The Sixers’ first three-game winning streak of the season just so happened to line up with Tyrese Maxey’s second career Eastern Conference Player of the Week award.
The NBA announced Monday that Maxey earned the accolade for Week 10 of the season, beating out fellow East nominees Jalen Brunson, Cade Cunningham, Tyler Herro, De’Andre Hunter, Trae Young, Jalen Johnson and Donovan Mitchell. Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won the award in the Western Conference.
Maxey’s first Player of the Week honor came at the very beginning of last season, just before the Sixers traded away James Harden. This time around, he played a whopping 40.7 minutes per game and averaged 32.3 points, 8.7 assists and 4.7 rebounds. Maxey shot 39.4 percent on his 11 three-point attempts per contest.
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He also nabbed eight steals over the week’s three Sixers games and extended his streak of recording at least one steal in every game he’s played this season. Last year's Most Improved Player has made major defensive progress in Year 5.
Going into Monday night, the Sixers were on the bubble of the play-in tournament places after a 3-14 start and building clear chemistry with their star trio of Maxey, Joel Embiid and Paul George.
“I said back then, ‘Just give it some time.’ It was difficult because guys were in and out,” Maxey said following the Sixers’ Christmas win over the Celtics. “When we finally thought we were going to have everybody playing, I got hurt. That sucks. I had a little rhythm going, and then I got hurt and we have to restart, figure it all out. I come back, Jo gets hurt. We’ve got to figure it all out again.
“I think the biggest thing that we’ve really done is we’ve come together a lot more. We have a lot of new guys … it’s difficult. You don’t know how you want to play, you don’t know what combinations go with each other. I think we’re finally figuring that out. That’s a kudos to our coaching staff and to (head coach Nick Nurse) as well.”