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October 21, 2026

Tyrese Maxey's two-way tone-setting, clutch role players powered Sixers' win

The Sixers needed contributions from all areas of the roster in the season opener to notch a win at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday.

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By Adam Aaronson
PhillyVoice Staff
Sixers NBA
Maxey 10.21.26 Brad Penner/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Tyrese Maxey began his seventh NBA season with an outstanding two-way performance.

NEW YORK – Moments after the New York Knicks raised a championship banner atop Madison Square Garden for the first time in 53 years, Tyrese Maxey quieted the noise.

After days of talking about how they would approach Tuesday's raucous environment and try to regulate their emotions, it turns out that all the Sixers needed was for Maxey to knock down two triples in 60 seconds. It did not just settle the new-look Sixers into the game, but it set the stage for one of the best all-around games Maxey has ever played. In addition to scoring a game-high 28 points, Maxey collected five assists and four rebounds. But he also notched three steals and three blocks.

"I'm a defender," Maxey proclaimed after the game, in yet another tongue-in-cheek plea to reporters to credit his improvement on that end of the floor. "I'm a defender, and then I don't have to do as much on offense. I told y'all that. Y'all don't listen to me no more."

From Maxey's dominant performance to clutch shot-making from new role players, here are the things the Sixers were talking about in the aftermath of their statement victory:

Tyrese Maxey's two-way tone-setting

"I feel like tonight, Tyrese was really the only guy that could have some offense going," Joel Embiid said after Tuesday's game.

And it would have been a typically strong night for Maxey had it just been for his offense:

But what made this one of the best all-around games of Maxey's career was his defensive output; he registered three steals – including a critical pick-six late – and three blocks, one of which was an outstanding left-handed swat at the rim.

Yes, he is a defender:

All together, it was a remarkable statement-making performance from Maxey to begin his seventh NBA season:

Role players come through

When the Sixers broke the seal from three-point range to pull ahead with a lead they never relinquished, it was a testament to trust in the process paying off. The Sixers generated quality three-point looks all night long, but not until Anfernee Simons buried three third-quarter triples did they begin to feel any sort of mojo offensively.

With New York battling in the middle of the fourth quarter, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope provided similar heroics, knocking down a pair of triples in quick succession, giving the Sixers extremely valuable margin for error.

"It was incredibly huge tonight, because I thought we were generating lots of wide-open threes and just nobody could throw one in," Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said. "And those guys kind of broke through on that and moved the scoreboard for us. It’s one of those things, if you’re, again, making the right reads and it’s a kick-out catch-and-shoot three, you’re gonna have to keep taking them all night whether you’re making them or not, and it was good those guys kind of broke the seal a litltle bit, I thought."

On a night during which everybody focused on the Sixers' star-studded starting lineup, its members wanted to talk about Simons and Caldwell-Pope.

"They were huge because we obviously didn't shoot the ball particularly well from the from the outside tonight," LeBron James said. "Something we're obviously not worried about because we have some great shooters, and we will get it back on that, you know, soon. But I just like the way we played. We were sharing the ball. We got the ball moving from one side to another. Guys felt in a good rhythm, and KCP was huge. Those shots by Ant [were] huge, too, obviously."

The Sixers have many ball-dominant players, so it could be easy for reserves like Simons and Caldwell-Pope to get lost in the shuffle. But Joel Embiid stressed the importance of those players getting three-point shots up at high volume.

"Just shoot it," Embiid said of his continued messaging to Simons. "I don’t care. We're going to rebound, we going to get you open. We're going to rebound. So KCP, same thing. You have one job – defense, and then shoot threes, and give us a boost, and that's what they did tonight. Defense kept us afloat. We made a couple jump shots, and yeah, we had a little bit of cushion."

More standout plays

MORE: Embiid, LeBron and Sixers make adjustment and opening-night statement

Follow Adam on Twitter: @SixersAdam

Follow PhillyVoice on Twitter: @thephillyvoice

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Adam Aaronson
PhillyVoice Staff

Read more Sixers NBA Philadelphia Anfernee Simons Tyrese Maxey Kentavious Caldwell-Pope Philadelphia 76ers

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