Tyrese Maxey scored a playoff career-high 46 points (including 22 in the 4th quarter and overtime) to will the Sixers’ to a thrilling Game 5 win in New York and keep the Sixers’ season alive!
To say that last night’s Game 5 between the Sixers and Knicks was unbelievable is an understatement. It took an all-time performance by Tyrese Maxey to drag his team away from certain doom and single-handedly extend their season. With that in mind, we took a look at just how eye-popping the game was.
Before we even get to Maxey, this is just nuts: We have seen each team blow a lead of five points or more with less than 30 seconds remaining and lose the game. How rare is that? In the last 25 postseasons it had happened just three times. And now twice in nine days. Crazy.
Maxey’s 46 points tie the Sixers' franchise record for most points scored in an elimination game. The only other player to do so was – who else? – Wilt Chamberlain, who dropped 46 in a loss to the Celtics in the 1966 Eastern Division Finals at Convention Hall in Philadelphia. Chamberlain added 34 rebounds, and shot 8-for-25 from the line.
Maxey is the third player ever to score 46 points or more in a postseason game at Madison Square Garden. Boston’s Sam Jones scored 51 against the Knicks in the 1967 Eastern Division Semifinals and Michael Jordan dropped 46 at the Garden in the 1996 Eastern Conference Semifinals. Oddly, it was the only game the Bulls lost in that series.
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Thanks to Big 5 legendary stat man BoopStats for this one: Only two Sixers ever scored more points at MSG in their history. Allen Iverson had 47 in a regular season game against the Knicks in 2006, and Wilt Chamberlain scored 53 in 1966 in a Sixers win… over the Lakers. The Lakers? Yes, back in those days, some NBA teams would book doubleheaders in their arenas to bring in more fans. On that day, the Knicks played the Pistons, followed by the Sixers and Lakers.
Only nine players all-time were younger than Maxey – 23 years, 178 days – when they scored 46 or more in a playoff game. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jordan, Rick Barry, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Luka Doncic, Trae Young, Ja Morant, and Jayson Tatum.
Their postseason is only five game old, but Maxey and Joel Embiid are just the third pair of teammates to each score 45 points or more in the same postseason. The other pairs were Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant with the 2019 Warriors, and Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson with the 1995 Phoenix Suns.
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We leave you with one non-Maxey stat: Embiid struggled, but managed a triple double in last night’s game: 19 points, 16 rebounds, and 10 assists. He’s the first Sixers player to have a playoff triple-double since our old pal Ben Simmons (19/10/11) in 2021 against the Wizards.
