John Smallwood: Sixers lack one star who can make a difference

NOTHING was new.

What happened to the Sixers last night was virtually the same thing that's happened almost every time they have come up against a top team with All-Star-caliber players.

The talent gap is just too wide to bridge.

Superstar, go-to guy, shot-maker, whatever you want to call it, the other team has it and the Sixers don't.

The Sixers can make runs. They can fight back. They can make it close.

But in the end, it almost always ends up in a heartbreaking loss.

Last night it was reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Derrick Rose who provided the star-envy for Sixers fans as the Chicago Bulls pulled out a 96-91 victory at the Wells Fargo Center.

Rose matched his season high with 35 points and nailed buzzer-beating jumpers to end the second and third quarters.

With the Sixers trying to rally in the closing moments, Rose zipped to the basket and made a running jumper, putting the Bulls up, 93-89, with 20.9 seconds remaining.

The Sixers had a chance to tie the game at 94 in the final seconds, but another busted play led to Andre Iguodala throwing up a desperation three-pointer with 3.8 seconds left.

At least that one hit the backboard, which was an improvement over the ill-advised three-point-distance airball Iguodala launched with 1:11 left and the Sixers down by just 91-89.

It just happened to be Iguodala this time. It could have just as easily been Lou Williams or Thaddeus Young or Elton Brand or Jrue Holiday or any other player on a roster full of players unequipped to sink a big-time shot.

In fact, shortly after Iguodala's airball, Young, who had rallied the Sixers back into the game by scoring nine of his 17 points in a 1 1/2-minute surge in the fourth, missed a 16-footer that would have drawn the Sixers even with 39.8 seconds left.

Young conceded he was in position to drive to the basket but instead settled for the jumper.

"I don't even know where to start," coach Doug Collins said after the Sixers lost for the seventh time in nine games. "It just seems like it's been the same old script here at home against these really good teams.

"Play well enough to win and then just can't find it coming down the stretch. We made some crucial defensive mistakes coming down the stretch; had a couple of really bad offensive possessions and it cost us against a team that's one of the best in the league."

It is in games like this when the Sixers' lack of "star appeal" is most apparent. It's when you see them drop to 2-7 in games decided by five points or less that it really makes you question how this team is going to hold off the Celtics or Knicks in the Atlantic Division, how they are going to have success in the playoffs when every series can swing on winning games by five points or less.

The Sixers' team-ball concept has been great. It carried them to a point where their overall talent probably didn't warrant them being. But challenging for a championship requires that you have a stud player who can put you on his back when the big boys come ready to play.

When Rose or LeBron James or Tony Parker or Chris Paul or Dirk Nowitzki or Kevin Durant makes a game-defining play that results in a Sixers loss, it magnifies the fact that the home team has nobody with whom to counter.

"Rose obviously made an incredible shot," Collins said. "He's a great, great player."

Hmmm, that seems to be the same thing Collins said when talking about James or Dwyane Wade or Parker or Paul or Nowitzki or Durant.

In fact, he generally can find a player to say something like that about on every top team except his own.

The Sixers play in Milwaukee tonight before returning to the Wells Fargo Center for their first meeting of the season with the Celtics, and All-Stars Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo.

With the loss to Chicago, the Sixers have lost eight straight games when facing an opponent with at least one player who made the 2012 All-Star Game.

Iguodala, the Sixers' All-Star, just can't do what those guys do as far as lifting his team when things aren't going well.

The Sixers win when everyone is executing their defined role, but because they don't have a cleanup hitter, everyone has to execute to near-perfection for the whole thing to work.

Lou Williams scored just six points against the Bulls, nearly 10 below his team-leading average. He was 0-for-7 from the field.

The Sixers don't have an individual player capable of stepping up his game enough when somebody else is off.

None of this is anything Sixers fans don't already know. Still, the same old story is becoming very tiring.

smallwj@phillynews.com.

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