Kelly Oubre Jr and the quiet prayer after Tyrese Maxey’s late collision
ATLANTA — kelly oubre jr saw the moment before most fans fully understood it: Tyrese Maxey driving into traffic late, bodies converging, and then Maxey on the floor at State Farm Arena, writhing in pain. Kelly Oubre Jr. said he did what he always does when he sees an injury during an NBA game — he offered a small, private prayer.
The Philadelphia 76ers had just lost, 125-116, to the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday night. By Sunday, the team announced that Tyrese Maxey would miss the next two games with a sprained fifth finger on his right hand, and that he will undergo additional testing and consultation to determine a treatment plan. An update is expected after the team’s upcoming back-to-back.
What happened to Tyrese Maxey in the final minute?
In the closing seconds in Atlanta, Maxey went for a steal and collided in the paint with teammate Adem Bona. Maxey immediately grabbed his right hand in pain. He walked off the floor with 16. 2 ticks remaining, tucking his hand under his jersey as he headed toward the locker room.
The injury landed with extra weight because it came at the end of a pivotal game. Philadelphia had led by double digits for much of the first half, but the third quarter again proved costly. Atlanta was sharper in the minutes that decided the outcome, and the 76ers came up short in the fourth quarter.
Kelly Oubre Jr on what Maxey means to the 76ers
In the locker room Saturday night, Maxey held casual conversation with Joel Embiid and Trendan Watford, ate some food, got dressed, and appeared to be in good spirits. Yet the uncertainty around his hand immediately shifted the emotional center of the room: the 76ers had just taken a standings hit, and their most reliable presence had taken a hard one.
Kelly Oubre Jr did not try to dress it up.
“He’s meant everything to us, ” Kelly Oubre Jr. said Saturday night. “He’s carried us this season. He’s set such a good example for us this season as a hard worker. He’s been the heart and soul of our team. We need him. ”
Watford echoed the same message, with the blunt fear that follows any late-game injury to a cornerstone player.
“He means everything to us, ” Trendan Watford said Saturday. “This is Tyrese Maxey we’re talking about. He means everything to us. So, anytime a guy like that goes down, it’s scary. ”
How does Maxey’s sprained finger affect the playoff race right now?
Philadelphia’s margin has thinned. The loss dropped the 76ers into eighth in the Eastern Conference, just 1. 5 games ahead of the Hawks for the ninth seed, with Atlanta holding the season tie-breaker between the teams. If the season ended on Saturday night, Philadelphia would be in the Play-In.
Maxey’s absence, even limited to two games for now, arrives at a precarious point. The team is already without Embiid for at least the next three games. Rookie guard VJ Edgecombe has been out for the past two games. Paul George still has multiple weeks remaining on his NBA-mandated suspension.
The timing matters because Maxey has been Philadelphia’s best and most consistent player suiting up this season — its best shooter, scorer, and ballhandler, and a physical and emotional leader on and off the floor. In Atlanta, he scored 31 points on 12-of-22 shooting for a short-handed group that needed every clean possession it could find.
What happens next for Tyrese Maxey and the 76ers?
The 76ers’ Sunday statement put the next steps in medical terms: additional testing and consultation in the coming days to determine a treatment plan, with further updates after the back-to-back. The immediate basketball terms are simpler and harsher: he is out for the next two games.
Those games come quickly — Monday against the Cleveland Cavaliers and Tuesday against the Memphis Grizzlies — before a Thursday night matchup with the Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons.
In a season where the 76ers have already been forced to shuffle without key players, the question is not just who starts or who scores. It is whether the group can keep its footing in a tight race where a few games can change the shape of the spring.
Back in Atlanta, the scene that started it all lingers: the collision, the grimace, the instinctive clutch at the right hand. For Kelly Oubre Jr, it also left a quieter image — a teammate praying under arena lights that the pain on the floor would not become the story of the weeks ahead for kelly oubre jr and the 76ers’ season.
Image caption (alt text): kelly oubre jr watches Tyrese Maxey after a late collision in the loss to the Hawks at State Farm Arena.
