Tyrese Maxey and Matisse Thybulle enter COVID-19 protocols and miss the Sixers’ game against the Rockets

Starting point guard Tyrese Maxey and third-year wing Matisse Thybulle will miss Monday’s 76ers game against the Houston Rockets after entering the NBA’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols, the team announced.

Thybulle, who was listed as questionable to play on Sunday’s injury report, missed seven games in November after testing positive for the virus. Maxey, meanwhile, was a late addition to protocols Monday. He was briefly placed in protocols on Christmas Day for what was believed to be an inconclusive test result, but was cleared by shootaround the next morning for a Dec. 26 game at Washington.

“Never a dull moment,” acting coach Dan Burke said just after the news surfaced about Maxey and Thybulle.

Maxey is in the midst of a breakout second season, averaging 16.5 points, 4.5 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game while shooting 47.3% from the floor and 38% from three-point range. Thybulle is averaging 5.5 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game and remains one of the NBA’s premier perimeter defenders.

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Furkan Korkmaz moved into the starting lineup in place of Maxey and veteran Danny Green, who just returned from protocols over the weekend, was back in his starting wing position.

“I don’t like the term ‘ease him in,’ but I think we gotta be careful with him,” Burke said of Green. “… I know we’ll get everything he’s got. We just don’t know how many minutes he’ll be available.”

Rookie guard Jaden Springer and two-way rookie guard Myles Powell are the other Sixers currently in health and safety protocols.

With four players now in protocols, the Sixers signed Charlie Brown Jr. to a 10-day hardship contract.

Brown, a Philly native and St. Joseph’s product, had spent the bulk of this season with the G League’s Delaware Blue Coats, averaging 16.3 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game before signing a 10-day hardship contract with the Dallas Mavericks on Dec. 23. Brown has also had short stints with the Atlanta Hawks, Oklahoma City Thunder and the G League’s Iowa Wolves since going undrafted in 2019.

Only six rostered Sixers have not entered protocols at any point this season. Those are Korkmaz, starting guard Seth Curry (who battled COVID-19 last January before vaccinations were widely available), reserve big men Paul Reed and Charles Bassey, two-way forward Aaron Henry and guard Ben Simmons. Simmons has not played for the Sixers this season due to mental unreadiness.

After a slew of game postponements across the NBA in December, two Sixers games have been rescheduled for this month.

Philly’s rematch against the Rockets originally scheduled for Jan. 24 in Houston will now be played Jan. 10. The Sixers’ home game against New Orleans, which was postponed on Dec. 19, will be played Jan. 25 at the Wells Fargo Center.

Sixers reserve forward Georges Niang’s time working with Burke goes back to when both men were with the Indiana Pacers, including “a moment I’ll never forget in my basketball career,” Niang said.

Niang was a Pacers second-round draft pick in 2016, where Burke was a longtime assistant coach. During Niang’s rookie season, he said Burke pulled him aside for a film session, put his arm around him and said, “I believe in you, and I think you can be a player in this league.”

“He could see that I was insecure about where I was in my career,” Niang recalled. " … It was one of those moments where I was at my lows in my career. People never understand what they say to someone and how it could affect them, and that was something that I always thought of. When I was going through my struggles, it was like, ‘At least I have one person that believes in me.’

“He definitely has had a huge impact on my career without even knowing it, and I’m sure, with how many years he’s coached in the NBA, he’s had a positive impact on a lot of people.”

» READ MORE: From ‘minivan’ to ‘sprinter’: Georges Niang proving to be a perfect fit for the Sixers and Philly

The Pacers waived Niang a few months later, but he carved out his role in the NBA by turning a two-way contract with Utah into a rotation role as a stretch-four. Niang and Burke then reunited this season in Philly after Burke joined Doc Rivers’ coaching staff for last season and Niang signed last summer as a free agent.

Niang is now putting together a career season, entering Monday averaging 10.5 points, 2.6 rebounds, 1.4 assists per game while shooting 40% from three-point range on 5.2 attempts per game.