BOSTON — Tyrese Maxey scored 29 points and the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Boston Celtics 111-97 on Tuesday night to even their first-round playoff series at 1-1.
Maxey took over late, scoring 12 of his points in the final six minutes and drilling consecutive 3-pointers from the top of the key with 5:06 left. Nick Nurse said, “He just wanted them.” Maxey had told him, “Hey, I got it,” and later said, “All right, this is my time to close the game out.”
It was the kind of finish Philadelphia needed after a rough start to the series. The Celtics had rolled to a 123-91 win in Game 1 on Sunday, and the series shifted back to Philadelphia tied at 1 with the pressure now on the defending East power to answer on the road. Joel Embiid was out while recovering from an appendectomy, leaving Maxey as the 76ers’ top offensive option in his first playoff series in that role.
The 25-year-old guard has spent the spring showing he can carry that load. He scored 31 points and had six assists in the play-in tournament win over the Orlando Magic last week, then added 21 points in Game 1 against Boston before breaking through in Game 2. During the regular season, Maxey emerged as an All-NBA contender and finished as the league’s fifth-leading scorer.
Philadelphia also had to manage Maxey’s injured little finger on his shooting hand, but he came back early because the team needed his scoring and his voice. Boston’s defense kept collapsing on his drives, Nurse said, creating the openings that Maxey attacked when the game tightened. In the end, he said, “I just had to put the game away.”
Maxey has already had postseason nights that announced him before. He scored 38 points in the opener of the 2022 playoffs and had 46 points at Madison Square Garden two years ago after forcing overtime. Tuesday fit that pattern again: when the 76ers needed one possession that would hold, Maxey made it look like his.