Tyrese Maxey dropped 31 points to lead the night for Philadelphia 76ers who secured the No. 7 seed in the NBA playoffs.
The home crowd was chanting for the Boston Celtics, and that fervorous atmosphere at Xfinity Mobile Arena matched the stakes for the Philadelphia 76ers. The gritty fight by the 76ers propelled them to a 109-97 win over the Orlando Magic in the NBA play-in game which sends them to the Eastern Conference playoffs as the No. 7 seed. There, they will now face second-seeded rival Celtics in the first round, beginning on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET at TD Garden. It wasn’t pretty, and it was a win without Joel Embiid, one that saw star Tyrese Maxey and rookie VJ Edgecombe show up in particular.
Maxey finished the night with 31 points and six assists in 42 minutes, while Edgecombe posted 19 points and 11 rebounds in 41 minutes of play. Edgecombe also received a technical foul for his taunting of Jalen Suggs, joking afterwards that he was a bit overexcited to play in his first NBA postseason game. Sixers coach Nick Nurse thought Edgecombe was “wild” in Wednesday’s win. The win was also the first time Embiid has been seen around the team since getting an emergency appendectomy last Thursday, though his timetable for a return hasn’t been laid out yet. While his status for the first round isn’t yet known, his presence was encouraging as they fought into the postseason.
Here is the full story from 76ers Roundtable writer Wes Dixon on the victory in Philly fueled by Maxey’s 31-point night.
Now, they’ll turn to known winners in the Celtics, led by superstars Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. Philly will have eight days to figure out how far they can go this postseason – with or without Embiid. As for the Magic, they’ll now face the Charlotte Hornets in a win-or-go home game.