Grimes, Walker combine for 58 as Sixers lose 12th straight to Heat in Miami

Quentin Grimes and Lonnie Walker IV provided plenty of offense, but they didn’t get much help as the Sixers fell to the Heat Monday night.

Actual victories remain elusive but this team has really wracked up some moral victories.

After another hard effort, the Sixers ran out of gas late and lost 117-105 to the Miami Heat Monday night. It is their 12th loss in a row. They are 23-56.

Lonnie Walker IV had his best game since returning to the NBA, finishing with a season-high 29 on 10-of-18 shooting.

Not to be outdone by Quentin Grimes, who matched him with 29. Grimes also missed three straight free throws down the stretch to keep the tank safe. Adem Bona finished with 16 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks.

Duncan Robinson led the Heat with 21 while Tyler Herro had 20.

Kyle Lowry was back, but Justin Edwards was out due to a rib contusion after leaving early against Minnesota. Guerschon Yabusele was out for personal reasons, and Jeff Dowtin Jr. was out for two-way reasons. The Heat were without Bam Adebayo and Andrew Wiggins.

Here are some grades at the buzzer.

Adem Bona

Off to a much better start than his previous game, Bona seemed to really help his teammates early, getting himself open for lobs and dump offs. In a semi-related note, his screening seems much improved as this season’s gone on. More often than not he’ll make sure to actually set it rather than going too fast through the motions. His best dunk of the night got him a little too much attention as he got T’d up for hanging on the rim. Very lame.

The matchup with Ware gave him some problems. He’s going to give some ground to guys that much bigger than him, but he settled in. In the second half, his teammates did a good job of funneling their assignments to him for blocks.

Grade: B+

Jared Butler

Thanks to a couple of steals, Butler got off to a pretty good start overall. The threat of lobs to Bona helped him settle into his floater. It was odd to not see him attempt a three-pointer at all. Though the Sixers played a lot of three-guard lineups throughout the night, and Butler was facilitating inside where Grimes and Walker were getting to their pull-up threes.

Grade: B-

Marcus Bagley

Bagley has earned a lot of praise from Nick Nurse recently for his effort, and was rewarded with his NBA start in this one. He’s still looking for his first NBA three to fall, but that hustle was on display early with a pick-six steal. He also finished off a nicely thrown lob from Grimes from the three-point line. He wasn’t able to provide much else, but his six rebounds felt impactful — two of those boards were on the offensive end.

Grade: C for Congratulations

Lonnie Walker IV

The shots continued to fall as Walker again was able to get himself space off the dribble. He also happened to be the only Sixer who made a three in the second quarter. He and Grimes played off each other really well, taking turns cooking as they came back into the game in the third.

Unlike the Minnesota game, he was able to keep it going throughout the entire game. There was only so much he could do leading the bench lineups, who really struggled to do much of anything. That left Walker with a season-high and the Sixers’ tank intact.

Grade: A

Quentin Grimes

Grimes continues to find stretches of games to go on heaters. It was another relatively quiet first half, but Grimes was sensational in the third quarter as his three-ball started to go down. Between Grimes and Walker, the Sixers had two guards providing high-level shot creation and shot-making — what a concept!

It wasn’t Grimes’ most efficient night (and he oddly continues to miss free throws) but it was another strong night as he finished with 29 points, eight rebounds and six assists.

Grade: B+

The Sixers head back up the coast for their final road game of the year and it’ll be another big tank-off. The Washington Wizards will welcome them Wednesday night at 7 p.m. ET.