In prior seasons, a game in March would serve one of two purposes for the Sixers: providing a chance to improve their possible playoff seeding, or giving them an opportunity to experiment in preparation for the playoffs.
With Joel Embiid one of three Sixers already out for the remainder of the season and the floundering Sixers having only won two games in the last month — with a top-six protected first-round pick to worry about — the team's motivations for the remainder of the season are up in the air. Perhaps more than anything, the Sixers should view their last six weeks of action as a device to further evaluate their younger and newer players headed into the offseason.
So, as the 21-38 Sixers hosted the 27-34 Portland Trail Blazers on Monday, there was not exactly a ton of juice in the building. But all 10 available Sixers played, and there is room for evaluating each one.
Let's recap Monday's 119-102 Sixers win/loss in a different way than we usually do here:
A look at the 10 guys who suited up
Sidelined for the Sixers on Monday night were — allow me to take a deep breath here — three players who are done for the season (Embiid, Jared McCain and Eric Gordon), a pair of two-way players (Alex Reese and Jalen Hood-Schifino) and two starters who were ruled out prior to the game (Kelly Oubre Jr., out with an illness, and Paul George, out due to groin soreness).
The Sixers had only 10 players available, and they all found themselves in the mix. Head coach Nick Nurse started Tyrese Maxey, Quentin Grimes, Justin Edwards, Guerschon Yabusele and Andre Drummond — he had little choice in the matter — and had five reserves ready to check in: Jeff Dowtin Jr., Jared Butler, Lonnie Walker IV, Ricky Council IV and Adem Bona.
For the sake of switching things up, let's run through one thought on each of those 10 players, with a mix of observations from Monday's game and overall takeaways from recent outings.
• Tyrese Maxey: It is admirable that Maxey is trying to gut it out and play despite a finger injury which Nurse admitted before the game was not actually getting any better. But the injury has completely zapped Maxey's three-point shooting ability, and the Sixers are too reliant on his shot-making to survive that. This is particularly true when Maxey continues to play with the greenest of lights. Maxey took 11 shots in the first quarter alone, making only two of them. He shot 1-for-7 from beyond the arc in the opening frame. At the very least, reducing Maxey's minutes for the time being might be the right call.
The many folks advocating for Maxey to sit were likely especially upset when, midway through the third quarter, the Sixers' lone available star took a hard fall on his back. Maxey was on the ground in quite a bit of pain for a moment before being helped to his feet and the locker room:
Tyrese Maxey, who was already playing through a finger injury, appeared to hurt his back on this play.
Maxey was slow to get up and off the floor, did so with the help of medical staff and went right back to locker room. pic.twitter.com/auTLA8XGip— Erin Grugan (@eringrugan) March 4, 2025
At the end of the third quarter, Maxey was ruled out for the remainder of the game due to a back contusion.
• Quentin Grimes: Grimes continued to show the sort of skills necessary for the expansion of ball-handling responsibilities he has taken on in a short period of time with the Sixers. He had a career high in assists in the loss.
"I feel like I've always been good at that," Grimes said last month. "I was a PG predominantly in high school, even at [college] I was a two guard but still bringing the ball up getting us into stuff."
• Justin Edwards: At least anecdotally, it feels as if Edwards has shown more desire to make plays off the bounce of late. He has done so to varying levels of success, but the ambition is in itself encouraging. Edwards, once the top recruit in the country, no longer profiles as some sort of on-ball scoring aficionado, but if he can add any consistent self-creation to a skillset which has enabled him to immediately become a useful two-way role player on the wing, his ceiling will get even higher.
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• Guerschon Yabusele: Yabusele knocked down two early triples in this one after shooting the lights out on Saturday, and while the most common talking points about the 29-year-old's stellar debut season for the Sixers have revolved around his three-point stroke and ability to toggle between power forward and center, his passing has also been notable. Yabusele always keeps the ball moving, never causing any sort of buffer. He collected five assists on Saturday and had a very nifty one in the second quarter against the Blazers, finding Council in the corner for a triple on a drive. Bigs with passing chops are especially valuable on a team with a guard like Maxey — and, moving forward, McCain — who frequently draws blitzes and double-teams. (More on this at the end.)
Yabusele had another dime later in the game, finding a cutting Grimes en route to the basket:
Yabu with the dime. 🪙 pic.twitter.com/dMLcgfYRQV
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) March 4, 2025
• Andre Drummond: Drummond said after a strong showing resulting in a double-double on Saturday that after his first game with at least 10 points and 10 rebounds since November, he had his eyes on a much more grand achievement. Twice as good, even.
"Myself, 20/20 is the next step," Drummond said, referring to a game in which he scores 20 points and grabs 20 rebounds. "That's what I'm chasing after next. That and more wins."
Well, with a legitimately dominant first half, Drummond put himself within striking distance. He scored 16 points and grabbed 11 rebounds prior to intermission, and even knocked down a triple that delighted his teammates (Drummond launching another three-point attempt on the next possession in a heat check was less advisable). But Drummond acknowledged on Saturday that he feels healthier than he has in quite a while after a toe sprain suffered on Dec. 23 derailed him for multiple months.
When the final buzzer sounded, Drummond had 25 points and 18 rebounds. He came awfully close to calling his shot, Babe Ruth style.
• Jeff Dowtin Jr.: With a strong outing on Saturday in a brief rotation cameo, Dowtin leapfrogged Butler on the depth chart and was once again Nurse's backup point guard. Dowtin scored five points in a quick stint to open the second quarter for the second game in a row, giving the Sixers a nice jolt.
Nurse's confidence and trust in Dowtin are no secret. Asked about that by PhillyVoice after Saturday's game, Dowtin cracked a smile before responding.
"I think it's a big thing," Dowtin said. "When a coach can entrust in you, build trust in you, no matter what game, no matter what situation. So it means a lot to me. I'm always going to be ready for the opportunity when I step onto the court. So like I said, coach trusts me, I trust in myself, I trust in the work that I put in and I'm just glad that I can showcase that."
• Jared Butler: Butler has just not found his footing since arriving in Philadelphia, and Nurse has generally stayed away from using the team's second trade acquisition from last month in recent games. He was the last player to check into this game, only doing so with about five minutes left in the first half. He missed both of his shots in a four-minute stint. The Sixers clearly liked Butler enough to make an extremely rare trade for a two-way player (Butler was converted to a standard deal shortly thereafter), but he has not been able to improve his stock just yet.
•Lonnie Walker III: He struggled mightily in his first four games as a Sixer, just unable to get shots to fall while also lagging behind some of his teammates in terms of familiarity with Nurse's schemes. This is understandable; a few weeks ago Walker was playing in Lithuania. Before Monday's game, Nurse was asked what he has seen from Walker so far and how he hopes the 26-year-old can help the Sixers get better.
"Been okay," Nurse said. "I mean, listen, I think that he is going to find some shots out there, as you mentioned. You know, I think he's starting to get a little more comfortable. Looks like he's going to make some more and I think that'll continue. He is a shooter/scorer. Just trying to get him a little more engaged though in other parts of the game. He's going to have to defend good players. Got to get him on — he is super athletic. Got to get him on the glass and involved in the rebounding a little bit more. We'd like to get him up the floor and some transition offense as well."
• Ricky Council IV: Council knocked down an early corner three thanks to Yabusele's terrific dish, and it highlights how much more stability he would have as a player with some semblance of reliability in terms of spot-up three-point shooting. Council, who did little else of note on Monday, entered the game shooting 29.7 percent from beyond the arc on the season.
• Adem Bona: Bona returned to the rotation in this one, and the rookie could be in line for more minutes moving forward with Embiid out. Before last Wednesday's loss to the New York Knicks, Nurse spoke about what he has made of Bona's season so far and where he hopes to see the No. 41 pick in last June's NBA Draft improve.
"He’s had some good moments for sure. I think he’s improving a little bit in his decision-making," Nurse said. "We see a lot of blitzing and all of that stuff, and he’s done a pretty good job of handling that. Obviously, we want him to be a rim protector and continue to improve on that. Again, just being able, night in, night out, to be a high-energy guy that can keep up with the pace of the way things are happening in an NBA game. I still think he still needs some experience with that. They throw a lot of stuff at him and lots of coverages and all of that kind of stuff, and just being diligent with those and consistent with those and see the improvement there.
Up next: The Sixers will quickly board a plane and head to Minnesota, where they will face Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves on Tuesday night.
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