Blocked By Bona: Adem Bona dominates the boards in another Sixers comeback win

Photo Credit: Geoff Burke/Imagn Images

“It’s great that some unexpected guys make plays,” said Sixers head coach Nick Nurse after Tuesday’s overtime win in Washington. “Like, [Adem] Bona has two points, but they were the two that gave us the lead.”

It’s been that way through the first four games of the 2025-26 NBA season for the undefeated Sixers. With center Joel Embiid on a minutes restriction and forward Paul George and guard Jared McCain sidelined due to injury, everyone on the depth chart has stepped up and played a vital role in establishing this early-season winning streak.

On opening night against the Boston Celtics, it was rookie guard V.J. Edgecombe, who had a historic debut, and first-year Sixer, forward Dominik Barlow, who finished with 13 points and eight rebounds, stepping up to help guard Tyrese Maxey and the Sixers. In the home opener against the Charlotte Hornets, it was center Andre Drummond who took center stage, scoring seven points, including a late go-ahead slam, and collecting a game-high 13 rebounds. In the third game of the season, a home win against the Orlando Magic, it was veterans Eric Gordon and Kelly Oubre Jr. who took over down the stretch.

On Tuesday night, it was all about Adem Bona.

While Maxey did his thing, scoring 39 points and registering 10 assists, there would be a 1 in the Sixers’ loss column if it wasn’t for the defensive performance of Bona in Washington.

“Big-time Bona,” said forward Trendon Watford, who made his Sixers debut against the Wizards. “Big-time Bona. That’s what he does.”

Looking at the basics of the box score, some may question why the Sixers’ win hinged on a young big man who scored two points. The eye test in the fourth quarter and overtime would say otherwise.

The 22-year-old center played 18 minutes off the bench in a 139-134 overtime victory. He registered two points, five rebounds, and five blocks, with his one bucket and all five blocks coming after the 7:18 mark of the fourth quarter.

Down 118-109 with less than seven minutes to go in the final frame, the blocking began. It all started with a two-block sequence, where Bona rejected forward Khris Middleton’s fadeaway jumper to the left of the paint. After the ball went right back into the hands of Middleton, he found guard C.J. McCollum at the top of the key, who then drove to the rim but had his floater swatted out of play by a leaping Bona.

Now trailing by 11 with 4:30 to play in the fourth quarter, Bona struck again. When center Alex Sarr, the Wizards’ top scorer with 31 on Tuesday, turned Oubre around, Bona was in the paint to deny the seven-footer’s floater. The block forced a long-range effort from forward Kyshawn George that resulted in an easy defensive rebound.

From Bona’s third block of the game to the end of regulation, the Wizards only scored four points, allowing the Sixers to crawl back into the game thanks to big shots from Maxey, Oubre Jr., and guard Quinton Grimes, who tied the game at 126 with a 27-foot three-pointer with 38.7 seconds to go. On the ensuing Wizards possession, Bona made arguably his biggest block of the night. With McCoullm driving to the rim, Bona tipped his scooped layup off the backboard. While the initial call on the floor was a goaltend, which would have given the Wizards the late lead, the call was changed to a legal block as Bona got his fingertips on the ball before it touched the glass.

With the game headed to overtime, Bona’s defense would be called upon again, but it was his one offensive contribution in the extra session that gave the Sixers the lead for good. Trailing by one with under 30 seconds to play, Maxey drove downhill, leaving his floater short off the front of the rim, but Bona was in the right place at the right time to slam home an emphatic dunk off the rebound to give the Sixers a 132-131 lead.

Bona gave Sixers fans one more treat before Halloween on Friday night, once again stealing the candy out of McCoullum’s hands. With the Sixers up three, the veteran guard got inside of Grimes, but had his layup denied at the rim by Bona.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” said Adem Bona after the win. “At that point, the game wasn’t over, so I was like, ‘let’s go, let’s go… We’ve got more to play.’ It was an exciting feeling. And also, to bring the energy to the whole gym and see the whole team jump off the bench, it’s just amazing.”

“For whatever reason tonight, he saved it all until the end,” Nurse said. “I don’t know how many he had in a row down the stretch there. It seems like more than five, doesn’t it? Or five in a row or something like that. But he protected the rim on every drive late. That’s good.”

Even on a minutes restriction, Embiid had his say in Tuesday night’s win, keeping his team in the game early on. The center had 25 points, seven rebounds, and five assists in 23 minutes. Per the Real Sports App, Embiid had the third-fewest minutes played in a 25/5/5 game in NBA history. Maxey and Grimes did most of the scoring late to lead the offensive side of the Sixers’ comeback.

Because of Embiid’s health and progression to get back to full fitness, Bona has been thrust into big minutes early on in his second NBA season. The Lagos, Nigeria, native averaged 15.5 minutes per game in the 2024-25 season, with 1.2 blocks per game. Through four games this season, Bona is averaging 17.3 minutes and 2.3 blocks per game. The backup big man ranks fourth in the league in blocks (nine) and fifth in blocks per game.

According to Latif Love, an NBA journalist from Chicago, this season, Bona’s opponents have finished 7.9 percent worse when he’s the closest defender, 7.3% worse when he’s contesting at the rim, and 11.3% worse with him on the floor.

“We never quit,” said Joel Embiid. “That’s the mentality that everybody has. No matter who’s playing or not. We’ve been doing a good job. Just keep doing it.”

“I think that just shows the fight we have in us,” Bona said. “It shows the brotherhood we have in us, the bonding we did over the summer. Just looking back to last year… we’ve built a fighting spirit.”

That spirit continues to show through comeback wins and the play of unlikely heroes.