Tyrese Maxey had a towel draped over his head and his voice didn’t quite have its usual juice, but the Sixers’ superstar guard was still glad to be in the practice gym.
“Better,” Maxey said Wednesday when asked how he was feeling after missing the team’s past two games with a significant illness. “Way better.”
As they tend to do, the Sixers played two close games in Maxey’s absence. They beat the Pacers and fell to the Hawks, moving to 14-11 overall.
“My fears were really high going into those games, but I thought we handled it very, very well,” Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said. “I thought we played pretty good basketball. We obviously miss all that he brings, but I thought especially VJ (Edgecombe) did a great job of running the point and running the team.”
Nurse acknowledged that Maxey isn’t back at full strength yet.
The Sixers will next play Friday night when they visit the 18-7 Knicks, who just beat the Spurs to win the 2025 NBA Cup.
“He looked like he’s been off for a little bit,” Nurse said of Maxey. “It’s been a good chunk of time. He was in yesterday getting some individual work in. Today was some team work. He looked like he needs it.”
Maxey was cheering (and tweeting) along while sidelined. He generally liked what he saw, including Joel Embiid’s 39-point performance vs. the Pacers and Paul George’s 35-point night in Atlanta.
“We competed. … I just want us to go out there and compete every single night,” Maxey said. “I don’t want it to look like, ‘Oh, this guy’s out, that guy’s out, so we’re just going to lay down and other teams are going to beat us.’
“I think we’ve kind of created that standard and done a good job with it. It’s coming to light and we’ve got to keep doing it.”
According to Maxey, he was “super animated” as a spectator … as much as he could be.
“The more I yelled and screamed, the more I got tired,” he said. “Couldn’t stand up, really, so I’m basically just sitting there, watching the game and throwing my arms up. … I’m a fan at the end of the day, man. I want us to win.”
While Maxey was back in the practice mix, Kelly Oubre Jr. (left knee LCL sprain) and Trendon Watford (left adductor strain) were still out. A Sixers official said both players have progressed to individual on-court workouts.
Watford believes he’s “close,” although he said he doesn’t have a return timeline in mind.
“Nah, not really,” the 25-year-old forward said. “Just taking it one day at a time. I know that I’m getting better and feeling better every day. That’s the biggest thing for me, just continuing to attack my rehab. I’m feeling good and building day by day.”