For the first time this season, Tyrese Maxey failed to score at least 26 points. He finished with 19 points on 5-of-16 shooting (31.3 percent), his lowest mark of 2026-27. But you know what? The Philadelphia 76ers still pulled through, beating the Pistons to reach a league-high eight wins.
Jaylen Brown put on a show Wednesday, dropping a season-high 30 points on 11-of-19 shooting. Joel Embiid also scored a season-high 26 points. Maxey was the third-highest-scoring starter, and while he still found ways to contribute on an off night, he finished with more than 10 points below his season average.
These 76ers are built for Maxey to have nights where it's fine for him to step out of the spotlight and let someone else take over. It just so happened to be Brown against Detroit, and that was probably the best possible outcome, since he's still finding his footing. That performance helped.
And then there's Embiid, who didn't have as efficient a night as Brown, but it was nice to see him bully the Pistons down low and take advantage of his trips to the free-throw line, making all 10. He was a monster on the glass with 15 rebounds.
If just proved that if you want to beat the 76ers, you'll have to do a lot more than slow down Maxey.
76ers can afford for Maxey to have an off night
Maxey shot 1-of-5 in the first quarter, and Brown shot 4-of-6. As a result, Brown took a team-high eight shots in the second quarter and made half, while Maxey shot 0-of-2. In the third quarter, VJ Edgecombe (4-of-6) and Embiid (3-of-6) took the most shots.
Unsurprisingly, Maxey still led the 76ers with 11 points in the fourth, going six-for-six from the free-throw line. But if it weren't for their supporting cast (and it actually feels disrespectful to call it that, given the level of talent), Wednesday's result would've looked different.
And speaking of supporting cast, LeBron James had a casual 13 points, 10 rebounds, and eight assists. His court vision makes everyone around him better, as shown by his flashy passes that had fans taking a second to process what just happened.
Philadelphia has the privilege of mixing its homegrown star talent with Brown and James. Fans heard plenty of reasons over the summer why it wouldn't work, but so far, the early results tell a different story. You know, it's not a bad thing to have too many cooks in the kitchen, especially when they understand that they manage different stations.
Maxey won't always be the lead guy, and even better, the 76ers don't need him to be, not with their other four starters. He's the head of the snake, but even if teams find a way to "contain" him, others are waiting for their opportunity to strike, and sometimes that can happen all at once.
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