battle against Jamal Murray

When a perfectly imperfect Jamal Murray shot bounced high enough for the ball to get wedged between the top of the backboard and the bottom of the shot clock, Tyrese Maxey went to work.

His first three attempts to jar it loose by tossing another ball in its direction failed. But after his fourth try dislodged it, the Wells Fargo Center crowd responded with its latest “Max-ey! Max-ey! Max-ey!” chant.

“Joel [Embiid] said he wanted me to miss them, so he could get a little break,” Maxey quipped after the game Tuesday night.

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That moment of stoic persistence — and an unofficial assist, of sorts — sat in the middle of another electric big-game performance for the 76ers’ ascending lead guard. In a thrilling 126-121 Sixers victory over the defending-champion Denver Nuggets, Maxey complemented Embiid’s 41 points with 25 of his own — including a 4-of-9 mark from three-point range — and added nine assists, five rebounds, and only one turnover. Maxey also outdueled ballhandling counterpart Murray (17 points, 10 assists), the player he has drawn comparisons to since legendary Kentucky coach John Calipari sat in Maxey’s home to recruit him to his program.

“Jamal is a proven veteran star in this league, and Tyrese is still trying to get to that level,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse said after the game. “When you look around [and ask], ‘Are you a championship team? What gaps are you cutting? Are you getting there where your point guard can match up with theirs?’ ”

Before the game, Nurse used a boxing metaphor to suggest that basketball fans tuning in allow some of their attention to veer from the showdown between MVP centers Embiid and Nikola Jokić to the backcourt, because “the card tonight is more than just the big heavyweight matchup at the end.” Maxey is likely on the verge of becoming a first-time All-Star next month, while Murray in recent seasons has arguably become the league’s best player who has not yet earned that distinction because of injuries and a stacked guard field in the Western Conference.

Yet perhaps more indicative of Maxey’s continued growth — and the expectations now surrounding him — is that Nurse described Tuesday’s performance as “he played good,” while wishing he had taken more than 20 shots.

Maxey, meanwhile, delivered on Embiid’s message that he needed to be “extremely aggressive” to start the game. On the Sixers’ first possession, he got past Murray for a driving score. The next time down the floor, Maxey buried a pull-up three-pointer. He caught fire again just before halftime, when he hit a go-ahead baseline floater, then buried two three-pointers in less than a minute of game time. When his alley-oop pass to Tobias Harris put the Sixers up, 76-71, and prompted a Nuggets timeout, Maxey celebrated by taking a lap around the floor.

Murray, meanwhile, also looked on his way to a big game — especially following a personal flurry to close the first half. In the final 55 seconds, he assisted an Aaron Gordon dunk, converted a driving layup, and then drained a deep, buzzer-beating three-pointer to tie the score at 78.

» READ MORE: Sixers-Nuggets takeaways: Joel Embiid praises and outplays Nikola Jokić

By the end of the third quarter, Murray had 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting and nine assists. But the Sixers locked him down in the final period, primarily because of Nurse’s decision to keep professional agitator Patrick Beverley in the game as the on-ball defender.

In that fourth quarter, Murray went 0-for-4 from the floor for zero points, committed two turnovers, and was a team-worst minus-9 while Denver was outscored, 27-17.

“No key,” Beverley said when asked about guarding Murray in that period. “I’ve been locking his [butt] up for years.”

Maxey understands why he gets compared to Murray, whom he said he has gotten to know “pretty well” over the years. And it goes beyond the Kentucky connection, or their shoe deals with New Balance. They can both play on and off the ball, and are score-first guards by assertively attacking the basket and sinking clutch shots from beyond the arc. They are also both known for their relentless work ethics, which their fathers fostered during childhood. Though Murray’s on-court persona is more brash and Maxey’s more joyful, their competitiveness is lauded.

Murray has also established a lethally versatile two-man game with Jokić, the two-time MVP with whom he has shared the floor since 2016. A similar chemistry between Maxey and Embiid, who are in their fourth season together, continues to blossom.

Tuesday night, Maxey said his early buckets opened up the pocket pass to Embiid. That led to double teams as soon as Embiid put the ball on the floor because, in Maxey’s words, “He’s Joel.” When that happens, Maxey makes an effort to stay close by as the “first rotation guy right next to him.”

“I had a quick trigger, and I can get that shot off,” Maxey said. “We’re kind of learning on the fly.”

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Added Embiid: “I mean, if you’re going to leave a [40.5]% three-point shooter in Tyrese just to make sure you get the ball out of my hands, good luck.”

That was the Sixers’ perfect complement to Tuesday’s big heavyweight matchup.