Sixers’ tanking machine chugs along in another loss to Raptors

The Sixers’ loss machine kept humming along on Sunday night, losing 127-109 to the Toronto Raptors to continue their march toward the best lottery odds possible. With a win from the New Orleans Pelicans over the Hornets on Sunday, a fever-dream scenario is emerging where the Sixers could move as high as the fourth-best odds in the 2025 NBA Draft lottery.

Here’s what I saw.

The Good

— The game ended.

— In the “things that may eventually matter” department, I am getting more and more optimistic about Adem Bona as a rotation big. He is finding ways to make his activity matter without putting himself in foul jeopardy, which is a huge development for him. Bona didn’t pick up his first foul in this game until the third quarter, despite having to be involved quite a bit around the rim on both ends.

Offensively, I think he and the coaching staff deserve credit for molding him into a more reliable player with a defined role. His timing is better on pick-and-rolls, even with the Sixers rolling out a rotation of guards who are probably fourth guards at best. And while his percentages are hanging in the high 60s at the free-throw line, I feel increasingly good about him at the stripe, with Bona confidently stepping into a 4/4 night from the line on Sunday.

Hold onto these things, because they’re all we have to close this season.

— Good night for Lonnie Walker IV. When he has it going as a scorer, he can be quite fun to watch, with jittery footwork around the paint and a smooth-looking jumper to step into at any time. Walker also played the setup man against Toronto, stepping into Quentin Grimes’ role as the do-it-all creator for himself and others (while keeping his turnovers down in the process).

The Bad

— The game started.

— Rough nights for Justin Edwards, Ricky Council IV, and Marcus Bagley. Edwards is easily the most disappointing of that group, given his recent run of form, and I thought he had a dreadful defensive game to go with a bad shooting night. He’s due for a few bad games after a good run as a featured player, honestly, so hard to get too mad about it.

— Jalen Hood-Schifino had a good game on paper and showed off a bit of the skill set that got him drafted in the first place. He is a confident, skilled pull-up shooter, with some nice in-and-out moves and fluidity with his counters. But I don’t think I am a believer in him after having some time to watch him in extended minutes. Real sloppy passing game, which came from the fact that he struggled to get downhill separation. Good side-to-side player, and potential shooter, but not much there otherwise. Fine with him on a two-way contract, so we’ll see if he can get more than that this offseason.

The Ugly

— Some people would say recapping a March 2025 Sixers game couldn’t be done. Frankly, more would probably argue it shouldn’t be done, and they would be correct. What are we all still doing here?

It has been so long since I have watched the Sixers play a meaningful basketball game that I am starting to forget what they look like, let alone sound like or feel like. It hasn’t helped that they have played a who’s who of tanking or otherwise bad teams over the last month or so, interrupted only occasionally by a much better team that doesn’t take them seriously.

Honestly, the people I think of are the people who are still inclined to read these recaps, the people who continue going to games, and the people who show up for the team even when the team hasn’t shown up for them. I think what stings the most is that this season was supposed to represent the payoff for last year’s gap year — a year where their lack of in-season moves was justified by “the cap space plan” that was going to bring a big free agent (or perhaps more than one) to help push this team over the top. They got the biggest name in free agency, some veterans who should have helped on paper, and there was not a single moment during this season when you felt you should have real belief in the team. They punched you in the mouth in the opening month and never brought any relief, unless you were an overzealous buyer of their Christmas performance, hopped up on egg nog and a desire to escape boring conversation with your in-laws.

So here we are, as March comes to an end, contemplating what there is to take meaning from in a battle centering Jared Butler, Lonnie Walker IV, and Justin Edwards. Edwards is the most promising of that group by a good bit, and has had a strong month in spite of all this nonsense, but you’re not learning much more about him from this game than you would down in Delaware. Every minute that goes by, you can see the outline of a team that has not played enough together — a turnover thrown two feet behind where they thought their teammate would be, sloppy execution on a sideline out of bounds play, a transition opportunity where three guys turn a man-advantage situation into a car wreck. I don’t blame the players who have been left behind for what we’re watching, but they are the practitioners of this god forsaken product, even if they aren’t the architects of it. So I still sit here and roll my eyes or groan far too often at what we’re all witnessing.

The Raptors, mind you, are a terrible basketball team. RJ Barrett had a possession where he dribbled himself toward the baseline, got stuck, and just sort of heaved the ball up from behind the backboard, clearing the obstruction before missing the basket (and his teammates) entirely. And that was toward the end of a half where he scored 19 points, seven more than anybody on Philadelphia had managed. He was one of the good players in this game, the best player on either team. And with so little structure, such meager competition, and little incentive to do anything other than “whatever I feel like at this moment,” these games flip back and forth between red carpet rides to the rim and the worst half-court possessions you have ever seen in your life.

I love basketball, and covering this league, and even this job as it takes me down this miserable, never-ending spiral of injuries and irksome hoops. But boy, I will be thankful when this year ends. Let me rewatch games for draft talk and never speak of these games again.

— The Sixers were 3/17 from three at halftime. I promise that it felt worse than that.

— I watched Longlegs for the first time the other night. Good Silence of the Lambs adjacent movie with a bit more weirdness. If you like horror thrillers, tap in.