Things happen fast in the NBA playoffs, so to help you stay on top of everything from now until at least the end of the second round, we’ll have nightly results from the postseason action.
Tyrese Maxey’s performance legacy saves 76ers’ season
These NBA playoffs were about “who’s next,” a changing of the guard in the NBA. Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry and LeBron James are all home for five first-round games (Curry’s Warriors haven’t even gotten that far). In their place came the next generation of stars: Anthony Edwards, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Tyrese Haliburton and Paolo Banchero.
Tuesday night was Tyrese Maxey’s turn to star, and under the bright lights of Madison Square Garden. The 23-year-old 76ers guard knocked down two critical 3-pointers — one of them a four-point play — in the final 25 seconds of regulation to force overtime.
In a game the 76ers had to win to keep their season alive, Maxey finished with 46 points and nine assists, leading Philadelphia to a 112-106 overtime victory (the Knicks still lead the series 3-2, with the sixth game in Philadelphia on Thursday). Maxey calmed the New York crowd and was the one who screamed in celebration at the end.
“I was saying some things that my grandmother probably wouldn’t have liked,” Maxey said of his postgame celebration.
Maxey didn’t come out of nowhere. He was an All-Star this season and was named Most Improved Player. But NBA legacies are built in the playoffs, and Maxey just started building his legacy with a massive game that no one in Philadelphia will soon forget.
Tyrese Maxey has arrived.
Did Indiana miss its chance?
The Indiana Pacers had a chance to close out the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 5 on Tuesday night. Instead, a young team in its first playoffs learned a hard lesson about how to eliminate a desperate team. The Pacers didn’t come close, losing by 23.
No big deal, right? Indiana is heading home winning 3-2. They can close out the game on Thursday night in front of a friendly crowd, where a collapse like the second and third quarters of Game 5 won’t happen.
Except the Bucks could have Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard back for that game.
“I think they’re very, very, very close,” Doc Rivers said after the game.
If — and we understand that “if” is doing a lot of the heavy lifting in this sentence — one or both of Milwaukee’s stars return for Game 6, it could turn the series around and the young Pacers will suddenly be facing a Game 7 on the road.
Things change quickly in the playoffs, and if the Bucks’ stars return and change the mood, Indiana may regret its Game 5 performance.
Appearing on a sports show on Tuesday, I said the Cavaliers needed Donovan Mitchell to step up and be the best player in this series if Cleveland was going to advance and be the threat they believed themselves to be.
The Cavaliers kind of pulled it off that Tuesday in a critical Game 5 — Mitchell finished the night with a team-high 28 points. However, it was Darius Garland’s 17 points in the first quarter that fired up the Cavaliers, and in the final seconds, it was Evan Mobley’s block on Franz Wagner that saved the victory.
This was almost the night of Paolo Banchero’s star turn – along with Maxey – as the All-Star scored 39. The difference between them is that Banchero’s team didn’t force overtime and then get the win, and the effort of Banchero was in Cleveland, not in Madison Garden Square. Still, it was a monster night for another of the league’s emerging stars.
The Cavaliers won and are now up 3-2 in the series heading into Game 6 on Thursday night in Orlando. It will be a tough place to end the series, and Cleveland will need the best of Mitchell, Garland and Mobley to do it.
