Sixers center Adem Bona hopes to close the season strong and embrace one final challenge

In the last seven games, the undersized center has produced 14.9 points on 73.3% shooting, 8.9 rebounds, 1.1 steals, and 2.7 blocks.

Sixers center Adem Bona, the team's second-round draft pick in June, has stepped as the starter with Joel Embiid and Andre Drummond dealing with lost seasons.Read moreYong Kim / Staff Photographer

by Keith Pompey

Published April 11, 2025, 5:00 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON — Nick Nurse’s marching orders for Adem Bona in the makeshift 76ers’ remaining games are simple.

“Just continue to keep doing what he’s doing,” the Sixers coach said this week, before the Sixers beat the Washington Wizards on Wednesday, 122-103.

“Again, my thing with him is: Can he continue to do it on a nightly basis? I think his plate’s pretty full right now. He’s starting. He’s playing huge minutes. He’s been against some of the best big guys in the league.”

The undersized center has matched up against the likes of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Brook Lopez, Rudy Gobert, Naz Reid, Julius Randle, Bam Adebayo, and rookies Kel’el Ware and Alex Sarr while starting the last seven games. And he has held his own at 6-foot-8 and 235 pounds.

The second-round pick in June’s draft averaged 14.9 points on 73.3% shooting, 8.9 rebounds, 1.1 steals and 2.7 blocks during those games. He had a career-high 28 points on 13-for-15 shooting against two-time MVP Antetokounmpo and one-time All-Star Lopez in the Sixers’ 126-113 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on April 3. Mind you, Antetokounmpo is a 6-11 power forward and Lopez is a 7-foot center.

“He’s giving away about four or five or six inches to some of those guys, and he keeps battling them,” Nurse added. “But that’s good for him and just see if he can do that for the rest of this week.”

Bona’s athleticism has been on full display in the starting lineup. That’s something he wasn’t able to show on the offensive end during his two seasons at UCLA.

“My role was different from the role I play right now with the NBA,” Bona said. “In college, I was back to the basket. So I was getting double-teamed the whole time. So my style of play was different.

“Now, I’m in the league, I have to adapt to my style of play and play the way to play to my advantage and what’s going to help the team.”

He’ll look to make the most of his athleticism in pick-and-roll and transition scenarios during the final two games. The Sixers (24-56) will play home games against the Atlanta Hawks on Friday (7 p.m.) and Chicago Bulls on Sunday (1 p.m.).

The Hawks and Bulls are battling for the Eastern Conference’s No. 8 seed in next week’s Play-In Tournament.

Atlanta isin eighth place with a 38-42 record and Chicago is a game back in ninth at 37-43.

Both teams realize the importance of beating the tanking Sixers. And that means these two games should shape up to be solid tests for Bona.

He’ll also face a more familiar test, as the Sixers will, once again, be undermanned on Friday.

Justin Edwards (rib contusion), Quentin Grimes (right shoulder sprain), and Alex Reese (right Achilles tendinitis) are listed as questionable. Stars Joel Embiid (left knee injury management), Paul George (left groin injury recovery), and Tyrese Maxey (right finger sprain) and a host of others will be sidelined.