Sixers star Tyrese Maxey discusses areas where he has grown the most

BOSTON -- The Philadelphia 76ers are in the position they're in due to the play of all of their stars, but Tyrese Maxey has been the one who has taken the biggest leap in his game. The 6-year guard out of Kentucky continues to take his game to another level night in and night out as he was named an All-Star starter for the first time in his career.

Maxey averaged 28.3 points, 6.6 assists, and 4.1 rebounds while playing 70 games in the regular season while leading the league in minutes per game at 38.0 per night. He then averaged 26.9 points, 6.6 assists, and 4.9 rebounds while shooting 41.8% from deep on 7.9 attempts per game while playing 40.9 minutes in Round 1 against the Boston Celtics.

After the Game 7 win over the Cs, Maxey gave his thoughts on where he feels like has grown the most in his game.

"My playmaking and my defense," Maxey said succinctly. "Those two things. The game has slowed down for me a little bit, and I'm able to make certain passes that I wasn't able to make a few years ago, and defensively, I think I finally learned how to be physical enough and actually play enough physical defense. Jaylen Brown made some tough shots over me this series, but I think I did a really good job guarding him and I think that's something that's going to really help us down the stretch."

On top of that, Maxey has proven that he can take games over down the stretch and lead Philadelphia to wins. He did it in Game 2 of the Celtics series and then again in Game 7 to really close Boston out and get the Sixers to Round 2.

"I just really wanted the ball," Maxey explained. "I wanted the ball. Early in the fourth, we went to Joel (Embiid), and I just felt like it was time for me to step up and make a play. I hadn't really gotten to the game in the fourth really, and I knew I would need to step up and make play down the stretch for us to win a game. So, it just happened that way."