Maxey Gut‑Check Night

Tyrese Maxey played through a painful finger injury and scored 32 points Friday night, carrying Philadelphia to a 105-94 win at Indiana. (sports.yahoo.com) Maxey finished 11-for-28 from the field, 9-for-10 at the foul line, with eight rebounds, five assists and two steals in 39 minutes. Paul George added 21 points, and Andre Drummond gave Philadelphia 16 rebounds off the bench. (espn.com) After the game, Maxey said he hurt the pinky tendon on his shooting hand in the first quarter and kept playing because Philadelphia was short-handed. Joel Embiid was out after an appendectomy, and the win snapped a three-game losing streak. (sports.yahoo.com) The result moved the 76ers to 44-37 and left them alone in eighth place in the Eastern Conference at the end of Friday’s games. Indiana fell to 19-62 and had already been eliminated from postseason contention. (gmanetwork.com) That mattered on the NBA’s final regular-season weekend because one East playoff spot and multiple Play-In Tournament seeds were still unsettled entering Sunday, April 12. The league’s play-in games begin April 14, and the playoffs open April 18. (cbssports.com) Philadelphia’s path was narrow: a win over Indiana kept pressure on the teams around it and gave the 76ers a chance to lock up no worse than the No. 8 seed with a Sunday game against Milwaukee. Charlotte’s loss to Detroit earlier Friday also helped Philadelphia’s position. (gmanetwork.com) Maxey’s line was not especially clean from long range — he went 1-for-10 on three-pointers — but he kept getting downhill and to the line. Philadelphia led 89-77 after three quarters and never let Indiana erase the gap in the fourth. (cbssports.com) The game also showed how thin Philadelphia had become late in the season. With Embiid unavailable, the offense ran through Maxey and George, and the 76ers needed both to steady a team still fighting for seeding in game No. 81. (sports.yahoo.com) By Sunday afternoon, the broader playoff picture was still moving across both conferences, with the NBA listing live clinching and seeding scenarios as all 30 teams took the floor. Friday’s win over Indiana made sure Philadelphia was still part of that scramble. (nba.com)