Tuesday night’s game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Denver Nuggets featured a pretty easy hook: The two players who have most recently been named NBA MVP were going head-to-head. Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic playing basketball against one another is always a treat, and as such, all eyes were on the two of them and how they would perform on national television.
Unsurprisingly, Embiid got more than enough help on Tuesday from Tyrese Maxey, who is pushing to earn the first All-Star berth of his career. This went beyond Maxey’s ability to score or set up his teammates, because in the third quarter, Maxey had to take on a pretty important job: Getting a basketball that made its way behind the backboard unstuck. While he’s normally a pretty efficient player, Maxey struggled to get the ball down. But ultimately, in what can only be described as a triumph of the human spirit, he was able to throw a different basketball at the game ball and get it out of there.
Sixers fans decided to celebrate Maxey for this, first by cheering, then by hitting him with a “Maxey!” chant. The best part might be that it seemed like this was going to be his last chance, as the referee stepped in and wanted to try something else. Credit to the young guard, because I suppose this counts as coming up big in the clutch.