Everyone knows the MVP frontrunners, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic, and Nikola Jokic, but one name that often slips under the radar because of their sheer grandeur is Tyrese Maxey. He is right there in the numbers, sitting inside the league’s top five in scoring at 31.5 points per game, trailing only Luka and Shai. So when a player does that much and ends up watching from the sidelines instead of lifting his team, it naturally raises concern.

“We’re super concerned,” the Sixers coach Nick Nurse admitted before tip-off against the Hawks. “We’re concerned because he’s sick and he wasn’t well enough to get on the floor here for a couple games. After Friday’s game, we thought he’d be at the plane to come with us, but didn’t make it.”

Maxey missed his second straight game due to illness.

Still, there’s a hint of optimism. Nurse revealed he spoke to Maxey recently and expects him back soon. “I talked to him last night and he said he’d see me at practice Tuesday,” Nurse said. “I said I’m not sure we’re practicing Tuesday, but I’ll be there. Me and you, man. I’ll see you there… It is concerning, but again, he’s improving. Hopefully, it’ll get him to where he’s good enough to get back in action.”

Maxey’s scoring jump this season has been impossible to miss. He’s hovering near the rare 50/40/90 club. He’s already crossed the 40-point mark four times, highlighted by a stunning 54-point outburst against the Bucks on November 20. That night, Maxey tied Allen Iverson for ninth on the Sixers’ all-time single-game scoring list and placed Maxey alongside Wilt Chamberlain as the only Philadelphia players to post at least 50 points and nine assists in a game.

Simply put, he has become the heartbeat and unquestioned leader of this roster.

That’s why his absence loomed large against Atlanta. Without Maxey, along with Kelly Oubre Jr. and Trendon Watford, the Sixers struggled to close and fell 120–117 to the Hawks, who were themselves missing Trae Young and others.

Philadelphia now gets a four-day break before heading to New York on Friday, a pause that could be just what Maxey needs to reset and return.

Is Maxey’s illness the cost of carrying too much?

The numbers certainly point in that direction. Maxey entered last week leading the NBA in minutes at 39.9 per game. He pushed his body to the limit on multiple nights, playing the entire second half and overtime during his 54-point explosion in Milwaukee, then logging a staggering 52 minutes in a double-overtime loss to Orlando.

No player has averaged 40 minutes across a season in more than a decade, and the grind of carrying that kind of load was bound to test even the most durable body.

Yet this isn’t a player caught unprepared. Maxey’s rise has been backed by serious physical and mental investment. He credits sports performance consultant Alexander Reeser for offseason programs that “[push] me to my max limit, every day,” while also building a reputation for early-morning workouts and sometimes three training sessions in a single day.

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Nick Nurse has noted that Maxey’s in-season routine is now about conserving energy, calling it “very minimal work, for obvious reasons,” while focusing on efficiency rather than excess.

Maxey himself insists the plan is long-term. That mindset was shaped last season, when a finger injury and a lost year for the Sixers gave him time to reset, study film daily, and focus on recovery. Already an All-Star and Most Improved Player, Maxey has shown he has the strength, discipline, and mentality to handle the load. Now, it’s simply about shaking off the illness and getting back where he belongs, on the floor.