While his Sixers are 2nd in the Eastern Conference, and they only have four victories in a row. Nick Nurse is not completely satisfied. The new Philly coach regrets, for example, that Tyrese Maxey lack of regularity, and in particular aggressiveness at the start of the match. Like Saturday against the Suns, where the Philly leader reached the last quarter to catch fire with 11 points on 4 of 4 shots.
Upon arrival, his stats sheet is good with 22 points, 10 assists and 5 rebounds, but his coach expects more.
” It’s not sufficient “ coward the former Raptors coach. “He is too good to have such a discreet first half. He must not put himself in a mode where he is not more aggressive. I’m not criticizing him. I just ask him to stay aggressive. He’s so good at dominating people on the dribble. He is too good a shooter not to take more risks. We will therefore continue to work on this aspect.”
“ I’m still trying to find the right balance.”
In Maxey’s defense, he had Josh Okogie on his back, a very good defender, and he first tried to make others play before trying his luck.
“Sometimes it’s just about doing the right thing.” defends the person concerned. “There were times when the right choice was to shoot, and I made the pass. But I’m still trying to find the right balance. The most important thing right now is to find my “spots” when I am ultra-aggressive and when I go in the racket to serve Joel, Kelly, Tobias in their privileged places. I think I’m doing a good job in this area.”
No doubt Nurse blamed him for it at half-time since we saw a completely different Maxey after the break. “I’m glad he bounced back. We’re starting to launch systems for him. You probably noticed that we launched the same system seven times in a row, then we reversed it, and we did the same system on the other side. He shot a 3-pointer, then he penetrated and went to the end. »
For Nurse, it’s a way to get his playmaker more involved, rather than him remaining passive, focused on managing the ball.
“Sometimes when the ball doesn’t find you or you’re not as aggressive as we want you to be, we try to set things up to make him aggressive. That’s kind of what happened in the fourth quarter.”. As a result, as Maxey took the game into his own hands, Nurse did not even need to put Embiid back on the field in the victory against the Suns.
