What the Hell just happened?
Did the New York Knicks just come into town and whoop the Bobcats ass? I know Ziggy and I sort of centered on Nate ”Little People, Big World” Robinson. We held him to what like 6 points? 2 of those were on last minute free throws. How did the Bobcats lose the game? The Knicks are horrible. I am going to have to be honest here, I had a lot to drink tonight pre-game, gametime, post-game,
That was last night . I’m up and at work finally, believe it or not and yes I have a headache and I am pissed that I have to be here, even for a half a day. But hey I’ve got Friday off to get all jacked up for the Home and Home series against the Bucks of Milwaukee. I’m so mad about last nights game I can’t even come up with ways to verbalize it but here’s a try: I’m starting to believe BCP member Mustachio that Matt Carroll drags this team down when he’s in the game. It’s painful to watch him try to cover on defense and then go stand in the corner and try to disappear on offense. Whoever said he was better as a “secret weapon” was right. He cannot start for this team and should be thrown out there when we have the upper hand in a lot of the matchups and he can spot up for threes or drive and spot up or get to the line. He hasn’t had a FT attempt in like 4 games! He is averaging .6 attempts per game. Oh and by the way Mr. Automatic from the line, the guy who grabbed a few headlines a couple years ago for being 97/98%, he’s .765 from the line this year. The other line out there on the court is the 3 point line, supposedly the Hammer’s specialty. MC is hitting .194 from “beyond the arc.” Sidebar: Is anyone else sick of the 3-4 phrases overused by Sportscenter and local sports anchors for a 3 point shot? “Beyond the arc,” ”Downtown,” “3-point land.” It’s just not great but hey what are they going to say? “From the area that gives you an additional point more than a usual field goal?”
So Matt Carroll starts, gets 2 quick, crappy looking fouls and the New York D’Antoni’s pull out to I don’t know like a 30 point lead. Yes if i remember correctly in the first quarter it was 45-15, correct, way to have a memory BIGCat. I don’t know who’s doing what because I have friends at the game and they are waving at me from the founders level and I’m flashing the chicks some pasty white, hairy, belly. It’s gross but it’s who I am, don’t JUDGE ME! Anyway, the shot clock isn’t working but the PA announcer is just fine. “10″ “5″ shut up man. What’s the problem? Then for time outs and stuff they don’t have the horn working so they are blowing some kind of horrible weak sounding air horn. It was just not going the right way. Then the clock on the center scoreboard/Bobcats TV goes out and D’Antoni pitches a fit. Does anyone pitch a fit better than D’Antoni? Towards the end of the game, when the Bobcats were coming back, he starts jumping up and down and flailing his arms, his suit jacket is going everywhere, I in 216 couldn’t see his face but I am willing to bet it looked hilarious. That mustache is awesome. Did all these guys, my dad included, grow a mustache back in ’76-’82 and keep it for the next 30 years? You don’t see many good mustaches on young guys. Mine is part of the goatee but I doubt I could rock the ‘stache alone. Man my brain is fried.
Speaking of the ‘stache, Adam Morrison enters the game late/mid (shut up, I don’t remember) in the 2nd quarter and things just sort of pick up. If Raja has a serious injury I want either Hollins, Howard or Morrison starting in his place. Oh, and if he does have a slightly serious, painful groin pull, get the guy some heat and treatments and let him sit for a bit. I do not want injuries to chip away at this team. Groins and ankles can nag on you but you play through it and end up either re-injuring that or the other ankle trying to favor the injured one or something. I just don’t think we’re on some kind of roll to keep hurt guys playing. Back to Morrison, I’m trying really hard to concentrate I promise, Morrison comes in and plays pretty good D and gets a couple rebounds but he did throw the ball away and he was hesitant to shoot. It took him a full 4 minutes to shoot then he missed 2 3-point attempts. I cannot remember if the second one of those (around the 4 min left in the half mark) was the air-ball which drew BOOS and then insult to injury the baseline camera zoomed in on the back of his jersey. That to me was pretty crappy. Actually, Morrison had 12 minutes, 3 shot attempts (all 3s all misses), no rebounds (I was wrong), 1 assist, 1 block and 1 foul. That is a horrible line in the box score. Carroll, not much better with 2-6 shooting, 4 points, 3 rebounds, a turnover and a steal. That’s out of 14 minutes.
I’m not lumping these 2 together but man, out of a combined 26 minutes they didn’t do anything but at least Morrison moved. So now that we have Diaw, who got us back into the game with some really nice 3′s towards the end but ended up fouling out, Diaw makes Okafor better. Those two guys have been playing mondo minutes the last few games. (37 for each last night, 43 Saturday, 44 and 36 in the win last Friday) So we’re pretty set with Okafor at the 5 and Diaw at the 4/3, Ray at 1, Wallace at the 3/4 (not the 4 but Diaw isn’t a legit 4 either). Bell doesn’t consistently do anything: play (he’s missed pretty much 2 complete games since he’s been here); score (didn’t score in his first 3 games with the team); or defend really (I don’t think he is a true “lock-down” defender). So he’s not the answer for our 5th starter/minute hog. Who is? Not Carroll he gets us off to a really bad start every time. Morrison is obviously not Larry’s choice and ILBIT. DJ won’t start because Larry keeps on about foul trouble for Felton and DJ on the court at the same time. It won’t be Hollins as much as many of us would love to see. Who is left? Singletary, Howard, Ajinca, Brown, May and Mohammed. I don’t see these guys seeing the court any time soon. It’s a problem and I do NOT think it’s a quick fix through a trade or any semblance there of.
I really still don’t see how the Knicks won. No one dominated, no one played defense. They didn’t get much above 90. So it would seem the Bobcats controlled the game even from a trailing position throughout the game. The shots didn’t fall. No one got to the line. It was ugly and her-key-jerky. No shot clock, no rhythm, no plays even. It was ugly, sloppy, boring, exciting, infuriating and annoying all at once. It was a tough night really. They had like 3 chances to get the lead in the last 30 seconds and couldn’t pull it off. That’s how I remember it anyway….
