Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Tyrese Maxey have gotten their teams off to scorching starts in this fledgling NBA season.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has brought the boom to the early stages of his NBA season, which has also been rung in by Tyrese Maxey.
The All-Star guard duo was named the NBA’s Players of the Week for the second stage of the 2025-26 season: Gilgeous-Alexander put up 28.8 points, 6.5 assists, and 4.5 rebounds as he helped the Oklahoma City Thunder keep its perfect start in tact, while Maxey had 33.5, 9.8, and 5.3 in the same respective categories.
Gilgeous-Alexander thus continues his forward momentum from his MVP campaign, as he earned his seventh weekly award. Since surviving a pair of double overtime showdowns in the opening week, the Thunder has won three of its last five by double figures, that tally capped off with a 137-106 shellacking of the hapless New Orleans Pelicans over the weekend. Gilgeous-Alexander has done his part with three consecutive games with at least 30 points, shooting 55 percent in that span.
Maxey has been equally effective for the surging Sixers, whose backcourt talents have guided them to a 5-1 start after last season’s disappointing output, tied for the best in the East with the Chicago Bulls. He got the week off to a sterling start, scoring an early season-best 43 points in last Monday’s 136-124 win over Orlando. He followed that up with a 39-point, 10-assist double-double the very next night against Washington, one of two he earned alongside a 26-14 showing in the NBA Cup opener vs. Boston on Friday night.
Maxey breaks the Sixers’ relative drought in POTW titles, as they had gone without in the department since Maxey won the last such award at the end of the 2024 calendar year. It’s the third weekly award of Maxey’s career, his first coming in October 2023.
Portland Trail Blazer teammates Deni Avdija and Jrue Holiday were also nominated for the Western edition of the award, as were Los Angeles Laker collaborators Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. Alperen Sengun of the Houston Rockets rounded out that list while Jaylen Brown (Boston), Cade Cunningham (Detroit), Josh Giddey (Chicago), Jalen Johnson (Atlanta), and Ryan Rollins (Milwaukee) were Maxey’s runner-ups in the East.
Both Maxey and Gilgeous-Alexander will be back in action on Tuesday night: the 76ers will be in Chicago (8 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Philadelphia), while the Thunder are part of a nationally-televised nightcap against the Los Angeles Clippers (10 p.m. CT, NBC/Peacock).
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
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