Tyrese Maxey once again proves himself a better scorer than James Harden and impresses LeBron James in the game of his life.
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When you have a supermax player in your team who has won an MVP just 4-years back, you expect him to carry the team in at least half the games. But carrying his teams in the Playoffs is just the thing James Harden has failed to do in all the post-seasons he has been in.
As Joel Embiid got injured in the last game of the Raptors series, some responsibility fell upon Harden to lead the Sixers against the #1 seed Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Semi-finals.
The First Round also proved to be a tough situation for the supposed favorites since Embiid injured his thumb in the third game. The Beard couldn’t take his scoring responsibility even then, and the Sixers lost 2 games after leading the series 3-0.
Though he came up with a 22-point, 15-assist game to get them through in Game 4, his performance since then has again dipped in the two games against the Heat. But there’s a beam of light for the Sixers in the darkness they find themselves in, trailing the series 0-2, and that’s none other than Tyrese Maxey.
Tyrese Maxey has the last 11 points for the @sixers, cutting the lead to single digits!
Maxey is up to 28 points 🔥#NBAPlayoffs presented by Google Pixel on TNT pic.twitter.com/iJkWbirCdl
— NBA (@NBA) May 5, 2022
LeBron James and NBA Twitter are in awe of Tyrese Maxey’s performance despite the Sixers’ loss
While the 10x All-Star’s performance has as usual dipped since the start of the Playoffs, the other starting guard of the team, 21-year-old Tyrese Maxey has upped his game to the level he was in just before Harden joined the Sixers.
He’s averaging 22.6 points per game compared to his 17.5 in the regular season and has led his team’s scoring charge in Embiid’s absence. In Game 2 on Wednesday, the sophomore had 34 points in a disappointing performance by the rest of his team as they lost the game 114-101, to go 2 down in the series.
He was able to impress King James and NBA Twitter with his scoring prowess.
Tyrese so damn good already man!!
— LeBron James (@KingJames) May 5, 2022
Right now Tyrese Maxey looks like more of a “max” player than the guy wearing the James Harden jersey.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) May 5, 2022
Tyrese Maxey carrying a Washed up Harden and the rest of the Sixers roster pic.twitter.com/onM1cGhm6c
— maxey and spider man‼️ (@reesesmaxey) May 5, 2022
Thank you Tyrese Maxey.
— Sixers Nation (@PHLSixersNation) May 5, 2022
Tyrese Maxey plays at a different speed than all of the other 76ers. He’s the guy to focus on.
— Five Reasons Sports (@5ReasonsSports) May 5, 2022
And it looks like he’s already had enough of Harden.
Tyrese Maxey has already had enough of James Harden 😭 pic.twitter.com/eoPC3WginZ
— Guru (@DrGuru_) May 3, 2022