Another night, another extremely productive loss for the Sixers.
The status quo remained in tact on Sunday night, as the Sixers played their second-most significant tanking enemies and handled business. With the Toronto Raptors in town, a depleted Sixers squad spent nearly the entire night trailing a Raptors team sitting some contributors but still playing Scottie Barnes and RJ Barrett. At the end of the day, those two players had more talent than the Sixers' makeshift nine-man rotation.
Here is what stood out from the Sixers' eighth loss in a row, a 127-109 defeat at the hands of the Raptors:
Adem Bona hoping to continue cutting down on fouls
The Sixers' rookie center has been capable of making incredible highlight plays for years predating his first NBA campaign. But in order to maximize his prowess as a dunker and incredible shot-blocking capacity, Bona needs to be able to stay on the floor for significant minutes. For much of his rookie season, Bona's predictable issues staying out of foul trouble plagued him nearly every time he had the chance to receive extended run. Only two players in the NBA who have logged at least 150 minutes have committed more fouls per minute than Bona — ironically, one of those two is former Sixers backup center Paul Reed, now of the Detroit Pistons.
But Bona was far and away leading the pack in various rates which measure a player's tendency to get whistled for fouls for much of the season. In the month of March, he has done a terrific job of staying out of foul trouble amid his consistent rotation work. Bona committed five fouls in over 33 minutes in a game against the Indiana Pacers earlier this month, but it is the only time in 11 games all month that he even surpassed three fouls. Perhaps just as importantly, Bona has been able to cut down on his fouling while sustaining the sorts of standout defensive plays that make him special. He was a menace around the rim on Sunday, doing a stellar job of altering or outright swatting Raptors shots around the rim.
.@sixers @adembona has recorded his second block tonight and the 50th of his rookie season.
Bona's average of .07 blocks per minute is second among rookies and sixth in the @NBA (min. 500 minutes played).
h/t @Stathead— Sixers Stats (@SixersStats) March 31, 2025
How has he done it? Bona answered in detail after posting a 16-point, 10-rebound double-double with three blocks and only two fouls in nearly 30 minutes against the Miami Heat on Saturday night.
"I think it's paying attention to details," Bona said. "Staying away from the low fouls, and [trying] to reach for the ball. I watch a lot of film, [Sixers assistant coach Fabulous Flournoy] shows me my little mistakes and things I've been doing in the game that get me in trouble. So I just try to stay away from those things."
Bona continued that trend on Sunday, and it is perhaps one of the greatest examples of why these games still have meaning for the Sixers. Nobody would deny that Bona has the makings of an exciting, valuable NBA center. His accelerated acclimation to facing NBA speed and physicality later on in this season will go a long way for his development, and suddenly the UCLA product being a nightly rotation center for the Sixers next year does not feel so implausible.
Sixers understand their assignment
This game was meaningful for the Sixers, and its significance did not have anything to do with the No. 11 seed in the Eastern Conference. The Sixers' pursuit of a top-six pick — their first-rounder in the upcoming draft will convey to the Oklahoma City Thunder if it falls to No. 7 or lower — was bolstered significantly on Saturday night when they lost as the Brooklyn Nets won. The Sixers now have pole position to attain the fifth-best draft lottery odds, which would do a lot to boost their chances of successfully safeguarding their pick.
On Sunday, not only did the Sixers have a chance to bury the Raptors as competitors for that slot, but the chance to bank another valuable loss with only a few more games left on the schedule against lowly teams. The Sixers falling to teams like New York, Milwaukee and Minnesota feels like a given, but the Raptors have been as aggressive as any team in the NBA in using various tanking methods over the last few weeks. Nabbing this loss eliminates one of the few sources of uncertainty for the Sixers' tanking efforts.
So, it was no surprise that Tyrese Maxey (finger sprain) remained out. It was also par for the course to see Quentin Grimes resting instead if playing; he did the same against the sputtering New Orleans Pelicans last Monday when the Sixers were also on the second leg of a back-to-back.
It extended beyond that: Kelly Oubre Jr. (knee) remained out, as did Kyle Lowry (hip) and Andre Drummond (toe). Drummond will miss at least three more games after this one, according to an update issued by the Sixers on Saturday. Meanwhile, Guerschon Yabusele was sidelined due to soreness in a knee that has led to a handful of absences since the All-Star break. Yabusele has recently looked more spry, but shot 0-for-1 from the field in 30 quiet minutes against the Miami on Saturday night.
The Sixers had nine available players, and the best of them was likely undrafted rookie Justin Edwards, who was not even on the team's standard roster until February. In fact, of those nine healthy bodies, only Bona and Ricky Council IV were on the Sixers' standard roster when this season began. Only Bona, Council and Edwards were even in the organization before the trade deadline.
The Sixers have been decimated by injuries from start to finish in 2024-25, as head coach Nick Nurse has lamented frequently. But they also took some preventative measures in this one with the bigger picture in mind. They understood their assignment.
Odds and ends
Some more notes and takeaways from this one:
• Nurse spoke before the game about the difficulty of figuring out when to make players active considering their limited availability. That is particularly challenging for Jeff Dowtin Jr., the most credible rotation piece of the three who also happens to have the fewest remaining games available. Ultimately, Alex Reese and Jalen Hood-Schifino suited up on Sunday, while Dowtin did not. Here is another update on where the Sixers' two-way players stand:
Sixers two-way statuses tonight, I’m told:
Active: Jalen Hood-Schifino, Alex Reese
Inactive: Jeff Dowtin Jr.
Remaining NBA days for each guy *after tonight’s game ends*:
Dowtin: 2
Reese: 4
Hood-Schifino: 5— Adam Aaronson (@SixersAdam) March 30, 2025
• The Sixers started two players with last names ending with "IV," as Council and Lonnie Walker slotted into Nurse's opening five in place of Grimes and Yabusele. Naturally, both players had nice games. Council paced the Sixers early and was able to find chances to attack downhill in transition and semi-transition, while Walker had a nice burst late in the first half in which he provided some helpful off-the-dribble self-creation.
money from midrange for @lonniewalker_4 💵 pic.twitter.com/u5qvkk1dXH
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) March 31, 2025
Walker's strong push continued into the second half, when surpassed the 20-point mark for the second time as a member of the Sixers.
• That starting unit — comprised of Jared Butler, Walker, Council, Justin Edwards and Bona — was the Sixers' 51st unique starting lineup of the season in its 75th game. That ties them with last year's Memphis Grizzlies for the most in NBA history; if the Sixers use one more starting unit that Nurse has never trotted out before they will stand alone in the record books.
Up next: The Sixers will have a day off before traveling to New York for their final matchup of the season with the Knicks, who will very likely be without superstar point guard Jalen Brunson.
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