3 keys for the Raptors in order to pull off insane 76ers upset
By Mike Luciano
2. Contain Tyrese Maxey
Even with names like Harden and Tobias Harris on the Philadelphia roster, Maxey has been the clear-cut second-best player in this series for the 76ers. The second-year guard’s combination of blinding speed and quality scoring has made it difficult for Toronto to put their foot down on defense.
When VanVleet was out, Toronto went with an ultra-big lineup that seemed to befuddle Maxey for a good chunk of the second half. Holding him to just 11 points on 4-12 shooting in 39 minutes should go to show that Toronto’s length might be enough to shut Maxey down.
Stopping Tyrese Maxey will be important for the Toronto Raptors.
Fred VanVleet is one of the best on-ball defenders in the East, but he just hasn’t had his usual stuff against Maxey and the 76ers on that end. Taking VanVleet off of Maxey could be one tweak Nurse could make that shifts the balance of a particular game.
Considering how often Nurse and the Raptors are going to take on Maxey in the future, they need to find some way to make sure he doesn’t use his neck-breaking speed to tear Toronto’s defensive gameplan apart in this series and down the road. Nurse needs to throw the kitchen sink at him in Game 5.