Tyrese Maxey is must-see TV and small-ball serves Sixers well

After a 1-4 start to the regular season, two days of hearing about how Doc Rivers was the odds-on favorite to be first coach fired, Joel Embiid being ruled out tonight, and counter-programming involving the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 1 of the World Series, Tyrese Maxey completely shifted the vibes with an electric performance in the Sixers’ 112-90 win over the Toronto Raptors.

In this Talking About Podcast episode, Sean Kennedy and Dave Early discuss Maxey’s career-high 44 points. The 21-year-old shot 15-of-20 from the field, including 9-of-12 from three-point range, going a perfect 10-of-10 from the field and 7-of-7 on three-pointers in the first half. He became the first Sixer in franchise history to hit his first seven threes, and the first Sixer since Lou Williams in 2010 to sink his first 10 field goals. He now pulls without hesitation from 30 feet, while still having a swiss-army knife set of tools in the floater game and around the basket. The ceiling is the roof, as the star of The Last Dance might say.

Our co-hosts then cover the other aspects of tonight’s game. Doc Rivers certainly seems comfortable with the P.J. Tucker as a small-ball five line-up, replacing Joel Embiid with De’Anthony Melton in the starting lineup and shifting Tucker to the five. We even saw a Georges Niang at the five group at one point. Playing small ball, the ball movement and defensive rotations certainly looked a lot crisper than what we had seen across the first five games. How much of tonight’s small-ball choices were matchup-specific and how much were legitimate components to this roster makeup?

Another new facet we saw in tonight’s game was the re-insertion of Matisse Thybulle, who played a season-high 22 minutes. What started off shaky on the offensive end for Matisse eventually turned around, as he later hit a pair of threes and helped anchor a zone defense that stemmed the tide of a Raptors comeback in the second half. How should Doc balance the minutes for Thybulle against the likes of a struggling Danuel House, Jr. moving forward?

Grabbing any attention in this town with the Phillies playing a World Series game simultaneously seemed like an impossible feat, but Tyrese Maxey managed to do it. Re-live it all with our full Talking About Podcast episode below:

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