Tyrese Maxey chimes in on bench unit struggles after Sixers fall to Knicks
NEW YORK–When one looks at the stat sheet of a 108-97 loss for the Philadelphia 76ers against the New York Knicks on Sunday, one will see a few big numbers point out to them.
The plus-minus numbers for the bench unit compared to the starters is stark. The starting group built a 21-point lead in the first quarter in order to give the Sixers the momentum to start the game and the bench unit was not able to sustain that style of play as they saw the Knicks rally and win the game.
Coach Doc Rivers won’t solely blame the bench unit as the starters definitely played a hand in the loss in the fourth quarter, but he was upset with their poor defensive effort in this one.
“We couldn’t get stops,” said Tyrese Maxey who had 12 points off the bench. “We couldn’t score and we couldn’t get stops.”
In terms of the lack of physicality, Maxey admitted that may have been the case in this one.
“That’s probably true,” he added. “Probably wasn’t physical enough, probably didn’t get into the ball, didn’t rotate sometimes.”
This effort comes on the heels of a terrific all-bench effort in Friday’s win over the San Antonio Spurs. Off nights do happen in the NBA over the course of a long 82-game season. Maxey is not exactly worried or concerned about the bench struggles in this one.
“I mean, we’ve been pretty good,” he explained. “I mean, we had one slip-up, so we just gotta go out there and be better next game.”
Maxey has always proven to be a guy who can bounce back and shake things off rather quickly. He and the rest of the bench unit will have to do so again with a matchup with the Boston Celtics looming.
“We got a game,” Maxey finished. “We play the number one team in the East in a couple of days. So we better shake it off fast.”
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Multiple Sixers discuss the lack of physicality in road loss to Knicks
