It’s unclear what was more unlikely Sunday: The Joel Embiid and Paul George-less Sixers going into Minnesota on the second night of a back-to-back and blowing the doors off the Timberwolves, or Tyrese Maxey throwing down a poster dunk.<\/p>\n
Luckily, Sixers fans didn’t have to choose. The Sixers smashed the Rudy Gobert and Naz Reid-less Wolves, 135-108, and Maxey yammed on Anthony Edwards.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/t.co\/t4fRqlo27N<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/l2wIMIXIfx<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) February 23, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n printing this out and putting it on my wall. pic.twitter.com\/Syh6wCpwUf<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) February 23, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n After the game, Edwards described the dunk from his perspective.<\/p>\n Anthony Edwards on Tyrese Maxey and getting dunked on <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s incredible man, he already know he\u2019s one of my favorite players to watch in the league. He dunked on me today too, I don\u2019t really like that(laughs)\u2026 I didn\u2019t know he was going downhill, I just ended up turning my\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/GbOlgtciHA<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Andrew Dukowitz (@adukeMN) February 23, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n He wasn’t done praising Maxey there, either.<\/p>\n That’s the type of praise Maxey badly needed after a rough stretch of games for the Sixers.<\/p>\n Maxey went full dynamo<\/p>\n Maxey averaged 27.5 points, 5.0 assists, 3.0 rebounds, 3.0 threes and 3.0 steals in his first two games after the All-Star break, but it wasn’t enough to spare the Sixers from a pair of disappointing losses against the Atlanta Hawks and New Orleans Pelicans.<\/p>\n On Sunday, he made sure the Sixers were stopping their losing streak at four.<\/p>\n Maxey finished with 39 points on 16-of-28 shooting (including 4-of-7 from deep), eight assists, three rebounds, two steals, one block and one massive dunk in 35 minutes. With Gobert and Reid not patrolling the paint, the Wolves didn’t have an imposing rim stopper who could stifle the blazing-fast Maxey.<\/p>\n During a recent appearance<\/a> on Yahoo Sports’ The Kevin O’Connor Show, trainer Drew Hanlen said that he’s noticed Maxey getting fatigued as of late and the Sixers needed to find ways to give him more breaks over the final two months of the regular season. That was not apparent Sunday night (although it’s 100 percent true).<\/p>\n Drew Hanlen on Tyrese Maxey (per @KevinOConnor<\/a>)<\/p>\n “The last couple weeks I’ve been like ‘just take a game off, you need a break, your body’s fatiguing.’ <\/p>\n So that’s another thing I think the Sixers will have to do to ultimately be at their best is find ways to give him breaks.” pic.twitter.com\/APprXdm9Gn<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Erin Grugan (@eringrugan) February 18, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Hanlen also shouldered some of the blame as to why Maxey wasn’t able to carry the Sixers last year with Embiid and George sidelined. He told O’Connor<\/a> that he and Maxey spent the 2024 offseason working on the skills he’d need as the No. 2 option alongside Embiid (particularly dribble handoffs), but they didn’t work on what he’d need to be a No. 1.<\/p>\n “So this summer, we said, ‘Hey, listen. Now that you’ve got those skills with Joel, if Joel comes back and is like what we hope he is, you still have those, but we need to turn you into kind of a more No. 1 option. And so we shifted our focus in the summer and really focused on like, how do you thrive if Joel isn’t on the court? And I think that’s why you’ve seen some of the first-half improvement this season.”<\/p>\n Maxey will face some of the same questions Allen Iverson did throughout his career: Can a small, score-first guard lead a team to a championship as a No. 1 option? Or would Maxey’s ideal role be more of a No. 2 or No. 3? <\/p>\n The Sixers’ recent results would suggest that Maxey isn’t quite on the No. 1 tier yet. But if he starts dragging the Sixers with performances like what he did Sunday against the Timberwolves, there’s still time for him to rise in that regard.<\/p>\n Unless otherwise noted, all stats via\u00a0NBA.com<\/a>, PBPStats<\/a>, Cleaning the Glass<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Basketball Reference<\/a>. All salary information via Spotrac<\/a> and salary-cap information via RealGM<\/a>.<\/p>\n Follow Bryan on Bluesky<\/a>.<\/p>\n