Тайрис Макси Бостон Сэлтиксийг хожилд хөтөллөө

CAMDEN, NJ — Tyrese Maxey encountered Jayson Tatum at the basket with a full head of steam. Instead of trying to dunk over the Boston Celtics star, Maxey went up and under, making a layup and drawing a foul. He immediately flexed, turned towards the Boston bench and a stunned and silent TD Garden crowd, and let out a primal scream.

“AND-1!” Maxey yelled several times in a row.

With a Game 2 victory secure for the Philadelphia 76ers, Maxey was talking his talk. At that point, it was well deserved. As a first-round series between rivals heads into Friday night’s Game 3 at Xfinity Mobile Arena, Maxey’s two games have produced bookend results. In Sunday’s Game 1 loss, he was disjointed and made it easy for the Celtics to guard him. He didn’t shoot the ball well, but he also didn’t read the game well as the Celtics blew the Sixers right off the floor.

In Tuesday night’s Game 2, Maxey was a completely different player. He still didn’t shoot well but he was terrific in the second half. He hit several gargantuan shots in the fourth quarter, when his team needed him the most. His two pull-up 3-pointers proved to be the signature shots of the game, which allowed the 76ers to open an eight-point lead after Boston pulled within a basket.

In Game 2, the 76ers needed Maxey to be an engine. He was just that.

“I thought part of my job was being a floor manager,” Maxey said. “In Game 1, every time I drove, the Celtics were collapsing. I had to get my teammates the ball. That’s what I saw when I watched the film. As we go on in this series, I think I need to be at eight, nine, or 10 assists in these games. The biggest thing is that I have to trust my teammates. I thought we got Paul (George) going, and obviously, VJ (Edgecombe) was big as well.”

As Maxey negotiates his first season as the 76ers’ predominant number-one option, the lessons are coming daily. He’s always been one of the most dynamic guards in the league, particularly off the dribble. And, indeed, this is the year where he’s truly broken out. He’s been an All-Star, and he’s a prime candidate to make All-NBA for the first time in his career.

But the regular season and the playoffs are two different entities. The style of play is different. The way teams prepare for opponents is different, and the intensity displayed defensively is a lot different. While Maxey has seen playoff success in the past, it’s always been with Joel Embiid or James Harden sharing the floor with him. This is the first year the 76ers are dependent on Maxey as the top option in a playoff setting.

It’s been something that he’s been working toward for years. He’s watched Harden and Embiid star, and he’s watched what they’ve done beyond scoring. He saw how the best players in the league are capable of manipulating a game from every aspect.

That’s more of what Maxey was able to do on Tuesday night. He scored the 29 points and had the nine assists, but he affected almost every play on both ends of the floor and ran the team a lot better than he did in Game 1. He made sure to get his teammates involved, which led to a much more efficient offense.

Embiid has missed the first two games of the series as he recovers from his emergency appendectomy two weeks ago. The hope is that he returns at some point in the series.

But, even if he does, there is a chance he isn’t completely healthy. And that will still leave a big responsibility on Maxey’s shoulders.

“I think a lot of people are going to point to how many shots he hit, and the big shots that he hit,” Philadelphia head coach Nick Nurse said. “He obviously did that, but there were several people that made big shots. I was most happy with what he did on the defensive end. He really impacted the game in the second half defensively. He stuck his nose in there and guarded people. That’s what we saw, when we looked at the film.”

Philly’s hopes of staying competitive in the series rely on Maxey’s scoring and his playmaking. In this series, both teams have been trying to take advantage of matchups. Boston spent a good portion of Game 1 forcing switches that landed Maxey on either Tatum or Jaylen Brown, which is one of the reasons Nurse was so happy with Maxey defensively. The 76ers’ guard didn’t defend well in Game 1 but was much better and much more competitive against Brown and Tatum in Game 2. He still surrendered baskets, but he made them work a lot harder for good looks at the rim.

Conversely, the Celtics have their issues against Maxey and Edgecombe. Boston has primarily played drop coverage in this series, which means taking whomever the center is on the floor and dropping him into the paint defensively against a pick-and-roll. The weakness of that alignment is that it surrenders pull-up 3-point attempts.That it is a strength of Maxey, and in Game 2, it was also a strength of Edgecombe.

Often, a series will depend on which coach makes the best adjustments as the games progress. If Maxey and Edgecombe continue to burn drop coverage, it will clearly be on Boston to figure something out. On the aggregate, the Celtics have made Maxey shoot poorly over the first two games. For all of his Game 2 heroics, Maxey was just 11-of-28 from the field. But, his aggression and his resiliency were different on Tuesday than it was on Sunday.

“I expect a lot of Tyrese, so, I wasn’t impressed by Game 2. I’ve seen him do that before, and I’ve seen him play better than that,” Edgecombe jokingly said. “Seriously, he’s our leader and he’s a great player and I thought he was great for us when he had to be. I’m happy that we’re on the same side.”