Tyrese Maxey was cleared for the Philadelphia 76ers’ game against the San Antonio Spurs on Monday, putting the team on the floor at full strength for an 8:00 PM ET tip at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas. The Sixers were scheduled to have Paul George and Joel Embiid available as well, while Cameron Payne remained out with a hamstring strain.
That gave Philadelphia a chance to answer a lopsided loss to San Antonio in their previous meeting in Philadelphia, when the Spurs rolled to a blowout win without George and Embiid in the lineup. This time, the Sixers were set to bring their full group into a game that could shape the standings as they pushed for playoff seeding.
Maxey’s availability mattered because the Sixers entered the final road trip of the regular season trying to hold position over a three-game stretch away from home. With tiebreakers in play, Philadelphia could be in the driver’s seat for the six seed, and a healthier rotation gave the club a better chance to keep that edge against a Spurs team described as one of the two best in the league and on track for the No. 2 seed in the West.
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There was still a gap in the backcourt. Payne was expected to be sidelined for a minimum of two weeks, and Johni Broome was also listed on the injury report Monday, leaving the Sixers short on depth even with their top names cleared. That made the status report less about who was missing than about how much the rest of the roster would have to absorb over the next few days.
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After San Antonio, Philadelphia was scheduled to travel to Houston to play the Rockets on Thursday before finishing the trip with two games against the Indiana Pacers and Milwaukee Bucks. For the Sixers, the next week was less about one result than about surviving the road with their seeding hopes intact, and Maxey’s clearance gave them the lineup they wanted at the start of it.
