After the Philadelphia 76ers’ most recent game, VJ Edgecombe said that he and Tyrese Maxey can be “one of the greatest (backcourts) ever.”
The Sixers’ dynamic duo will look to author another strong performance Tuesday when Philadelphia hosts the Brooklyn Nets.
Maxey is among the leading scorers in the NBA at a career-high 31.7 points per game. He is also averaging a career-high 7.1 assists. Edgecombe is enjoying a strong rookie season as his wingman, chipping in 16.0 points and 4.0 assists while flashing impressive athleticism.
“We have a lot of variety in what we can do,” Maxey said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that like playing for each other, a lot of guys that can shoot the ball, a lot of guys that can play-make. And at the end of the day, we’re going to compete.”
Edgecombe is looking to score 20-plus points for the fifth straight game. He has 97 total points and only five turnovers over the last four games.
“To be honest, I do not know,” Edgecombe said of the reason behind his recent surge. “But I think I’m going to say I think it was the rest. I think I needed the rest to recenter myself. It’s a long season. That little (NBA Cup) rest, that helped a lot, to be honest. Just trying to get back into the flow of things, being more confident and continue working hard.”
In Saturday’s 121-114 win over the Dallas Mavericks, Maxey scored 38 points and Edgecombe pitched in with 26 points. The Sixers have won six of their last eight games overall.
Meanwhile, Brooklyn’s defense is beginning to stand out in a league where teams routinely score 120 points or more. The Nets’ last three opponents have averaged just 89.7 points, and the team allowed its lowest point total of the season in Sunday’s 96-81 triumph over the Toronto Raptors.
“Just doing what we do better,” Brooklyn center Nic Claxton said of his team’s defensive improvement. “And our defense has been pretty solid this past month. It’s been really good. So we’ve just got to keep taking steps in the right direction. But we’ve been doing a really good job guarding. We’ve got a lot of switchable defenders. We’ve still got a lot of areas we can get better, but we’ve got to just keep going.”
Michael Porter Jr. led the Nets with 24 points and 11 rebounds against Toronto. He is averaging 28.7 points and 7.6 rebounds this month while shooting 51.4% from the field and 47.2% from 3-point range.
However, the talk afterwards was all about the Nets’ defense.
“We didn’t start (the season) well at all defensively. It was very poor. We didn’t buy into a lot of things,” Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez said. “Obviously, we’ve evolved and made some adjustments.”
This is the third meeting of the season between the Sixers and Nets. The first two matchups came last month in Brooklyn, where Philadelphia won 129-105 and 115-103. Maxey averaged 24.0 points in the two games, while Quentin Grimes chipped in with 20.5 points for the Sixers.
