NBA All-Star Game Rare Shootout Involving Iguodala, Any 76er: A Fan's Outlook - Yahoo! Sports

The 2012 NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 26 is set to have a combined 250-300 points at least. After all, All-Star games of any kind are not known for defense, unlike the occasional regular season game. For my own Philadelphia 76ers, defense has been the key to their first place standing after the first half - at least more than the offense has been lately.

The Sixers will have Andre Iguodala playing in his first All-Star Game, which will be unfamiliar for him in other ways as well. For one thing, there will actually be over 100 points scored on both sides, which isn't the kind of game that Iguodala has been in lately - and that has been more of a problem lately.

It has been a month and three days since the Sixers scored over 100 points in a game, on Jan. 23 against the Washington Wizards. Since then, a lack of offense is only now coming back to bite Philadelphia, especially during a five-game losing streak. Now the defense isn't even enough to bail the Sixers out anymore, particularly since the schedule is getting tougher.

As a team, the Sixers are technically scoring more than the likes of the Atlanta Hawks, Los Angeles Lakers, Orlando Magic and Boston Celtics, with 94 points a game. Given that Philadelphia allows an NBA-low 87.5 points a game, it goes a long way. But the problem is that it usually takes just 87 points to beat the Sixers these days.

Iguodala isn't helping much on that end, since he is Philadelphia's lone All-Star but only it's fourth leading scorer. He wasn't selected for points so much as his overall leadership - and the fact that at least one Sixer had to get in at the time. But with Philadelphia's balanced scoring, there's no one person to take over a game - and Iguodala has had years to become that player.

The winning team in the All-Star Game will likely have 130-140 points, but the Sixers don't need that many to win again. Hopefully, so much offense takes place in Orlando that Iguodala can pass some of it on to the rest of Philadelphia - and it can at least score over 100 again. With results like that every so often, perhaps the Sixers can get some space between them and the rest of the Atlantic Division again.

Offense has been a very rare thing when it comes to Philadelphia this season, on both sides of the basketball. But the last few weeks have shown the limitations of that strategy, so maybe this break will help Doug Collins and company tweak it a bit - or help Iguodala rack up a few extra points.

Robert Dougherty is a life-long Philadelphia resident and 76ers fan.

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27 Feb, 2012