Tyrese Maxey scored a career-high 44 points as the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Toronto Raptors 112-90 on Friday night without Joel Embiid.

"I just know how good we can be, I know how talented we are, but we've got to match our talent with the energy that we play with, and defensive tenacity.

"Tonight we knew it was going to be extremely hard without Joel. That made guys step up, that made guys do things they don't normally do," said Maxey.

Maxey shot 15-of-20 from the field, including 9-of-12 from the three-point line.

Embiid missed the game due to a sore right knee.

Doc Rivers added that the Sixers still have some ways to go to reaching their potential. 

We're not close to where we want to be. And we're going to have some bumps early and we know that. But once we get there, we're going to be a really good basketball team," said Rivers.