SIXERS, BUCKS STAY ALIVE
NEW YORK (AP) — Tyrese Maxey made his Madison Square Garden memory, engineering a seasonsaving comeback with a rapid-fire flurry that evoked memories of Reggie Miller.
Not that he was thinking about his own legacy as those 3-pointers fell through the net. “Going through my mind right there was just, find a way to survive,” Maxey said.
The 76ers did. Now they're thinking about advancing. Maxey saved Philadelphia from elimination with seven points in the final 25 seconds of regulation, finished with 46 and led the 76ers to a 112-106 overtime victory over the New York Knicks on Tuesday night, April 30, in Game 5 of their first-round series.
The Sixers trailed by six points with 28 seconds left in regulation before Maxey pulled out a comeback that had team trainer Kevin Johnson talking to him about Miller's eight points in nine seconds for Indiana in an out-of-nowhere comeback at Madison Square Garden in 1995.
Asked to describe the feeling, Maxey settled on “mandatory.”
“Like, we had to. Our season on the line,” he said.
The All-star guard converted a four-point play with 25 seconds remaining to cut it to two, and after Josh Hart's free throw, pulled up from 35 feet to tie it at 97 with 8.1 seconds left in front of a stunned crowd that was set to celebrate the Knicks' second straight trip to the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Joel Embiid finished with 19 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists for the Sixers, who will host Game 6 on Thursday night.
Jalen Brunson scored 40 points for the Knicks, who were thinking about a possible Game 1 of the second round at MSG on Saturday night. Instead, it could be Game 7 of this series, which seemed all but over.
“It was a tough way to lose because you get up six, eight and then we had a couple turnovers and we’ve got to just be better,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “Play tougher with the lead, use good judgement. Fourth quarter is different, understand the difference. So we can do better and we will.”
It was the second desperate rally to avoid what seemed like certain defeat in what has been a razor-tight series between Atlantic Division rivals. The Knicks won Game 2 after trailing by five points with under 30 seconds remaining.
Embiid, who has been ailing and missed shootaround with a headache, didn’t score like usual after coming into the game with an Nba-leading 35 points per game in the playoffs. But Maxey picked up the load, making seven 3-pointers while adding nine assists.
“I think that considering that our No. 1 option was struggling, for him to say, ‘All right, I got to put this team on my back and go,’ I just kept encouraging him, like, to take his chances, take his shots, make plays,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse said.
Maxey had the most points by a Sixers player in a win to stave off elimination, surpassing Hall of Famer Allen Iverson's 44 in a Game 7 win against Milwaukee in the 2001 Eastern Conference final.
In Milwaukee, Bobby Portis apologized to his teammates for his ejection from a Game 4 loss that put the Milwaukee Bucks on the brink of playoff elimination.
Then he made amends by helping the Bucks keep their season alive.
Portis and Khris Middleton each scored 29 points and the short-handed Bucks routed the Indiana Pacers 115-92 in Game 5 of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series on Tuesday night.
The Pacers still lead the best-of-seven series 3-2 heading into Game 6 on Thursday in Indianapolis.
“Thursday will be fun,” Portis said. “I can hear some ‘Bobby Sucks!’ chants. I'm ready, man. I'm fired up. I'm already ready for it.”
Milwaukee won without injured stars Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard as the Fiserv Forum crowd chanted: “Bucks In Seven.”
Antetokounmpo has missed this entire series and hasn’t played since straining his left calf on April 9. Lillard sat out a second straight game after injuring his Achilles tendon in the Bucks’ 121-118 Game 3 loss on Friday.
Bucks coach Doc Rivers was asked after Game 5 about their potential availability for the rest of the series.
“I don’t know how to answer that," Rivers said. "I know I hope. I think they’re very, very, very close.”
The Bucks stayed alive thanks in part to a huge performance from Portis, who had been ejected just seven minutes into Game 4 after getting into a skirmish with Indiana's Andrew Nembhard. Portis said he watched the rest of that game while still in uniform, wondering about all the ways in which his presence on the floor might have made a difference.
He came back Tuesday and produced the highest playoff point total of his career. He also pulled down 10 rebounds.