Tyrese Maxey had his ‘Flu Game.’ Then the Sixers collapsed against the Knicks to lose Game 2.
Maxey totaled 35 points, 10 assists, and nine rebounds after entering the game questionable to play with an illness. But he was also a significant part of the Sixers' crunch-time collapse.
NEW YORK — Tyrese Maxey slipped on a dark blue long-sleeved T-shirt as he stepped out of the visitors’ locker room and trudged down a Madison Square Garden hallway, before answering questions at the podium for less than four minutes.
The 76ers’ All-Star point guard’s answers were some of the shortest of a four-year NBA career when his charisma has largely matched his on-court dynamism. The 23-year-old even let an expletive slip when defending his team’s toughness against the rugged Knicks, before clarifying, “I meant, ‘shoot.’”
It was easy to tell Maxey was physically ill, and mentally drained.
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Monday should have been Maxey’s “Flu Game” — the memes of his face photoshopped onto Michael Jordan’s body flooded the internet to prove it — in his latest playoff dazzler in front of an electric opposing crowd. It should have been the perfect reminder why Maxey on Sunday was named a finalist for the NBA’s Most Improved Player award, after becoming a first-time All-Star while setting statistical career highs. And it should have been a performance that evened up a highly competitive first-round series, 1-1, heading back to Philly.
Yet after totaling 35 points, 10 assists, and nine rebounds — including 15 fourth-quarter points to spearhead the Sixers’ rally to flip a deficit into a four-point advantage with 1:09 remaining — Maxey was also a significant part of the Sixers’ unfathomable last-minute collapse. He lost the ball when he hit the floor after leaping to try to corral an inbound pass, which ignited the frenzied scramble that ultimately ended with Donte DiVincenzo’s building-rocking, go-ahead three-pointer. Then, Maxey missed the potential game-winning layup with 7.6 seconds remaining, after Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein got his hand on the ball to preserve New York’s 104-101 victory.
“It sucks,” Maxey said. “Got to put it behind us now.”
Maxey’s stat line Monday has only previously been accomplished in the playoffs in Sixers history by Allen Iverson and Wilt Chamberlain, further illuminating that he is already on a path to becoming a franchise great. Though coach Nick Nurse has spent all season lauding Maxey’s continued development as a multi-demensional scorer and lead offense-initiator, the coach frequently finishes such praise by expressing his belief that Maxey is still enticingly far from reaching his full potential.
Monday, he plowed through sickness he said he began to feel following Saturday’s Game 1 loss. By 8 p.m. Sunday, Maxey said he “couldn’t move” because of body aches and chills. He took medicine even though he “can’t stand it,” hooked his arm to an IV, and “did whatever they asked me to do.”
Though he missed Monday morning’s shootaround to rest, Maxey emerged from the Garden’s tunnel around 5:40 p.m. to go through his pregame workout. When The Inquirer asked about 45 minutes later if he would play, he said, “I hope so.”
“I don’t feel great at all, honestly,” Maxey said after the game. " … I wasn’t missing the game, so it didn’t matter.”
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His outing started with a bang-bang-bang, drilling three consecutive deep shots in less than three minutes of game time. He utilized his variety of scoring skills. His floater. His athletic reverse layup. His two-man game with reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Joel Embiid, where he delivered and received passes. His two dishes out to Tobias Harris at the three-point arc, which lifted the Sixers to a 10-point lead late in the first half.
Nurse gave Maxey an early first-quarter breather, but said he only checked in once about how his point guard was feeling. When the answer was affirmative, the coach played Maxey the entire second half. And after a scoreless third quarter on 0-of-4 shooting, Maxey recognized his team “needed a spark” heading into the final frame.
“We needed buckets,” he said. “We needed me to go out there and be aggressive, and I did that.”
A floater early in the period cut the Knicks’ lead to 79-78. Four free throws and a step-back jumper kept the Sixers within striking distance. Then Maxey tied the game at 94 with a driving finish with less than four minutes remaining, before taking a dribble-handoff from Embiid and burying a go-ahead jumper at the 2:22 mark.
“The last 15 minutes, he was really chasing [the ball] down,” Nurse said, “and turning on the jets, and slamming on [the brakes], and all the things he can do time and time again. I thought he was great when it really mattered.”
Then with 1:09 to play, Maxey secured another Embiid pass and fired from beyond the arc, turning to glare and pump his arm when the shot went splash to give the Sixers a 100-96 advantage.
That should have been the lasting image of Maxey’s latest playoff dazzler. Of his Flu Game.
Instead came the frenzied scramble. And the miss at the rim. And the gutting defeat.
“I can’t lose the ball,” Maxey said. “And we’ve got to get the rebound.”