Sixers open final week of season with loss to Heat, their 12th straight defeat

The Sixers earned their 12th straight defeat with a loss to the Miami Heat on Monday night, falling 117-105 in a game that moves them ever closer to a locked-in spot for their draft lottery future.

Here’s what I saw.

The Good

— Adem Bona, YOU are the full-time backup to start next season. I am not taking a big man with a top-10 pick to try to develop him, I am not relying on Andre Drummond to do anything, and I am not counting on small ball to save me. I am hoping Bona is the guy who can hold the fort with and without Embiid, either in a more expansive role or as the jolt of activity off the bench, playing next to a more talented supporting cast.

Nothing about his close to this season feels like an unsustainable, unrepeatable feat. We’re watching it come together for him in real time — his offensive actions are more natural, his hands are improving ever so slightly, his defensive positioning is better, and his effort remains through it all. It is very easy to see what this kid might look like next to a backcourt rotation of Tyrese Maxey, Jared McCain, and Quentin Grimes, with Bona serving as a constant lob threat on one end and a shot-blocking presence on the other.

As is, he’s doing that for a team playing lineups with four guards and maybe 1.5 guys who can dribble. Bona was asked to prop up a group that featured Butler/Lowry/Hood-Schifino/Grimes as the quartet in front of him, putting a lot of pressure on him to produce on both ends. No worries, of course, with Bona depositing makes around the basket from multiple guards by sliding in from the dunker or flying downhill after making good contact on a screen.

That doesn’t mean he’s without flaws, of course. Bona still has work to do as a rebounder, where his second-jump ability doesn’t help as much as it should on defense. He is so possessed by the idea of trying to block shots that he can get pulled away from good positioning on the glass, opening up opportunities for second-chance opportunities and buckets. But some of these problems can be mitigated with better point of attack defense, better frontcourt help, and more structure around him. That Bona is playing so well despite the horrid circumstances bodes well for his future.

— Lonnie Walker IV has had a rocky spell in Philadelphia, in no small part due to the concussion that knocked him out of the lineup two separate times. Head injuries are pretty impactful for high-level athletes, it turns out.

But after some time to readjust to NBA speed, absorb Nick Nurse’s concepts, and learn the tendencies of his teammates, Walker has played some pretty good basketball (at least on offense). It has certainly helped that his threes have started to drop, after he opened his Sixers tenure in miserable fashion from deep. Walker made it rain from deep down in Miami on Monday night, hitting six triples on a variety of looks — catch-and-shoot jumpers, stepbacks, relocation shots, every type of attempt you can think of.

With the three-ball falling, Walker was able to set up his drives to the basket, drawing Kel’el Ware up high on pick-and-rolls before knifing through the paint for shots at the rim. He had a particularly nice move in the second half, lulling the defense to sleep with an in-and-out move before switching hands in midair for a layup on the left side of the rim. He makes it look so smooth when he has it rolling, which is not something you can say about many guys currently playing for Philadelphia.

— Here’s the best praise I can offer for Quentin Grimes’ performance: I spent the majority of the third quarter sort of jokingly yelling at the TV that he was going to screw up Philadelphia’s draft pick. Grimes had 13 in that quarter alone, destroying Miami with pull-up three after pull-up three to turn a comfortable Heat lead into a Sixers advantage.

There are not going to be as many opportunities to shoot himself into a rhythm next season, and he will definitely need to lock more as a free-throw shooter with the way he has struggled there at times in Philly (Grimes missed three straight during a pivotal sequence late in the fourth). Still, there are a lot of secondary skills to draw hope from, like Grimes’ nose for the ball as a rebounder and the secondary playmaking he can offer with Maxey, George, and Embiid presumably doing the heavier lifting. Every time it has looked like they were out of a game over the last week or two, he seemed to pull a shooting flurry out of thin air. That’ll play on any team, but especially a team with bigger aspirations than these tanking Sixers.

— The game ended.

The Bad

— The game started.

The Ugly

— Let’s be clear: Quentin Grimes should not play the rest of the season if the Sixers are serious about doing everything they can to protect their pick. They have been playing with fire lately, and have a very winnable game against the Wizards this week. Philadelphia will also play middling Bulls and Hawks teams to end the year. They can’t take the risk that something screwy will happen and push them out of the fifth spot in the lottery they’ve worked very hard to get.

— I am weirdly glad that Kyle Lowry has played fine but made no impact on winning during this late-season return to the floor, because I do not want my final memory of a great Philadelphian to be of him screwing up a tank that has taken months of our lives many of us will never get back. Happy to see him (potentially) go out on his terms, happy to see it mean absolutely nothing as it relates to winning basketball games.

Thank you to the other Kyle, Kyle Anderson, by the way. Pulled this game out of the fire when it looked like it might be a toss up the Sixers could win.