PHILADELPHIA -- The Philadelphia 76ers dropped their 10th straight game on Thursday as they fell to the Milwaukee Bucks 126-113. The Sixers are now sitting at 23-54 and have five games left in what has been a tough season for everybody on the floor.
The Bucks received a monstrous game from Giannis Antetokounmpo who had 35 points, 20 rebounds, and 17 assists. The Sixers did everything they possibly could against the superstar, but nothing was working on this night as the Greek Freak made it all look easy out on the floor.
Adem Bona had 28 and six rebounds for the Sixers while Quentin Grimes added 24 points and 10 assists. Guerschon Yabusele added 22 points and six rebounds, Jared Butler had 14 points and four assists, and Justin Edwards had eight and eight rebounds.
Here are the three biggest takeaways following the loss:
Bona taking leaps forward
Bona was energetic from the jump. The Bucks are an older bunch who are not as athletic and the rookie out of UCLA took full advantage of it. He was able to finish around the basket by making a full array of post moves and powered through a lot of Milwaukee’s defenders. This is the type of performance that allows a player to build and move forward as time moves on.
"He was really good," coach Nick Nurse said of Bona. "I thought, obviously, he was super effective around the basket. He had some great finishes and great catches and dunks, and was on the glass a little bit, tipping some around and did a great job. It's great to see him. Kinda everything he did was super, super good tonight. So that was great to see."
Grimes as a playmaker
Grimes was able to make things happen with his passing ability against this Bucks team. While he was able to put the ball in the basket—something he has been able to do this entire time in Philadelphia—seeing him come up with 10 assists is a big development. The Sixers are going to continue exploring different parts of his game in this final stretch of the s season and playmaking is one of them. As Grimes and the Sixers move forward, look for him to continue having the ball in his hands running offense.
Nurse said this of Grimes' playmaking:
Yeah, for sure. I think again, he's obviously drawing a lot of attention in game plans and when he's coming off of things, he's almost always got one and a half to two defenders, so he's gonna ...
