PHILADELPHIA, PA — In what was by far the team’s most impressive outing this season, the Philadelphia 76ers exhibited high levels of desire and determination as they ultimately defeated the Brooklyn Nets by a final score of 113-98. After the game, Sixers star Tyrese Maxey spoke of the team’s electric rookie, who sat beside him after the young guard’s 30-point performance.
“He’s good. I just told somebody that; I said he’s good at basketball, man. He’s fearless. So when you’re fearless like that, he had that type of confidence, it’s a good feeling. And we need that. We need him to be that guy. The duration of the season, [there’s] going to be different times where he has to play different roles, with [Joel Embiid] in there, with [Paul George] in there with me in there, but he has to be this guy who’s fearless, who can make shots and play defense, and kind of play a lot different of roles.”
In this matchup against Brooklyn, Maxey and McCain combined for 56 points as they led the Sixers to victory. When asked about how the pair was able to find success despite such little time together to build chemistry, Maxey had an immediate answer.
“[There were] a couple plays, we didn’t get a great shot. So I was like, ‘Look, Nurse, we’ll figure it out. We’ll go flat, let me and him play ball screen, and either he’ll make a good play or I make good play.’ But when you have two ball handlers out there, it makes the game a lot easier.”
Maxey continued, “He doesn’t get tired because he’s going over and over again. I’m not gonna get tired from going over and over and over again; you can kind of catch your breath a little bit. I know he’s gonna make the right play, I know I’ll try to make the right play as well. Then you have guys around, flying around, making shots, and playing extremely hard on defense and offense as well.”
McCain spoke as well about the natural synergy the two guards felt on the court.
“I mean, It’s pretty easy to play with him. I mean, there’s so much attention he draws, so anytime he has the ball, I feel like I’m open because they always are kind of inching towards him when he’s about to drive. So I’m just ready. I’m ready for anything that he passes my way. And vice versa. I think it’s easy to play, like he said, with both ball handlers out there. So I just try to play off this great guy.”
The pair of electric guards dismissed the idea of being an undersized backcourt tandem, but McCain did offer one reason why they were not subject to the reality of that perception.
“I think because we both play hard. I think a lot of the game is just playing hard. At this point, they’re going to try and get the mismatch. They’re going to have an offensive scheme to try and go at us, but as long as we play hard, I think we’ll be able to hold our own. That’s something that a lot of people just don’t do. I think we give a lot of effort, give a lot of energy, and I think we can make up for that.”
When asked about that shared mentality based on hard work, McCain spoke about how he was further inspired by Maxey’s approach in their early days as teammates.
“Yeah, I saw it in preseason and training camp. I think just having competitiveness is something that, not is rare, but it’s just cool to see it in other small, regular-sized guards. But, yeah, just that competitiveness brings energy and that we feed off each other. I feed off that. So having somebody else play hard it gets me to go play hard, and I think it gets everybody else to play hard. So I think it’s great to see that in other people.”
In just the second game with both Maxey and McCain in the lineup, the Sixers seem to have answered the early questions about their compatibility. While the pieces in Philadelphia are still admittedly a mess, with both Paul George and Joel Embiid missing time due to injury once again, the present and future are a bit brighter thanks to the smiles and skills of Tyrese Maxey and Jared McCain.
