The Sixers battled Indiana despite putting an eight-man rotation filled with G-League players on the floor, but Philadelphia eventually fell 112-100 in a loss to help their tanking efforts. Jeff Dowtin led the way for Philadelphia with a career-high 24 points, and the Sixers got another nice outing from center Adem Bona.

Here’s what I saw.

The Good

— The plan at center next season is pretty straightforward to me. Forget the guys like Andre Drummond, innings eater players with no upside who also don’t materially impact your chances to win. Adem Bona should be given a chance to be Embiid’s full-time backup, and if they can’t/don’t keep Guerschon Yabusele around as a smaller stretch big option, bring in another guy in that mold as the third guy in the rotation. Unless there’s an outlier-level opportunity to add talent and youth in one package, develop Bona, keep a veteran who brings a different skill set, and hope that Embiid is healthy.

I think Bona shows all the signs of a kid worth investing time in over the years to come. He’s a terrific athlete for a player at his size, and he runs like the wind from rim to rim, putting himself in a position to make as many plays around the basket as possible. But more importantly, you can see the work he has put into his craft shining through as he becomes a more reliable player on offense. Bona is hitting little baby hooks semi-regularly at this point, catching balls around the basket and moving quickly into a shot attempt. His craft is better out of pick-and-rolls and dribble handoffs alike, with fewer moving screens and too-early slips popping up during plays. Bona had 10 points at halftime against the Pacers, going 6/7 from the line (!!) while playing with real physicality.

Bona is confident enough in his skills that he is capable of pulling off the fake handoff move every so often, too. The Pacers gave him some space on a handoff with Jalen Hood-Schifino in the third quarter, and Bona was at the rim throwing it down before Indiana knew what hit them:

Add in the rim protection, and you have a good modern big in there trying to climb out. As Bona fouls less and shows more comfort as a switch defender — uphill battle on the former — it’ll be tough to argue for keeping him out of the rotation. But for now, Andre Drummond is probably needed to help see out the tank.

— Jeff Dowtin shot like he had a medicine ball in his hands for the first few months of this season. When it was time for everyone to pack it in, he turned into a pull-up machine, using his lead guard opportunities to great effect. Sports journeys don’t always turn out the way you expect.

He has been an absolute menace over the last week or two, and managed to top the career high he set on Wednesday night just two days later. Dowtin has gotten it done with pure pace control — he hasn’t allowed anyone to make him move any quicker than he’s prepared to, using pitter-pat footwork and excellent touch to free himself for runners and floaters inside the arc. Some of his shots are barely hitting the net right now, with Dowtin slithering into space on an expert level.

Someone had to carry the mantle with Quentin Grimes sidelined due to illness, and Dowtin was ready for the job. He also managed to pick TJ McConnell’s pocket in the backcourt on a steal that turned into an and-one layup midway through the fourth quarter — talk about giving a guy a dose of his own medicine.

— The game ended.

The Bad

— The game started.

— Guerschon Yabusele, I will remember you putting up a 1/6 stinker if they hold onto this pick. Desparately needed.

— Ricky Council IV’s brand of chaos works when there’s a bit of stability around him. That is not the situation he finds himself in, so silly fouls and reckless jumpers come fast and furious. So it goes.

The Ugly

— I wrote about a lot of Process-era Sixers games. This lineup is up there with any of the bad ones they put on the floor during that three-year stretch.

Yeesh.

— I will be honest, I hate what this season has done to me as a basketball observer. I don’t have any ill will in my heart toward someone like Jeff Dowtin, who is trying to make the most of a terrible situation at the end of the year. I don’t want Jalen Hood-Schifino to fail in his first NBA minutes in months. I also don’t want to discourage a strong effort from Adem Bona, who plays hard each and every time that he’s on the floor. These guys are people battling for their careers and their futures, and I don’t begrudge them one bit for taking the opportunity seriously.

But I can’t escape the importance of losing these games no matter how hard I try, so their positive moments and made shots eat away at my soul a little bit. I am painfully aware of how much brighter the future could be if the Sixers simply hang onto their pick in this year’s draft, and how much darker it will feel if they give away a top-eight pick to a loaded Thunder team instead. It’s the difference between a summer of imagination, a bridge to a new era, a dream of what might be, and an offseason filled with half-hearted attempts to explain why they’re not actually screwed, they just need Joel Embiid to get healthy.

And to be clear, there are some good and fun stories to care about as this season heads down the home stretch. Bona does look like a long-term piece in the rotation, the sort of big that will fight his way into the coach’s plans with good effort in-game and total commitment during the unseen hours. Dowtin may be too old and too limited to stick in the NBA moving forward, but he is going down swinging, and there’s something to admire about that spirit in the dying embers of this lost season.

If you can focus on those things, more power to you. I generally try to see the good in people, too, but I’m also laser-focused on the idea of the Sixers saving their pick, even if the franchise wasn’t until recently.

— It doesn’t say the greatest things about the vets on this roster that the best performance the Sixers have had recently came when they played a G-League lineup over their normal rotation players. When the difference is basic effort and execution, why couldn’t they get this out of a much more talented group of players during the first 60 games?

It doesn’t say the greatest things about the Pacers, either, but that’s another story. On that subject — Thomas Bryant wins the total bozo award for this game. He managed to get a flagrant foul reviewed for a closeout from eight feet away because he was dumb enough to stand over Adem Bona and talk trash after stepping into his landing space. And moments before that, he tried to celebrate a blocked shot by turning to his bench and yelling, only to get chastised by Tyrese Haliburton for not getting up the floor to help them on offense. Truly special stuff.

— Pascal Siakam is like 20 percent forgiven for elbowing Joel Embiid in the face in the 2022 playoffs. He singlehandedly pushed the Pacers back in the right direction in this game.