Sixers forget to contain the basketball in loss to Hawks

The Sixers allowed more than 70 points in the paint in a loss to the Atlanta Hawks.

Here's what I saw.

Likes

- Drawing loose ball and over-the-back fouls is a skill that Adem Bona appears to have picked up from Andre Drummond. It comes with discipline and focus, the rebounder feeling the contact and making it vocal or visible that he's being inhibited in pursuit of the ball enough for the officials to call it.

Drummond leaves quite a bit to be desired, but he's good at both not making inhibiting contact with opposing rebounders and holding his box-out when he has position so that guys have to go over his back or shove him to get to the ball.

Bona drew one late in the first quarter. He's used his strength to his advantage in that way more frequently in recent games.

- Quentin Grimes is a perfectly relevant example of why the age-old "he's been on _ teams in _ years, there's a reason nobody wanted him" argument is absolute nonsense. Every situation is different, asking different things of different players. There are innumerable reasons why a team might not feel that a guy is a good fit at any particular time. But that doesn't mean there's some problem holding his career back. It took him a week to settle in, but Grimes has been objectively fantastic as a Sixer, even if he's playing out of position with Tyrese Maxey sidelined.

Not every shooter can be effective going cold turkey and springing into long jumpers as soon as they catch the ball. Sometimes, an expression that the role you're in doesn't bring the best out of you gets translated inaccurately. You get slapped with a reputation and it hurts the way teams view you. Sometimes the organization you're in is just terrible. Sometimes your salary is perfect for cutting costs and getting below the luxury tax line. I'm not suggesting that any of those scenarios necessarily applies to Grimes. But, there's so many reasons why it can take a few stops to find the right fit.

- You see some of the secondary vision that Jared Butler has and think, "Oh yeah, that's a point guard". While Grimes is throwing lasers out of bounds and Lonnie Walker IV is trying to finish with his right hand on the left side of the hoop, Butler is setting up plays on one side of the floor with the full intent of roping a bullet to a shooter on the weak side. Nice vision.

Dislikes

- It is impossible to imagine a world in which Nick Nurse is encouraging Ricky Council IV to take out-of-rhythm 27-footers. He's got to cut that out of his shot diet because it drags the overall quality down. Want to take a catch-and-shoot three from above-the-break? Sure. These step-back moon balls are horrendous.

- Would anyone like to stop the basketball? No? Alrighty then.

- Justin Edwards has missed a lot of threes short over the past two games. Wonder how much that recently sprained ankle is affecting him.

Spare thoughts

- I've seen a handful of Sixers head coaches come and go. Each one arrives bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and leaves with more gray on their heads and beards. That's with a team that has enjoyed its fair share of regular-season success over the past decade. How the hell does Quin Snyder look like he has not aged a bit since taking this Hawks job? They haven't been meaningfully good in years.

The Sixers (22-42) will visit the Toronto Raptors (22-43) on Wednesday. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., Eastern time. You can watch the game on NBC Sports Philadelphia.

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