Philadelphia star Tyrese Maxey is listed as questionable with an illness for Monday night’s first-round Game 2 against the Knicks at the Garden.
It’s a significant concern for the 76ers, who lost the series opener and are already dealing with health concerns surrounding MVP Joel Embiid.
Maxey was the only Sixer missing from Monday morning’s shootaround at the Garden, and was a surprise addition to the injury report.
The All-Star guard has been playing well, averaging 31.6 points, 4.6 assists and three rebounds in his last five games, logging a marathon 42.2 minutes.
Maxey poured in a game-high 33 points in 44 minutes during Saturday’s series opener, but the Sixers still lost, 111-104, at the sold-out Garden.
The guard had a dozen first-half points on 5-of-14 shooting, but used his speed to get into the lane at will after the half.
With Embiid clearly hobbled after hurting his knee late in the second quarter, Maxey came alive in the second half with 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting.
The next day, Philadelphia coach Nick Nurse cited the need for more effort out of the gate.
“I don’t need to see anything earlier from him other than he’s got to play harder,” Nurse said of Maxey. “He needs to get involved and play more physical and get involved in rebounding and get involved in the physical nature of the game.”
Now it begs the question of whether the 23-year-old guard will even suit up at all against the Knicks.
If he doesn’t, venerable veteran Kyle Lowry, shooter Buddy Hield — who struggled in a scoreless playoff debut — and Cam Payne could be called on to play more minutes, and Tobias Harris might need to pick up the scoring slack.