Tyrese Maxey’s transcendent performance leads Sixers to 131-111 win over the Raptors to start NBA playoffs

This was a feel-out game.

The 76ers’ Game 1 matchup against the Toronto Raptors was a borderline formality in this Eastern Conference opening-round playoff series. The intricacies of adjustments will become more pronounced as the series unfolds. But after this game, the Raptors will have to make the adjustments.

They didn’t appear to have any answers for the Sixers and their balanced attack, three-point shooting, and improved rebounding in a 131-111 rout at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday night.

Tyrese Maxey was an unstoppable force. Joel Embiid was the king of the glass. James Harden was an assist machine. And Tobias Harris was a Mr. Efficient.

But make no mistake, out of the Sixers’ top performers, Maxey was the star of the game.

The Sixers’ second-year guard finished with a career-high 38 points on 14-for-21 shooting — including 5 of 8 three-pointers — with 21 of his points coming in the third quarter.

Meanwhile, Harris had 26 points on 9-for-14 shooting and made 3 of 5 threes. Embiid finished with 19 points and a game-high 15 rebounds, while Harden added 22 points and a game-high 14 assists to go with one turnover. He made 4 of 7 three-pointers.

The Sixers’ 50.0% from beyond the three-point line, held a 39-36 rebounding advantage — 10 to 7 offensively — and only committed four turnovers. Embiid had zero turnovers.

“It starts really with me,” Embiid said of the key to him and Harden being efficient and having a low number of turnovers. “Just not getting frustrated and kind of inviting the double-teams, triple-teams that they kept sending at me all night.”

Embiid kept making the right plays that helped the Sixers get the victory. Familiar with the Raptors and coach Nick Nurse, he pretty much had a good idea of how Toronto would play him.

“So I think it’s all about me making the right plays over and over ... ,” he said. “That’s probably the first time I ever went zero turnovers against Toronto, which I got to do that a lot more.”

In addition to making adjustments, the Raptors have to heal.

Former Sixer and Raptors reserve Thad Young sat out the second half with a sprained left thumb. Meanwhile, rookie-of-the-year candidate Scottie Barnes had to be helped off the court with 9 minutes, 6 seconds remaining after Embiid stepped on his left foot, spraining his ankle. X-Rays were negative. Barnes will have an MRI on Sunday. This was a tough blow for the Raptors. Barnes finished with 15 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists.

Fred VanVleet fouled out on the same play, which didn’t help the Raptors. Arguing the call, the All-Star point guard picked up a technical foul.

Then with the Sixers up 22 points, Raptors reserve Chris Boucher picked up his sixth foul.

So Toronto was depleted with injuries and foul trouble. Pascal Siakam paced them with 24 points.

“It’s tough, man,” Siakam said of Barnes’ sprained ankle. “Obviously, he works extremely hard, and he’s been playing awesome this season. And I know he was super excited about the playoffs and wanting to be there and play.

“So, yeah, man, we’ll see. Obviously we hope to have him next game. But yeah, it’s definitely tough to see him go down. And I know that it’s hard for him, because he wanted to be out there with us.”

Maxey was unstoppable in the third quarter.

That’s when the combo guard did basically whatever he wanted to the Raptors. Drive the lane and score, not a problem. Hit a long-range three-pointer? Too easy. Score on a floater? Of course!

“He just doesn’t play with anxiety,” coach Doc Rivers said. “That’s why you love him. There’s certain players like that. There’s not a lot of that ruffles him.”

He simply could not be stopped while making 7 of 8 shots, including both of his three-pointers. The sellout crowd of 20,610 loved it, chanting, “Maxey! Maxey! Maxey!” late in the quarter.

“Pretty spectacular, really, honestly” Harris said of Maxey’s performance. “That third quarter, the stretch that he had and the shots that he was making, the confidence, it was just all coming together. Even from the beginning of the game, he had it going.

“But that third quarter stretch, we had a couple of possessions early on where we didn’t really get what we wanted. Once we got the ball in his hands, he got to it, made his looks and just had it rolling. So hats off to him.”

One of his highlights was a reverse layup to put the Sixers up 88-70 with 4:42 left in the third quarter. That play was set up by a bounce pass from Harden some 30 feet away from the basket.

The after the Raptors cut the lead to 12 points, Maxey went on to score 15 of the Sixers’ final 19 points of the quarter.

“Yeah, they went on a run,” Maxey said. “Basketball is a game of runs, of course. We just wanted to rally the runs whether I score. I just tried to be aggressive as I possibly could and they had to help because [Harden’s] iso game is pretty good and Joel’s iso game is pretty good. So they [the Raptors] have to help [with double-teams on Embiid and Harden].”

That enabled him to take advantage of opportunities.

The Sixers went with Paul Reed as the backup center. Reed opened the second quarter in a lineup that included Matisse Thybulle, Shake Milton, Harden, and Harris.

Things didn’t initially go well for him, as the Raptors scored the first five points of the quarter to close the gap to three points.

Coach Doc Rivers quickly subbed starters Maxey and Green in for Thybulle and Milton. The Sixers responded with an 8-2 run to take a 43-34 advantage at the 8:19 mark of the quarter. They then extended their lead to 10 points (48-38) before Embiid re-entered the game with 6:27 before intermission. Reed picked up two fouls, grabbed a rebound, and missed a shot attempt during his five-minute stretch.

» READ MORE: Sixers’ Doc Rivers, Raptors’ Nick Nurse know playoffs are all about making adjustments

With Embiid back on the court, the Sixers went on to build a 21-point (67-46) cushion on Harris’ three-pointer with 1:12 left before intermission.

Reed came back into the game with 2:32 left in the third quarter. He finished the game with three points and three rebounds in 11 minutes.

Coming into this series, the Sixers had to do a better job of competing physically and coming away with energy statistics against the Raptors. That’s because in Toronto’s three regular-season victories over the Sixers, the Raptors grabbed 48 offensive rebounds and scored 66 second-chance points.

You wouldn’t have known that Saturday night.

The Sixers crashed the boards, offensively and defensively, from the start.

They held an 8-2 offensive rebounding advantage in the first half. They had a 25-15 overall rebounding advantage during that time. Toronto out-rebounded the Sixers, 21-14, in the second half. But the Sixers’ first-half effort had already set the table.

“Obviously, we just kept five in [to grab rebounds],” Rivers said. “We really did. We talked about offensive rebounding, too. And I thought we got our hands on a lot of balls today.”