The Philadelphia 76ers had a very small impact on the first half of the NBA season. Yet the Sixers still sent one man to the NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 17 in Jrue Holiday. However, on an All-Star roster filled with LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Kyrie Irving, Paul George and more, Holiday didn’t have room to make an impact of his own.
The fourth year Sixer only got to play over 15 minutes in the All-Star Game, which was the third fewest minutes of anyone on the Eastern roster. This made Holiday an afterthought by the end, as the East tried to rally over the West and fell short by 143-138.
Anthony and Wade led the way with 26 and 21 points, with James adding 19. The East did get some key contributions from bench players like Irving, George and Luol Deng. But Holiday was only able to get six points in 15+ minutes, going three-for-six from the floor and missing his only two three-point attempts.
Even if Holiday had more playing time, neither he nor anyone else from the East could stop the West’s leaders. Of course, defense is not the name of the game in the All-Star Game. But the East didn’t have to let Kevin Durant rack up 30 points, or let MVP Chris Paul get 20 points and 15 assists.
While the West is stronger from top to bottom, the East is regarded to have the Miami Heat and little else. The Heat still make the East favored to prevail in the NBA Finals, yet the Sixers and Holiday are still hoping to make the playoffs and be Miami’s first obstacle in the postseason.
Holiday will go back to having a lot of playing time when the Sixers start the second half of the season. Philadelphia has no choice but to give him free reign, since Andrew Bynum still isn’t back and its deficit in the playoff race is up to four games.
While Holiday was an All-Star for the first half of the season, there wasn’t much room for him to prove it in the All-Star Game. However, the Sixers need him to prove it almost every night in the second half of the year, as they have no wiggle room for him to have a post All-Star Game slump.
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