Nick Nurse Highlights Tyrese Maxey's Persistence Against Spurs
Tyrese Maxey's performance in the Philadelphia 76ers' win over the Spurs earned praise from Nick Nurse.
On Sunday night, the Philadelphia 76ers took on the San Antonio Spurs, looking to extend their ongoing winning streak, which could see them improve their standing in the Eastern Conference standings right ahead of the end of the season.
While the star of their recent victories has been the reigning MVP Joel Embiid, who returned from an injury from his meniscus last week, yet given that Nick Nurse decided to rest his star center, the Sixers would have to look elsewhere for their spark offensively.
Against the Spurs, that spark would be their second-highest scorer this season, Tyrese Maxey, who managed to top his previous career high that he set earlier on in the year, as he would drop 52 points on 46 percent shooting while also managing to dish out seven assists.
Given that the match went into double overtime, the Sixers’ All-Star managed to play a career-high 53 minutes, which includes every minute of the second half, including both periods of extra time.
This wasn’t a part of the plan according to Philadelphia’s head coach, with Maxey insisting to stay in throughout the second half.
“The biggest thing is he did not want to come out, I tried to sub him out a couple times in a rotation, and he just kept saying, ‘Coach, I'm good,’” explained Nurse, “He really wanted to give us a shot to try and win it, right?
It was apparent that Maxey wasn’t just trying to pad his stats for the season but trying to deliver the Sixers an important win, given the tight space between the teams at the bottom of the post season picture in the Eastern Conference standings.
The agility and flair in which the 23-year-old was showing off with on Sunday night was something that Nurse hadn’t seen in quite some time, given that it had been quite some time since Maxey had recorded a large scoring performance.
“I thought he was, I don't know, that's as fast as I've seen him in a while,” said Nurse, “He really was turning on the jets a lot, I thought, and making things happen.”
