The Tyrese Maxey ascension keeps looking more real. The Philadelphia 76ers guard continued a scorching start to the season with perhaps his best game as a professional: a career-high 54 points on 18-of-30 shooting, plus 9 assists, 5 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 blocks in a 123-114 overtime win Thursday over the Milwaukee Bucks.
Only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has more 50-point games than Maxey’s four over the past three seasons.
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That scoring outburst upped Maxey’s season average to 33.4 points per game, the second-highest mark in the NBA behind only Luka Dončić (34.6). He is also the second NBA player to open a season with 10 straight games of at least 25 points and 5 assists.
The other: Allen Iverson.
Tyrese Maxey is doing Allen Iverson stuff this season. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)
(Patrick McDermott via Getty Images)
It was abundantly clear by Maxey’s sophomore year that the Sixers had something in him. Then, at 22 years old, he was averaging more than 20 points per game despite sharing the ball with James Harden.
At 23 years old, he was an All-Star and won the NBA Most Improved Player award. Last season, he kept improving, but had to miss the end of the season with a finger sprain.
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Now, it simply might be time to stop expecting the 25-year-old to hit his ceiling anytime soon. On a franchise where Joel Embiid was expected to be the do-everything centerpiece for years to come, it is Maxey who has taken over this season while Embiid deals with a knee injury that has limited him to six games, and it is Maxey who has led the short-handed Sixers to a 9-6 record.
That’s superstar stuff.