3 Sixers Takeaways: Impact of Tyrese Maxey Injury

The injury news keeps piling up, as the Philadelphia 76ers will be without Tyrese Maxey at least three more weeks.

A steady drop in the Eastern Conference standings and an extremely thin lineup have stifled the momentum, but the Sixers found one incredible spark in their home arena from an unexpected source on Tuesday.

The Sixers entered the night without their big three, turning to VJ Edgecombe as their primary ball handler and assumed top scoring option. The rookie started a little slowly while Kelly Oubre Jr. drove the first quarter offense.

Edgecombe, however, picked up the intensity with an emphatic putback jam after checking into the game in the second quarter and a catch-and-shoot three on the next possession.

Andre Drummond didn’t touch the floor, and Adem Bona played only 16 minutes. A Memphis squad without Ja Morant and other key contributors still scored at will in the first three quarters, boosted by second-chance points from offensive rebounds.

Cam Payne didn’t plan on standing by through another clunker though.

He caught fire from three-point range in the second quarter to keep the Sixers in the game. Payne sniped five threes in a row, extending his range with the confidence of the hot hand.

The Sixers later trailed 115-107 early in the fourth quarter. Payne sparked a run with intense defense on Cedric Coward to force a momentum-changing turnover. His ball handling took the pressure off Edgecombe while the Sixers exploded for a 21-2 run. Payne set a franchise record shooting 8-for-8 from three-point range, the most threes ever without a miss. 

The late-season addition shifted the focus to his 10 assists, however. He secured the double-double by actively pursuing an assist in the final minute after the game was out of reach.

Payne played most of the season in Serbia, but he’s confidently readjusting to a bench role after joining the Sixers in February.

The Sixers announced that Maxey will miss at least three weeks with a tendon injury to the small finger on his right hand. He suffered the injury a bad fall in the final minute of the loss in Atlanta on Saturday.

The medical staff will reevaluate him on or around April 1 with only seven games remaining in the regular season.

Nick Nurse and the Sixers have adjusted smoothly without Joel Embiid and Paul George for short stretches of the season. They faded from the ability to compensate for the two aging stars after the holidays, and the loss of Maxey is a critical wound that’ll make it difficult to put a competitive lineup on the floor.

Maxey leads the Sixers in games, starts, minutes, field goals, field goal attempts, three-pointers, assists, steals and total points this season (among other categories). The story of the 2025-26 Sixers has been the sparkplug superstar guard’s ability to carry the heavy workload as the team’s cornerstone despite the overall challenging circumstances surrounding the franchise.

When Maxey sits on the sidelines with Embiid and George, the Sixers simply don’t have much of a chance to compete.

George will return from a 25-game suspension on March 25 against the Chicago Bulls, the night of the 97.5 The Fanatic Knockout Tournament. The Sixers will reevaluate Embiid before Saturday's home matinee.

A slow month, hot streaks from a few Eastern Conference middlings, and key injuries have made the NBA Play-In Tournament seem like an inevitability.

The Sixers have looked like an NBA Finals contender at times in 2025-26. They’ve also limped through some of the most brutal blowouts in the Association this season. They’ll appropriately land near the middle of the pack.

Nicolas Batum exhilarated nervous Philadelphia fans in the 76ers’ only trip to the tense two-game tournament in 2024. He scored 20 points to lead a stunning comeback charge against the Miami Heat, a Play-In regular that’s (somehow) earned the eight seed in the East in three consecutive seasons.

The Heat, Orlando Magic, and Charlotte Hornets all loom on the playoff bubble while the Sixers have lost eight of their past 13 games. No NBA team wants to face Bam Adebayo after his historic 83-point night.

If the big three return as theoretically expected by mid-April, the Sixers would match up well against any Play-In opponent. However, they’ve slipped out of position for a first-round home series all the way into a vulnerable position in a roulette-style format that doesn’t characterize championship contenders.

Advanced Stats courtesy of Cleaning the Glass and ESPN Analytics