Tyrese Maxey Is Already the 76ers’ MVP After Historic Comeback Win

Thursday night started out with a heavy focus on LeBron James playing his first home game as a Philadelphia 76er. (And, sure, Jaylen Brown too.)

What followed was more history, and more elation, than anyone was expecting at halftime when the Sixers were met with a smattering of boos from the rafters.

The 76ers trailed by as many as 29 in the second quarter but were a team transformed in the second half, storming to a 114-106 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. It was both the largest Sixers comeback in the play-by-play era and the largest comeback win of James’ career.

The rally was a total team effort, or at the very least a product of an invigorated and highly capable starting five. James (17 points, 10 rebounds, five assists) was everywhere. There’s no denying he elevates the players around him.

But if there is an early-season MVP frontrunner on this team, it isn’t the 41-year-old James. Not Joel Embiid, the 2022-23 MVP, and not Brown, who finished sixth in balloting last season.

No, it’s the guy 76ers fans correctly identified with second-half chants of “M-V-P,” Tyrese Maxey.

The seventh-year point guard followed his 28-point opening night against the Knicks with 32 points -- making 10 of 16 shots inside the arc -- and added six assists. But Maxey’s biggest contribution was at the other end, where he swallowed James Harden whole in the second half.

Head coach Nick Nurse was reticent to identify which particular players were leading the halftime team talk and rallying the troops. But his praise of Maxey’s defense on Harden in the second half gave a window into who was leading the 76ers Thursday.

“Totally changed the game, right? He totally changed the game,” Nurse said. “I think he came out and just -- and it’s kind of, he’s out there doing that and the rest of the guys are in the back watching, and all of a sudden they start saying, you know, ‘I’m in. I’m in. I’ll be in on this, too.’”

Harden was held scoreless in the third quarter, committed four of his six turnovers after halftime and finished an abysmal minus-17 for the night.

The 76ers’ historic comeback came in spurts, the final being a 15-0 run in the fourth quarter. James was on the bench for its entirety.

Embiid scored seven in a row before tagging out, his last bucket of that run giving the Sixers their first lead at 96-95. Brown had the next three baskets, but all the while Maxey was getting into it with Harden, his onetime teammate in Philly, playing physical defense that the crowd took notice of.

Brown’s final basket of the stretch was set up when Maxey drew an offensive foul from Peyton Watson near halfcourt. Maxey sprung back to his feet, just as fired up as his admirers, who at that point yelled louder than they had at any point since LeBron’s introduction.

Fittingly, Maxey polished off the 15-0 run with a finger-roll layup that put his team up nine.

“The biggest thing is the growth over the (last) couple of years has been really noticeable on the offensive end, but on the defensive end, he’s grown equally as much,” Nurse said. “Like he’s out there battling, he’s battling, and especially when it’s time to really, really kind of knuckle down and get a stop, he’s out there really playing.”

I’m not interested in measuring James’ legacy game by game, making cracks about superteams or dinging him when he doesn’t take the proverbial last shot. What I think is more interesting is the emergence of a superstar in real time, a 25-year-old standing out and guiding the way on a roster with former MVPs, plural.

A night focused on a city’s excitement over “getting” LeBron James turned into MVP chants for the fourth-most famous player on the team. Yes, the 76ers are in good hands.