CAMDEN, New Jersey – Philadelphia 76ers returned to work on Wednesday, continuing preparations for New York Knicks on Friday until the end of the season. Now that the NBA Cup portion of the schedule is complete, the 82-game schedule can continue, with the Sixers currently sitting at 14-11.
The Sixers did invite Tyrese Maxey to return to practice Wednesday after he missed the previous two games with an illness that forced him to sit out and watch the games from his couch at home. After training on Wednesday, Maxey said he felt: “Better. Much better”.
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Maxie reacted to the games on social media, he tweeted through the games and also posted messages on his Instagram story, but it still made things difficult for him. He is a maniacal worker and competitor, and he wants to be with the team.
“I mean, obviously, just because you want to play basketball, it sucks, but I think we did a really good job,” Maxey said of the two games he missed. “We definitely could have won in Atlanta, but I think we did a good job. The guys did it. The guys played well.”
With Maxey missing a couple of games and having so much time to practice because of the Cup, coach Nick Nurse did make a couple of changes to the game plan. That's part of his focus throughout the week when the opportunity presents itself.
“Well, just to get Tyrese acclimated a little bit,” Nurse said. “We added a couple of things during his absence last week, so those were kind of the top of the list that helped him get into the game. Again, a few defensive expansions early in practices, continuing to expand our toolbox a little bit in different formations, just to continue to work on some things that we think might work for our team, continuing to refine our offensive sets and things late in the game. Very similar.”
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Maxie has such a high basketball IQ and understands how to play the game at such a high level. He knows what he needs to do to get everything done. That meant watching film of previous training sessions and making sure he was on board with everything.
“I saw most of the stuff,” he explained. “I watched the film from practice last week, and even after watching the game, I quickly got the gist of it. So, that was the easy part, but yeah, I think it's all good stuff.”
The Sixers will take on the NBA Cup champion Knicks on the road on Friday.
This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: Tyrese Maxey reacts to 76ers return to practice by learning new wrinkles
