It took until well after the game was over, but Tyrese Maxey finally showed his age.

A New York reporter asked him about Reggie Miller’s legendary eight points in nine seconds at Madison Square Garden, and Maxey essentially responded with a shrug.

“Our trainer Kevin Johnson was talking about that after the game,” Maxey said of Miller’s scoring flurry in the closing seconds of Game 1 of the 1995 Eastern Conference semifinals. “I’ll have to go back and watch it a little bit more. That was a long time ago.”

In fact, it was six years before he was born.

The 76ers need a couple more W’s before Maxey earns a place among history’s greatest Knicker-clockers. If they lose a season-ending Game 6 at home, the locals won’t be talking about the fun they had along the way.

At the moment, though, the season lives on. It lives on because the Sixers had easy access to a defibrillator: a burgeoning superstar named Tyrese Maxey.

Maybe you skipped watching Game 5 because you had something better to do. You took the dog for a 2 1/2-hour walk or prepaid next year’s taxes. Maybe you turned it off when the Sixers were outscored 32-17 in the second quarter. Or maybe you waited until they were down 94-88 with 59.2 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

Well, you missed something special.

The Sixers’ 112-106 overtime win over the Knicks in Game 5 may turn out to mean nothing. But the 23-year-old kid who was at the center of it all? He showed us something lasting.

There wasn’t a signature moment. There were two. The first came with 26.2 seconds left and the Sixers down 96-90. The Garden was rocking. The celebratory beers were flowing. The fingers were fully unclenched. The Knicks were on their way to the Eastern Conference semis in a series whose final 4-1 margin did not do the proceedings justice.

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