Maxey scored seven points in the final 25 seconds of regulation to help send the game to overtime.
Tyrese Maxey made his Madison Square Garden memory, engineering a season-saving comeback with a rapid-fire flurry that evoked memories of Reggie Miller.
Not that he was thinking about his own legacy as those 3-pointers fell through the net.
“Going through my mind right there was just, find a way to survive,” Maxey said.
The 76ers did. Now they’re thinking about advancing.
Maxey saved Philadelphia from elimination with seven points in the final 25 seconds of regulation, finished with 46 and led the 76ers to a 112-106 overtime victory over the New York Knicks on Tuesday night in Game 5 of their first-round series.
The Sixers trailed by six points with 28 seconds left in regulation before Maxey pulled out a comeback that had team trainer Kevin Johnson talking to him about Miller’s eight points in nine seconds for Indiana in an out-of-nowhere comeback at Madison Square Garden in 1995.
Asked to describe the feeling, Maxey settled on “mandatory.”
“Like, we had to. Our season on the line,” he said.
The All-Star guard converted a four-point play with 25 seconds remaining to cut it to two, and after Josh Hart’s free throw, pulled up from 35 feet to tie it at 97 with 8.1 seconds left in front of a stunned crowd that was set to celebrate the Knicks’ second straight trip to the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Joel Embiid finished with 19 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists for the Sixers, who will host Game 6 on Thursday night.
Jalen Brunson scored 40 points for the Knicks, who were thinking about a possible Game 1 of the second round at MSG on Saturday night. Instead, it could be Game 7 of this series, which seemed all but over.
