See what I did there?

If you thought the hole was going to be safe with Blake Griffin around then you were very sadly mistaken. Apparently he has very little regard whatsoever for the sanctity of the aforementioned hole.

Take a look for yourself.

Stephen Jackson has rekindled his relationship with pressure, well when you do what he does to it, it may not be a relationship per se but hey, he did what he did to it and the Bobcats finished on top.  He also put on the belt.  In the way of first time Super Bowl quarterback Aaron Rodgers and many a WWE SuperStar before him he made the motion to put on the championship belt.  Kind of over and over, like it got awkward.  I guess when you get down by 16 in the third and battle back to be down by 3 with 15 seconds left, you hit the three pointer to tie with :00.6 on the clock, yeah you can go ahead and put on the belt.

Other than the end of the game, the story was Gerald Wallace, or lack there of.  He was, in my friend Shrader’s estimation, a complete ghost.  He didn’t attempt a shot until a minute and a half into the fourth quarter and that one got blocked.  He ended the game with 7 points, 5 in the fourth, 2 in overtime.  5 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks don’t make up for that antipathy towards scoring or attempting to score.  He somehow had the final shot and luckily DJ Augustin was there for the offensive rebound and kick out to Jackson for the tying bankshot.

DJ Augustin had 9 of the Bobcats’ 20 overtime points.  Seriously serious play out of the point guard.  27 points, 12 assists, 4 rebounds (including the all important to close the game) and 4 steals.  He played well against the stout Golden State backcourt on defense.  I wouldn’t attribute holding Monta Ellis below his average completely to him, but he certainly had the hands out on the perimeter to get in passing lanes and break up attempted passes.  DJ is really impressive under Silas.  You can tell he is one of those flow of the game/confidence guys who need the freedom that Silas allows.  Larry Brown taught him certain fundamentals, sure but the halting practice and minescule adjustments and working every play through to its completion, regardless of outcome, all added up to DJ Augustin not living up to his full potential under Brown and the team suffered.

The Charlotte Bobcats have now played 16 games since Paul Silas took over for the fired Larry Brown as Head Coach. Since that’s equal to one NFL season, and gives players enough time to develop trends, I figured now would be a good time to check in on the progress Coach Silas and company have made. In 28 games, Larry Brown went 9-19. In just 16, Silas has won 10 games to 6 losses. Extrapolate that over 82 games, and Silas, using the same roster, would win 52 games to Brown’s 26. But its more than just the win/loss numbers, startling as they are.

Phoenix Suns. Charlotte Bobcats.
One team led by the aged one, Steve Nash.
The other, led by an up and coming point guard, DJ Augustin.
One winner. Bobcats.

Dramatic wasn’t it. Okay so it wasn’t, but I realized before my blogs were getting boring and monotonous. You wouldn’t want to tap that, let alone read it. So I’m just going to throw whatever comes through this big ole head of mine into this blog. Sounds good? Awesome, because I think really randomly.

So where do I start. Lets start with the big man in the middle, aka Kwame Brown. Let’s just say he’s been impressive of late, as he calls it ‘being big in the paint’ and really is growing leaps and bounds. Very impressive for a guy who struggled throughout most his career, is it not? Again, the big dude there gave us a double double in 26 minutes. Lovely stuff Kwame. Better than Tyson Chandler? Perhaps not. Cheaper? By far. Plus, he has Oakley tutoring him. Who wouldn’t want Oakley tutoring you.

Wallace shot the ball, and sank the ball in the hoop. Lovely stuff Crash, continue to pick up your game please. We all love you when you’re hot and on fire. Please continue that way. Double double for Crash too. Great stuff.

If you’ve been to the arena you’ve seen the huge ring at the bottom of the center video screen advertising LifeLock.  LifeLock is a company that provides identity theft protection, which is certainly important, unless of course, you have no identity.  I thought about that a few weeks ago while I was having one of those “Why aren’t the Bobcats a bigger deal?” conversations with a fellow fan.  This was again thrown in my face, or so I thought, when I went to NBA.com to check the box score.  Check out the video.

I’m sensitive ok?  I thought the man said “To the Hornets in Charlotte.”  I went to NBA.com rather than my usual ESPN.com, see if you can see why.   NO ONE HAS CORRECTED IT!  This tweet by AP beat writer covering the ‘Cats Mike Cranston:  Still happens nightly RT @HawksPRGuy: GAME TIME! #Hawks #Hornets.  When Coach Brown, let’s say left the team, I was watching Dan Patrick’s radio show and they literally had a joke call-in segment to have people name 2 Bobcats players.  His point was that by firing Coach Brown, the ‘Cats were removing the one guy that mattered as far as identity.  Very funny, Bob Costas still owns you.

So worse than the confusion of national and out of town media, the Bobcats have little to no identity on the court.  I have this sense that I never know exactly what we’ll see night in night out.  Look at the final scores:  87, 100, 83, 92, 81, 94, 96.  The leading scorer has been somewhat consistent however, who it is would probably surprise casual fans.  DJ Augustin has been outstanding, truly, and I’m not looking for a diamond in the rough, he’s been a good point guard.  You expect the Bobcats’ leading scorer to be either Stephen Jackson or Gerald Wallace, the all-star from last season.