76ers' Tyrese Maxey puts Knicks' Garden party on ice with 46 points in Game 5
76ers' Tyrese Maxey takes a three-pointer over Knicks' Mitchell Robinson in the fourth quarter in Game 5 at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
Seats were shaking as fans roared at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks had a six-point lead with 30 seconds left in regulation and seemed close to the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Tyrese Maxey, however, quieted the noise with a pair of three-pointers. The second, a 35-foot shot, tied the score with 8.5 seconds left. It pushed the 76ers into overtime where they finished off a 112-106 win at Madison Square Garden.
Maxey’s 46-point outburst, a playoff career-high, helped cut the 76ers' first-round series deficit to 3-2. His seventh and final three-pointer started a 9-0 overtime run where the 76ers regained the lead and didn’t give it back.
For a crowd that booed Joel Embiid all night, Maxey — voted the league’s Most Improved Player last week — became the villain who broke their hearts and yelled at fans down the baseline.
“I was saying some things that my grandma probably wouldn’t like,” Maxey said. “That’s a lot of emotion. I’m a happy guy but I actually hate losing."
Instead of a Knicks celebration, Maxey put the party on ice until at least Game 6 on Thursday, assuming the Knicks win.
Before tying the score, Maxey's four-point play cut the lead to 96-94 with 25.4 seconds left. It felt like a reverse of Game 2's fourth quarter when the Knicks scored six points in 14 seconds for a come-from-behind win.
Maxey’s turnover in that sequence led to Donte DiVincenzo’s go-ahead three-pointer. This time, the All-Star guard atoned by helping the 76ers stave elimination.
Coach Nick Nurse called it the best game he’s seen Maxey play as Embiid labored to a triple-double despite shooting 7-for-19.
“For him to say, ‘all right, I got to put this team on my back and go’ and [they] just kept encouraging him,” Nurse said of Maxey. “Take his chances, take his shots, make plays and he certainly did it. He got into a rhythm and made a whole bunch of them.”
The Knicks’ plan on Maxey’s final shot of regulation, according to Jalen Brunson, was to hope for a stop or miss. They didn’t get either and then they failed to get enough stops in overtime.
They also didn’t expected Maxey to take a rushed shot with plenty of time left. Yet he did and instead of the Knicks closing out the series, Maxey helped keep it alive longer with his epic performance.
“That’s what he does,” Brunson said. “You got to pick your poison. Either him or Joel. He was able to make some big time shots . . . you want to make it a little bit more difficult for him but he made some tough shots. "
Evan Barnes covers the Nets for Newsday. He previously covered Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.
