The Philadelphia 76ers were able to walk away with a 1234-114 overtime win over the Milwaukee Bucks on the road on Thursday thanks to the heroics of Tyrese Maxey who had a career-high 54 points, nine assists, five rebounds, three steals, and three blocks in the win. He’ll get a lot of the love, and rightfully so, but Paul George played a huge role against the Bucks.
Playing in his second game back from injury, George set the tone early as he scored Philadelphia’s first 11 points while knocking down three big triples in the early going. His offensive outburst allowed Maxey to then get going due to the attention Milwaukee then had to shade toward George.
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“Paul was really good,” Maxey told reporters after the win. “He helped a lot with that tonight. Him being able to come out the gates, scoring however many scored straight, kind of loosened the defense up for me. He gets all that attention on him. Now it’s like, OK, now I can get back to doing what I do.”
Overall, George finished with 21 points in 24 minutes which is a big step forward for him. He is still on a minutes restriction, so the Sixers can only play him in short spurts, but the biggest thing for him is to just get his legs back underneath of him. For coach Nick Nurse, the offensive production is important, but the defensive boost George gave them was more prominent.
“My thing I always keep mentioning, our defense is so good when he’s out there, right?” said Nurse. “I mean, our possessions are just so solid. He’s really good at directing traffic. He’s going to guard most the guys, one-on-one, either on the perimeter, on the block. He just really directs traffic for us. That’s the biggest thing for me. I mean, listen, the 11-0 start is awesome, because I think that energized us, but the rest of the game, it’s mostly his defense for me, and again, I mean, I know he—that’s pretty good. 21 points in 24 minutes. It’s pretty productive.”
Speaking of that start, the Sixers really needed that lift. It was the second night of a back-to-back for them while George didn’t play due to his load management. It was a relief for Nurse and Co. that he was able to come out so strongly.
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“That was kind of the mindset,” added George. “I know these guys played last night, so I’m fresh. I tried to come in, give the boost, just morale on both ends. I tried to kind of impose my will on defense and then come out with a burst offensively.”
If the Sixers are going to get this version of George and he can handle a heavier load going forward, then they will be in a great place in terms of contention in the East. It will come down to how much wear and tear he can take and how he responds once the minutes go up. Either way, the Sixers were happy with what they saw.
“That’s PG, you know what I’m saying?” Maxey finished. “I told him, he looked really good tonight, as far as his body-wise, the way he was moving, the way he was jumping, the way he was defending. He just looked real comfortable, and the more we get that, you know, it’s pretty good.”
The Sixers will have two days off before playing host to the Miami Heat on Sunday afternoon.
This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: Nick Nurse, Sixers single out Paul George after road win over Bucks