Tyrese Maxey’s Poor Shooting Night Leads To 76ers Embarrassing Home Loss To Nets
Dec 23, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia 76ers forward Paul George (8) celebrates with guard Tyrese Maxey (0) after dunking the ball against the Brooklyn Nets during the second quarter at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
Tyrese Maxey‘s worst performance of the season couldn’t have come on a worse night.
Heading into the 76ers’ final home game of 2025 and final home game before a huge six-game road trip, the 76ers had what they assumed was an easy matchup against the 8-19 Brooklyn Nets. However, the 76ers themselves looked like the eight-win team, as without VJ Edgecombe, Dominick Barlow, and Quentin Grimes due to illness, the team looked disinterested and shot horrendously all night long, leading to their 114-106 loss.
Maxey was the leading culprit of the embarrassing loss, as he shot a season-worst 21.4% from the field, scoring just 13 points in the loss. The team overall shot just 40% from the field and 26% from three, as in the first half, they scored just three three-pointers, the least they’ve scored in a half all season. As for the Nets, Michael Porter Jr. and Egor Demin were the leading men for Brooklyn, scoring 28 and 20 points, respectively.
Philadelphia came out swinging with an 8-1 run, thanks to buckets from Joel Embiid, Paul George, and Jared McCain, which gave them an early lead. However, that lead was short-lived as a three from Demin and a trio of triples from Porter Jr. put the Nets ahead and forced Nick Nurse to call a timeout.
Out of the timeout, Embiid put a fingerroll in the net to tie things up, and he and Porter began trading buckets back and forth over the next few minutes. With just over three minutes to go in the quarter, Day’Ron Sharpe put back in a tip shot, and Eric Gordon, playing in his first game since December 2nd, hit a layup. That layup wasn’t all from Gordon, as after free throws from Ziaire Williams and George, Gordon drilled the first three of the quarter for the 76ers to tie the game at 27 after 12 minutes.
The start of the second quarter went almost identically to the first as the 76ers jumped out to an early lead thanks to a nice turnaround jumper from George, and then a possession later, a vintage one-handed slam from PG.
Demin and Gordon traded threes, and Andre Drummond slammed a dunk down to put the 76ers back up seven. However, once again, the Nets went on a big run to jump back out in front, thanks to a layup and two dunks from Nic Claxton and two threes from Noah Clowney.
The shots continued to fall for the Nets as Claxton hit another layup, and seven straight points from Porter put Brooklyn ahead by seven with under three minutes until the half. Embiid, who was up to 15 minutes on the half, knocked down a pair of free throws and a mid-range bucket to get to 19 points in the first half.
Maxey had only one point on the night as the half wound down, but changed that quickly thanks to a pair of free throws of his own and a wide-open layup to cut the lead down again. As the final minute of the second quarter ticked down, Danny Wolf drilled a three, and Porter scored another layup to put Brooklyn back up 63-57 heading into the break.
Unlike the previous two quarters, the third period did not start the way the 76ers wanted it to. Maxey’s poor shooting rolled into the second half as he failed to hit any of his shots to open the third quarter. Drummond seemed to be the only scoring option on the 76ers as he tipped in three shots in a row, but the Nets continued to knock down bucket after bucket.
Demin’s outstanding night continued as he scored seven straight points, a Porter 13-footer, and back-to-back-to-back threes from Sharpe, Williams, and Tyrese Wilson increased Brooklyn’s lead to 17 with under a minute until the fourth quarter. Embiid knocked down a pair of free throws, and just before the third quarter ended, Gordon drilled a big corner three to cut the deficit to 12 heading into the final 12 minutes.
Trailing 89-77 at the start of the fourth, the 76ers did a poor job of keeping their deficit to 12. Martin drilled a deep three to open the quarter, and Nolan Traore hit an and-one layup and free throw to make it an 18-point lead for Brooklyn.
Down 99-80, the 76ers needed to go on a run and finally did. Using six points from Embiid, the first made shot of the second half from Maxey, and an alley-oop dunk from Adem Bona, the 76ers instantly cut the Nets’ lead from 19 to nine with four and a half to play.
The 10-0 run came to an end after free throws from Clowney and Porter, but a clutch corner three from George kept the 76ers in it. Needing a stop, the 76ers nearly got it after a steal from Maxey, but he turned it over right away, leading to a deep three from Demin.
Claxton and Maxey traded twos, and George drilled another clutch three, but Demin answered George, hitting another clutch three of his own, making it a 14-point game with under two minutes to play. After a timeout, McCain scored a quick five points to cut it to a nine-point lead, but it was too late as the bench was brought in, the final seconds ticked away, and the 76ers were defeated by the now nine-win Nets 114-106.
Matt Brown
Matt has been a Philadelphia sports fan all his life and spent four years at Penn State University majoring in Broadcast Journalism and minoring in Sports Studies. He previously covered Penn State’s field hockey, men’s and women’s basketball, and baseball teams while writing for a Penn State blog called Onward State. He has now covered the Phillies, Eagles, and Sixers for Philly Sports Reports since October 2024 and wants to pursue a career in Sports Journalism.
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