PHILADELPHIA–The Philadelphia 76ers got off to a slow start on Wednesday night in their matchup with the New York Knicks. They found themselves trailing by 16 in the early going as they were having a tough time getting into any rhythm.
A big factor was everybody else was not able to get going outside of James Harden and Joel Embiid. While the star duo combined for 32 points at halftime nobody else on the roster had more than seven points from Tobias Harris.
Tyrese Maxey only had four points at halftime as he was not able to really get into any rhythm or flow, but Harden stayed on him and Maxey erupted for 21 points in the second half in order to help the Sixers knock off the Knicks 123-108.
Maxey said Harden came up to him and told him to wake up and start playing basketball.
“James came up to me and asked me if I was gonna play today and I told him ‘yeah’,” said Maxey. “Having guys like James, Jo, Tobias, Spence (Spencer Rivers) came up to me and talked to me a little bit too just saying I gotta be aggressive. I can’t show stretches like that being passive. I gotta help these guys out and we gotta help these guys out as a team as much as possible.”
Harden, who has not been afraid to speak his mind here in the early part of his time with the Sixers, added that he wants the young guard out of Kentucky to play with aggression. They need him to do so going forward.
“We need him to be aggressive a lot of times in the game,” Harden stated. “I know it’s difficult because, obviously, myself and Jo got the ball, but when he has an opportunity, he needs to be aggressive and we need that. In that second half, he played like we all need him to play and he knows how to play and he looked great.”
Coach Doc Rivers added that they discussed getting Maxey involved more at halftime. Led by Harden, they were able to do so.
“Just getting him involved more,” said Rivers. “I thought he was just out there in the first half and we didn’t get him involved much. I thought in the second half, we talked about it at halftime so we made a concerted effort, but we did it. You can talk about it, you gotta go out and do it and I thought we did it.”
Things get a bit tougher for Philadelphia as they now move on to host the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday. That will give them another chance to continue growing as a team.
“It’s a great team win for us,” Harden finished. “We just gotta keep building.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
List
9 Sixers greats named to ESPN’s top 75 NBA players of all time list
