With Joel Embiid on the shelf for now, the Philadelphia 76ers need their centers to step up in a big way if they want to pull off a first-round upset against the Boston Celtics.
Andre Drummond has gotten the memo, but it seems that Adem Bona hasn't.
Bona, who was largely a disappointment during the regular season, is leaving a lot to be desired against Boston. In the first two games, he averaged 1.5 points, 3 rebounds, 1 turnover, and 2.5 fouls while shooting 14.3% from the field in 18 minutes. And if it wasn't bad enough, he is already beginning to lose some of his minutes to Drummond.
In a recent episode of the "Locked On 76ers" podcast, Marc Farzetta spoke about how important it is for the team to get the 23-year-old going.
"He's a guy that the Sixers need to get going as well," Farzetta said about Bona. "I mean, he's not pivotal, but I would like to see his minutes not just be about getting some blocked shots and trying to be a weak-side defender. I'd like to see him, as Nick Nurse put it today, [be] a guy who's hanging on the rim for a minute or two after he's able to throw one down. I think we'd all like to see that, and I think his teammates would like to see it as well."
The 76ers need more out of Adem Bona against the Celtics
Boston is a fantastic team, and the fact that it ended the season as the No. 2 seed in the East (despite being without Jayson Tatum for most of the campaign and being fresh off a fire sale), is a testament to how resilient and talented the organization is from top to bottom.
However, the Celtics aren't an unbeatable team (as was the case in Game 2), and for the 76ers to pull off the upset, they need to attack their weaknesses.
Neemias Queta has been fantastic for Boston all year long as its starting center. Many consider him to be a candidate for the Most Improved Player award this year, and rightfully so. But one of his biggest weaknesses is his ability to play against faster centers, which Bona is. Bona needs to be the transition beast Philadelphia knows he can be, because it will be difficult for the Celtics to stop it.
And alongside Queta, the Celtics have Nikola Vucevic (who has mostly struggled during his brief tenure with the team) and Luka Garza, who has only logged 16 minutes total in the series so far.
Bona isn't going to be Embiid 2.0, but his play this series has been incredibly underwhelming. He needs to do a better job of using his athleticism to his advantage by making Boston pay in transition, being a menace in the paint, and just playing with much more intensity and ferocity.
If the 76ers are serious about sending Boston home early this postseason, they need everybody to be on their A-game. And that especially includes Bona, whose play so far has been very concerning.
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