Tyrese Maxey admits he must be better defensively for Sixers
CAMDEN, N.J. — As the Philadelphia 76ers try to pick up the pieces following a blowout loss at home to the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday, there are some areas they can clearly be better at.
One is on the defensive end. They had a tough time defending against anything the Nets were trying to do. Kevin Durant had 25 points. Former Sixers guard Seth Curry had 24, and Kyrie Irving had 22. They made it look easy on their way to scoring 129 points.
While Matisse Thybulle is an elite defender, he can only defend one man. Others must step up on the perimeter.
Tyrese Maxey was the primary defender on Curry, and he admitted he was bad when the team returned to practice on Saturday.
“Overall, I was just bad,” said Maxey. “I was bad and that’s the first step of growth. Knowing how bad you were in a game like that and I admitted it as soon as the game was over. I said I was bad and I had to be better and you just watch the film and grow and I won’t make the same mistakes twice and I always keep a mental note of little things and I won’t forget it. So, it’s OK.”
There were plenty of times on Thursday where Curry had an easy look from deep. Considering Maxey played with Curry for a season and a half, one would think he understands that he needs to be in his air space.
“Yeah, Tyrese has to be better,” said coach Doc Rivers. “On the ball, he’s gotta be better, off the ball he’s gotta be better. That’s the thing with Tyrese. Offensively, he has graduated, he’s ready. Defensively, he is not and he knows that and he has to take that on himself. He will and we will help him and he wants to be.”
With the Sixers getting back to work, Rivers and the rest of the coaching staff showed a lot of film to Maxey to ensure that he understands where he needs to be on defense.
“He looked at the film,” Rivers added. “We showed him a clip today where we have to ask who’s guarding Seth? You should never have to ask that question. When you don’t see a guy near him, but the guy’s actually guarding him. Those are things that can never happen. That’s film work, that’s awareness, I thought we as a team, not just Tyrese, I thought we lacked awareness. That bothered me.”
Obviously, Maxey is not this big guy, and he has to be able to use his speed to be able to make a play on the ball with his instincts and his quickness.
“For the most part this year, I’ve done a pretty decent job of pressuring the ball,” Maxey added. “So being into the ball is one key thing no matter who I’m guarding. If I’m guarding the point guard or if I’m guarding a wing guy, being into the ball is my thing. Being able to use my speed and be pesky and do different things like that.”
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