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Doc Rivers said he was pushing Tyrese Maxey to score 40 vs. Nuggets

The Philadelphia 76ers were in a tough situation against the Denver Nuggets on Saturday afternoon as they had to play against a very good Nuggets team down nine players due to various injuries and health and safety protocols. The result was predictable as they fell 115-103 to Denver at home.

On the bright side, a lot of rookies were able to get on the floor and earn some extended playing time, most notably Tyrese Maxey who showed off a lot of his offensive game scoring 39 points with seven rebounds and six assists while joining Allen Iverson in the rookie record books.

Coach Doc Rivers called a play for him down the stretch with the game already decided to try and get him to 40, but Maxey hesitated as he didn’t plan on shooting it and then he rushed a layup that he missed.

“That felt great,” Maxey said with a smile. “I’m not gonna lie, I was about to pull it out. I wasn’t gonna shoot until he told me to so I was like, hey. that’s kind of why I missed it probably but I mean I really appreciate him for that.”

Another really impressive thing about Maxey was that he only had two turnovers while playing just under 44 minutes and the second one did not come until late in the game.

“I think the turnovers came from no legs, to be honest, he played like 14/16 straight minutes, a couple of times,” Rivers laughed. “I called that last play for him and he became a point guard on he made a pass. I told him, ‘bro you got 39, you gotta throw it up to the rim on that one’. He’s joking he said ‘you right’. He’s just a great kid too, I gotta tell you, he’s really a lot of fun.”

For Maxey, the only number that mattered to him was the scoreboard as the team did ultimately lose on the night. It was Philadelphia’s second straight loss and they fell to 7-3 on the season.

“I just wanted to win,” said the rookie. “I mean, of course, you had 39, it’s great, it was cool. I’m really looking forward to the next game and trying to grieve for 24 hours about this one and they try to get a win in Atlanta.”

While scoring 39 points looks cool in the stat sheet, the only thing on his mind is the next game against the Atlanta Hawks on Monday where he might have to do this again considering the league’s health and safety protocols right now.

“I was really just trying to win, do whatever it took to win,” he finished. “I knew I was gonna have to do a lot more than usual, but that was just my main goal coming out.”

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