During the best game of his career, Tyrese Maxey was thinking about his injured teammate, according to an ESPN report. The Sixers guard posted his first-ever 50-point performance in Sunday’s win over Indiana, then dedicated the outing to Kelly Oubre, who is recovering after being struck by a car Saturday night.
“This had nothing to do with me,” Maxey said. “This is all Kelly Oubre. We’re praying for him. Love my dawg. I just met him, but I love him. I hope he gets well soon.”
Oubre was on the mind of all the Sixers players in their first game since the accident, which left Oubre with a broken rib, along with bruises and cuts. They couldn’t reach him on FaceTime Sunday night, so they sent him a video of their locker room celebration.
“The game today, I’m sure Tyrese was thinking about it and we were all thinking about it,” Joel Embiid said. “We just want (Oubre) to take his time, recover and know that we have his back. He’s needed because he’s a big part of us. We missed him tonight, but he should take his time.”
There’s more from Philadelphia:
- Nicolas Batum replaced Oubre in the starting lineup, but the Sixers have plenty of options considering their roster depth following the James Harden trade, observes Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Robert Covington and Marcus Morris, who were also acquired in that deal, should see expanded roles, and coach Nick Nurse has other experienced players he can turn to. “I would imagine, we’ve been using Covington, but (he) will probably take some of those minutes,” Nurse said. “There’s still (Furkan Korkmaz) and (Danuel House) there as well, kind of at that wing position that we can possibly see.”
- The police report on Oubre states that he was hit in the upper chest by the mirror of a speeding silver vehicle and the driver left the scene, Pompey tweets. Oubre is reported to have injuries to his hip and right leg in addition to the broken rib. Nurse talked to Oubre and said he has an ‘”I’ll be back before you know it’ type of attitude.”
- The Sixers are clearly a better team since resolving the Harden standoff, Pompey adds in a separate story. Batum and Covington have upgraded the defense, there’s more quickness all around and Maxey and Tobias Harris are thriving in expanded offensive roles.
Really glad Oubre’s situation isn’t more serious. It obviously sucks and he’s clearly hurt, but at least it isn’t likely to linger or require invasive surgery or anything.
Also have to give credit to Harris and Embiid in last night’s game. Neither was amazing shooting the rock (both were solid enough, but combined for 1/7 from 3), but they played tough defense against the best offense in the NBA (yes, really), moved the ball around and rebounded effectively. Maxey led the way, but he wasn’t getting 50 without Embiid and Harris doing good work out there with him. That was a fun watch.
Hope they find the driver and he gets is punishment
Excellent take . Was very impressed with the pacers also, haliburton has improved his game. Turners shooting impressed.
I still can’t believe they got everything they got from the Clippers in that trade. That took them from being, in my opinion, a borderline playoff/5-10 seed type of team to a top 2-3 team. They got everything they needed in that deal
I don’t get why the Clippers made the trade at all. They had zero need for Harden, and got rid of a lot of their depth that made them a potential top team, and turned them into an at best 5 seed type of team, possibly a 5-7 seed type. To me, this has to be owner driven, like the Phoenix stuff, b/c it makes no sense outside of “look at all the names we have now.”