Homesick Already? Andre Iguodala Returns to Philly in Sixers Opener vs. Nuggets

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Man, it feels like it's been a hundred games since Andre Iguodala last
set foot on the floor at the Wells Fargo Center, but in fact, it's been 0
games—the ink probably isn't even dry on Dre's new lease agreement in
Denver and already, he's gotta come back to city where he balled for the
last eight seasons to announce his presence with authority once more.
Course, this time, he'll be wearing yellow, white and light-blue rather
than red, white and regular-blue—love those unis—as a member of the
Denver Nuggets, in his first professional basketball game for a team
besides the 76ers.

Of course, this wasn't supposed to be the
headline for tonight's game. The headline for tonight's game was
supposed to be the debut of our own big-ticket acquisition, and the guy
we shipped Andre out of town to bring in, one Andrew Bynum.

No,
you probably won't see Andrew tonight, or any other time in the
immediate future, unless you happen to bump into him on line at Acme or
something. Bynum's is still day-to-day with his gimpy knee, but until we
hear anything to the contrary (and regrettably we haven't), think we
all have to assume at least 1-2 weeks, if not 1-2 months, before our
franchise center takes the floor again.

However, all our other
old friends are in the building, and some new ones as well. This'll be
Jason Richardson's first game as the Sixers' starting shooting guard,
and Dorell Wright, Nick Young, Malik Wayns and (at long last) Kwame
Brown are likely to cameo as well off the bench. Depth was good enough
to get us through the pre-season, tonight will be the first test of
whether or not it'll hold in the regular season as well.

Of
course, it'll be a tough first go against the visiting Denver Nuggets,
pegged by many as a sleeper team in the West—so many that they're
probably not even considerable as a sleeper anymore. The Nugs' front
lines of Kenneth Faried, JaVale McGee and Kosta Koufos will present a
huge challenge on the boards for our undersized starting frontline of
Thaddeus Young and Lavoy Allen, so expect a good deal of Kwame and
Spencer Hawes tonight, though hopefully not at the same time so much.
(The Nugs will be without versatile scorer Danilo Gallinari, so it'll be
a slightly leveled playing field for the Bynum-less 76ers, at least.)

7:00
tip from the Wells Fargo Center. Big year for our 76ers, and though
it'll be far too early to judge much from tonight's game, getting out to
a good start and holding the line as we did at the beginning of last
year—especially until Bynum gets back—will be key for this team living
up to pre-season expectations. But really, win or lose, basketball is
back and for tonight, that'll probably be good enough. Sing it with us
now: ONE, TWO, THREE FOR FIVE, SIXERS....

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