Another Philadelphia 76ers star has been sidelined. Tyrese Maxey is expected to miss multiple weeks with a right hamstring injury, CBS Sports NBA insider Bill Reiter confirmed Thursday. In the Sixers’ 110-98 loss against the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday, Maxey left the game late in the third quarter because of the injury and did not return.
Maxey, 24, has averaged 27.6 points, 3.9 assists and 3.0 rebounds for the banged-up Sixers this season. He has also averaged a league-high 39.7 minutes, and he’s the only player in the NBA who has logged 40-plus minutes in four games. Philadelphia is going to “take a cautious approach” with the injury, and Maxey is scheduled to have a “full evaluation” on Thursday, per ESPN’s Shams Charania.
After earning rave reviews for their offseason, in which they signed star wing Paul George (along with numerous veteran role players), the Sixers are just 1-6 as a result of injuries. When healthy, they could be championship contenders, but 11 years after embarking on “The Process,” this season will be, at best, another exercise in delayed gratification. Franchise player Joel Embiid, who started the season on the shelf to manage a left knee injury, will make his season debut at home against the New York Knicks next Tuesday after serving a three-game suspension for shoving a reporter in the locker room. George has played in Philadelphia’s last two games — a loss against the Phoenix Suns on Monday and a loss in Los Angeles on Wednesday — after missing the first five games because of a bone bruise in his left knee, an injury he suffered in the preseason.
With far less firepower than expected, Philadelphia asked its youngest star to push himself in terms of minutes and playmaking responsibility. Maxey’s efficiency suffered — his career-low 28.2% true shooting percentage cannot be separated from his career-high 30% usage rate, and he has attempted 8.1 pull-up 3s per game, converting them at a 28.2% clip — but, on the bright side, he’ll return to a completely different role … as long as there isn’t more bad news in the next couple of weeks.
The Sixers are fortunate that, aside from the Cleveland Cavaliers (9-0) and the Boston Celtics (7-2), no team in the Eastern Conference has an above-.500 record. Their rough start is much more understandable than the Milwaukee Bucks’, and they shouldn’t be judged harshly before their new trio has even shared the court. It is fair, though, to wonder if they were asking too much of Maxey during this stretch. This is a soft-tissue injury, after all.
Without Maxey and Embiid, Philadelphia will visit the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday and host the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday. After the game against the Knicks, the Sixers will have their first back-to-back of the season on Wednesday at home against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
