April 09, 2025
Geoff Burke/Imagn Images
In his penultimate game of the 2024-25 season, Sixers two-way point guard Jeff Dowtin Jr. had the best performance of his NBA career.
For once, the Sixers could actually win with no ramifications -- and they ended up doing exactly that on Wednesday night.
With their status as the fifth-worst team in the NBA being close to cemented, the tank-proof Sixers played a competitive game in Washington, D.C., defeating a Wizards team still vying for the top odds in the NBA Draft Lottery after pulling ahead with a terrific final frame.
The Sixers' 122-103 victory will almost certainly have zero impact on their eventual positioning, and it was certainly a nice boost for a group of players that have played tirelessly for months with only a few wins to show for it. Here is what stood out from the action, featuring an obvious hero and a less obvious one:
Ever since being traded to the Sixers two-plus months ago, Grimes has been on a mission to prove he was far more than just a quality two-way role player. Grimes insisted early on in his Sixers tenure that he was capable of doing much more with the ball in his hands than he had been provided the opportunity to show, and he backed it up in every possible way. Grimes has redefined himself as a dynamic three-level scorer, whose relies not just on pull-up shot-making, but the driving lines the threat of his shot opens up.
The question, of course, is how this new and improved version of Grimes can fit within the context of a more competitive Sixers team alongside Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, Paul George and even Jared McCain. The Sixers' deal to send Caleb Martin to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for Grimes and the Sixers' own 2025 second-round pick -- now projected to land at No. 35 overall -- instantly felt like a safe bet to work out, in part because nobody questioned Grimes' ability to be a valuable role player for a competitive, star-laden team. The deal could very easily have worked out without Grimes going on an absolute scoring tear, but now that there is far more upside apparent in the 24-year-old, the Sixers are obviously thrilled to have executed the deal.
Grimes played the entire first quarter in Washington -- despite initially being listed as questionable for the contest due to back soreness -- and it was a reminder that despite his scoring arsenal becoming massive, he can impact the game in other ways. Grimes took seven shots and missed every single one of them in the opening frame in D.C., but it still felt as if he was helping the Sixers win those minutes. Grimes grabbed six rebounds, blocked a shot, nabbed a steal and dished out three assists in the first dozen minutes of the game:
Bona jam 🎶 pic.twitter.com/V8EK22osSs
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) April 9, 2025
By the time the teams reached intermission, Grimes was 0-for-10 from the field, but it still felt as if he was helping the Sixers as they pulled ahead.
There should not be too many worries about how Grimes can fit with the 2025-26 Sixers. He has proven to be talented enough as a scorer that the Sixers should run some of their offense for him moving forward, but he is just not the type of player that fades into the background if they are not scoring.
For the first time in exactly two weeks, Dowtin -- the only player to make it through the entire season on a two-way contract with the Sixers -- was active on Wednesday. Dowtin entered the game having suited up on 48 separate occasions for the Sixers, which meant he could only dress for two of the team's final three contests. Fellow two-way players Jalen Hood-Schifino and Alex Reese were in the same predicament; Reese was active alongside Dowtin on Wednesday but Hood-Schifino was in street clothes. This will allow Hood-Schifino to play in both of the team's final games at home, while Dowtin and Reese can each play in only one of them.
For Dowtin, however, these fleeting opportunities to get on the floor mean a whole lot more. Reese and Hood-Schifino are unproven commodities trying to earn more chances to show their worth with the Sixers or other teams, but they have much more time to do so. The clock is running out much faster for Dowtin, who figures to no longer be eligible to sign a two-way contract after this season with four years of experience under his belt.
It was understandable, then, that Dowtin came out with major aggression offensively from the outset on Wednesday. It paid dividends, as he went on an impressive scoring binge in the second quarter that led the Sixers on a major run to take a double-digit lead. He did much of his damage playing alongside Jared Butler, which is not a combination Sixers head coach Nick Nurse has been able to utilize much down the stretch of this season.
In the third quarter, Dowtin got right back to work upon checking in, showing off what Nurse believes is a much-improved three-point stroke. Dowtin was, for the second time in as many quarters, largely responsible for the Sixers breaking a tie and pulling ahead with a comfortable amount of breathing room. Dowtin is very well-liked in the locker room, so it was no surprise to see the bench thrilled when he connected on a 29-foot pull-up triple to punctuate his second scoring run, the highlight of what became the first 30-point night of his NBA career:
DMV DOWTIN!! 🔥🔥@JeffD_11 is 4-4 FG, 3-3 3FG in Q3 so far pic.twitter.com/FqFW7vJdrA
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) April 10, 2025
Dowtin has handily demonstrated that he is too good for G League competition, which he has repeatedly dominated. But he just could not quite grasp a few different chances to stick in the Sixers' NBA rotation, despite Nurse's clear respect for Dowtin's organizational skills and all-around ability.
While Reese's two-way deal already includes the 2025-26 season and Hood-Schifino will be eligible to ink a two-way deal with any team over the summer, Dowtin's options are going to be very limited. It is why every game has meant quite a bit for the soon-to-be 28-year-old.
Some more notes and takeaways from this one:
• The Sixers signed Reese to his two-year, two-way deal largely because of his remarkable three-point shooting numbers in the G League, but he has never quite been able to get going from beyond the arc despite an incredibly quick release and a willingness to fire away. However, he has impressed elsewhere, including by showing his knack for getting his nose dirty in loose ball situations. Reese does not shy away from contact; he is unafraid to either attempt to throw down a poster dunk or try to block one.
• This was another nice outing for rookie center Adem Bona, the clear victor in most scenarios when matched up against fellow rookie Alex Sarr, the No. 2 overall pick of the Wizards. Bona's outlier athleticism just allows him to do so many more things than most centers are capable of -- occasionally for worse but most often for better. That includes this:
sheeeeeeesh! pic.twitter.com/RoYSgGVjD6
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) April 10, 2025
Up next: The Sixers will return home for their final two games of the season. The first of that pair will be on Friday night when they host the Atlanta Hawks.
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