WASHINGTON — The Philadelphia 76ers did it again on Tuesday night at the Capital One Arena. They trailed the Washington Wizards by as many as 19 in the second half–and as many as 17 in the fourth quarter–as it appeared the Wizards would steal a win over the weary Sixers on the second night of a back-to-back.

Instead, the Sixers dug deep–again–and rallied to force overtime before going on to win 139-134 in OT to improve to 4-0 on the season. The focus will be on Tyrese Maxey and Quentin Grimes as the two of them awoke to lead the Sixers down the stretch in the fourth and in overtime, but second-year big man Adem Bona played a huge part int he rally.

Bona had four blocks in the fourth quarter alone when he subbed in for Joel Embiid once the big fella reached his minutes limit. He then rejected another shot in the overtime session and scored his only bucket on a putback slam to put the Sixers ahead 132-131 with 27.6 seconds left that sent the Sixers fans that made the trip to the nation’s capital into a frenzy.

“Big time Bona!” said Trendon Watford. “That’s what he do.”

Maxey, sitting next to Watford during the media session then yelled: “Bonafide!”

The Sixers needed somebody to step in and produce once the big fella reached his minutes limit. On Saturday night, it was Andre Drummond. On Tuesday, it was Bona who stepped in for Embiid and gave the Sixers a big lift at the big man spot.

“I told him he’s the best defensive player in the league,” Embiid said after the win. “Well, second best behind Wemby (Victor Wembanyama), but he was great. Obviously, protecting the rim. They made a lot of tough shots today, but everybody just came in and did that job, even though, you know, it felt like we were kind of tired early on, but everybody picked up.”

It was an interesting game for Bona and the Sixers. They got off to such a slow start on the second night of a back-to-back. They had to battle against a physical Orlando Magic team on Monday before then boarding a plane and making the trip to Washington, D.C. and taking on a fast Wizards team that wants to push the pace. It appeared they were going to get the better of the Sixers before the rally and Bona was a big part of it.

“I think he really, for whatever reason tonight, he saved it all till the end,” said coach Nick Nurse. “I don’t know how many had in a row down the stretch there, it seems like more than five doesn’t it? Or five in a row, right? Or something like that, but he protected the rim on every drive late, so again, it’s good. I think that he was the same. I didn’t see much energy out of him in his first in the first half, too. Just kind of running up and down, and still a young player and big moments and stuff like that, and if he’s energetic, he can go get it. He’s got good timing.”

The Sixers will now have two days off before they take on the Boston Celtics to begin the NBA Cup portion of the schedule.