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Tyrese Maxey scores a playoff career-high 46 points, along with some clutch buckets to save the 76ers in Game 5 and force a Game 6.
NEW YORK — The New York Knicks stole Game 2 of their first round series with the Philadelphia 76ers by scoring six points in 13.9 seconds. Eight days later, Tyrese Maxey did better, scoring seven points in 17.3 seconds to send Game 5 into overtime, where Philadelphia outlasted New York and avoided elimination.
Maxey was incredible in that Game 2 loss. He was even more incredible on Tuesday, totaling 46 points in another wild game at Madison Square Garden, a 112-106 victory for the Sixers, who trail 3-2, with both teams having pulled rabbits out of their hats.
Here are some numbers, notes and films as the Sixers travel to Philadelphia for Game 6 on Thursday (9 ET, TNT).
1. Maxey has his moment at the end of regulation
This looked like another game where Joel Embiid and the Sixers didn’t have enough gas in the tank down the stretch. After the Knicks scored on four straight possessions, Philly was down six with 28.9 seconds left.
Two nights earlier, the Sixers had difficulty getting into their attack in clutch situations. But on Tuesday, there was no hesitation, no attempt to force the ball to Embiid in the post and no waiting for double teams to arrive.
Maxey came from the backcourt, caught Nicolas Batum’s inside pass at the halfway line and immediately dribbled to his left, using an Embiid screen to knock Miles McBride off the ball. He stopped and Mitchell Robinson rushed to challenge.
But Maxey hesitated, made contact with Robinson and exhausted himself. a difficult 3 points as he leaned to his left. He converted the ensuing free throw to make it a two-point game.
Josh Hart then left the door open by splitting a pair of free throws with 15.3 to play.
Down three, the Sixers had no timeouts left. McBride initially denied Maxey in the backcourt, but allowed him to recover the ball from Embiid with 14 seconds on the clock. Embiid ran forward and set another screen for Maxey to pass this time right across the halfway line.
Robinson initially had his feet on the Knicks logo at midcourt, several yards beyond the 3-point line. But when Maxey came off the screen, he stepped back, giving Maxey enough space to launch a daring 35-foot pull-up jumper that tied the game with 8.1 seconds remaining.
MAXEY’S LOGO 3 TO SEND IT TO OT INSIDE MSG ???????? https://t.co/NQDh0CBirA pic.twitter.com/cNbHpYWMsi
-NBA (@NBA) May 1, 2024
The Knicks still had timeouts but chose not to use them, and Batum blocked Jalen Brunson’s shot For victory. Maxey was excited and the Sixers were, somehow, still alive.
2. Embiid makes big defensive plays in OT
But the game was not over. The Knicks scored five points on their first two possessions in overtime by putting Embiid in a pick-and-roll with Brunson.
Embiid appeared to be running out of steam, having played just under 43 minutes in regulation and having to stay on the floor for the entire overtime as the Sixers were killed in this series (minus-63 points per 100 possessions) when he is seated.
The reigning Kia NBA MVP had a triple-double (19 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists) but only shot 7 out of 19 (36.8%) and committed nine turnovers.
Brunson had attacked him all night. The Sixers mostly had Embiid at screen level on pick-and-rolls and it generally didn’t work.
But after those two Brunson buckets, they answered back with one. Embiid then made three big defensive plays in a row:
- On the Knicks’ next possession, Embiid drove to the 3-point line to prevent a Brunson putback, stayed with his drive and the remains.
- On the next possession, Embiid stayed with another Brunson drive and blocked his shot off-limits.
Suddenly, Embiid went from a defensive liability to a defensive anchor.
“You’ve seen him play before and do those things,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse said. “It just didn’t seem like it was going to show up tonight.” Obviously he wasn’t feeling well. It was a difficult match for him. But he found a way.
“It was nice that he was able to dig deep and be able to dig down and do that.”
3. The Sixers make a change…and another change
The Sixers regained the advantage with an Oubre layup which bounced around the rim and managed to slip through the net.
And then, on the fly, they came up with a new defensive game plan.
As Brunson brought the ball up with Oubre guarding him, Embiid nudged Batum, ordering him to guard Isaiah Hartenstein, who was setting all those screens for Brunson. If Embiid didn’t guard the screener (and instead guarded Hart), he couldn’t be drawn into the action.
Brunson still wanted Embiid, so Hartenstein called Hart to come set up the screen. But Batum and Embiid changed again, so Batum was guarding the screener again.
Hart then gave up on Hartenstein going back up and setting the screen, but just then Brunson started to make a move on Oubre, so Hartenstein stayed on the baseline.
That first move came to nothing, so Brunson backed off and went for Oubre one-on-one again. He seemingly managed to overcome it, but Oubre was able to contest his floater from behind and the Sixers made another critical stop.
The Sixers went into a zone late in the fourth quarter, seemingly looking for answers against a player (Brunson) who is averaging 46.7 points per game. the last three matches. The Sixers won two of three and lost Game 4 by five points, so it’s not like their current plan is killing them.
But did they stumble upon a new defensive game plan as they extended the series by the narrowest of margins?
Having guard Embiid Hart would allow Hart to set more screens for Brunson. It’s the pre-switch (as often as possible) that could keep a more mobile defender in front of Brunson as much as possible.
4. Hart break gives Knicks easy baskets
The Knicks ranked last on pace this season, averaging just 96 possessions per 48 minutes. This series has been much slower than that, with both teams averaging 91.1 for 48 (second slowest of the eight sets in the first round).
That’s not to say the Sixers don’t need to get back in transition, because the Knicks have Hart, the one-man fast break.
Hart is that guy who gets the ball in the backcourt and will go full speed to the rim until someone stops him. Sometimes no one does and Hart gets a layup.
Sometimes a defender gets in front of him in time. But Hart has become a formidable playmaker, and his relentlessness on the break will also make his teammates look good from the perimeter. As the Knicks opened the second quarter on an 18-2 run, he assisted on two straight transition 3s, one from OG Anunoby and another from McBride:
With Bojan Bogdanovic made for the seriesthe Knicks only played seven guys on Tuesday and Hart played all 53 minutes.
5. All the way
The Inside team is running out of superlatives for Tyrese Maxey’s 46-point outburst in Game 5.
Four of five games in this series have been within three points in the last three minutes. The Knicks lead 3-2, but the Sixers dominated them 534-532 over the five matches.
Philadelphia can count Game 5 as a win (although it would have been a loss if Hart had made both free throws) on a night where it wasn’t at its best. They missed a few layups and a few wide-open 3-pointers.
“I don’t think we played well,” Nurse said. “All it was was courage.”
They will play the sixth game at home on Thursday.
The league has play-by-play data dating back to the 1996-97 season. Since then, the record for deciding games (those that were within five in the last five) in a playoff series is six. This series could get there with a few other thrillers.
It would be nice.
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John Schuhmann is a senior statistics analyst for NBA.com. You can send him an email herefind his archives here And follow him on X.
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