On the one hand, the Bobcats just lost by double-digits to a team that was down three starters and a Sixth Man of the Year candidate. On the other hand…ah, screw it, there is no other hand. This analysis will be one-handed. It killed Richard Kimble’s wife and drums for Def Leppard. Or actually, maybe there are more hands, but they’re all on the same side of the metaphorical torso. There’s the Bobcats-lost-at-home-to-a-team-that-just-lost-six-straight-road-games hand. There’s the Bobcats-were-unable-to-contain-5.9 PPG/3.7 RPG-Ivan-Johnson hand. There’s the Bobcats-allowed-48%-3PT-shooting hand. I really hate that last hand, by the way; it’s had its middle finger up at me all season.

But you play the hand you’re dealt, and once again the Hawks dealt it and the Bobcats smelt it. After four games with Atlanta this year, and even without having to worry about injured sharpshooters Lou Williams and Devin Harris, the Bobcats still couldn’t lock down Kyle Korver. Korver came out of the womb shooting 3-pointers, shucked corn as a boy in Iowa using a 3-point motion, and presumably prayed to his Jesuit deity before each of his 819 3-pt attempts at Creighton. And it’s as if the Bobcats still can’t seem to figure out what makes him tick. Korver sank 5-of-6 3-pointers, and he and DeShawn Stephenson were by themselves in the corner so often they should have been wearing dunce caps. I’m not clear if the Bobcats purposely played off Korver to focus more on clogging the lane, or they just couldn’t keep up with his curls and screen picks. And—like the current whereabouts of Sean May—I’m not sure if I want to know the answer to that question.

The Bobcats looked less interested than a blind man at a peep show in their loss to the Hawks on Thursday. Then again, nobody seemed to care about that game, not even the Associated Press guy covering it. Check out this except from his recap: “The Bobcats were coming off a dispiriting home loss Wednesday to the Los Angeles Clippers in which they blew a seven-point lead in the fourth quarter…The Hornets were led (in their previous game against Atlanta) by Ben Gordon, who scored 20 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter.” First of all, they never blew a 7-point lead against the Clippers in the fourth quarter; they trailed the entire fourth quarter right through the final buzzer, at which point the game ended. I guess you could technically say that they blew a 1-point first quarter lead and were outscored over the game’s final 41 minutes, but that wasn’t any more dispiriting than normal. So I’m guessing the guy just cut-and-pasted something wrong. But calling them the “Hornets”? Man, that was just cruel—is he trying to jinx us?

Actually, if he was trying to jinx us, how would we even know? We’re talking about a team that has dropped ten games in a row, so putting a jinx on them now would be like throwing a black cat in front of a guy who just fell through a manhole and drowned in a sewer. I don’t mean to imply that the Bobcats have been unlucky, however, as luck has had nothing to do with it. Unluckiness hasn’t left all those opposing 3-point shooters more open than a Chinese restaurant on Thanksgiving, nor has it allowed opposing bigs to abuse the Bobcats’ frontcourt like painkillers. Nope, the Bobcats don’t have the personnel to compete offensively or defensively, and it looks like we’re in for another long season in the abyss.

The Bobcats gave the Clippers a solid fight in a 100-94 loss on Wednesday night, but enter their third meeting with the Atlanta Hawks on an embarrassing nine game slide. They’ll have to pull off an upset on Thursday night to keep it from extending to 10 straight losses, and try to turn the month of December around.

The Hawks are a legit player in the Eastern Conference, but Charlotte played them tight in one game and fairly well in another. The Bobcats are struggling with defense and finishing games right now, but they have all of their main players are should be ready to give the Hawks a strong contest.

Let’s break down each position and figure out whether or not Charlotte will come away with a victory in tonight’s game:

1. The Point – Edge: Hawks

I love what Kemba Walker is doing and the mixing in of Ramon Sessions has worked out quite well. However, neither of those guys are stalwarts on the defensive end. Jeff Teague does play solid defense, and he can also dish and score a bit, too. Devin Harris is an elite backup point guard who plays the two and subs as needed. Louis Williams is the icing on the cake as a great scorer who can run the point in a pinch.

We’re in December now, and as I flipped my 2012 Bobcats wall calendar to reveal Matt Carroll as this month’s pinup, I noticed a disturbing trend.  The six featured players in this year’s calendar were Stephen Jackson, Carroll, Shaun Livingston, DJ Augustin, Gerald Henderson, and Tyrus Thomas.  In other words: traded, traded, traded, traded, injured, and injured amidst career freefall.  The calendar curse might not be the only thing working against Charlotte, either.  After starting out the season going 5-0 in games decided by 4 points or less, the Bobcats have dropped two in a row by 3 and 6, respectively.  Instead of taking back the “Hornets” as our nickname, perhaps we should consider the “Karma Chameleons.”  On the other hand, these disappointing outcomes were probably less the result of the direct involvement of a Hindu god and more related to the fact that the Bobcats have the second-lowest defensive rebounding percentage in the league.

Never was that more on display than Friday night against the Sixers, where Lavoy Allen put back more shots than Courtney Love on a bender.  Allen had 6 offensive boards, nearly every one of which he immediately deposited back into the bucket.  Much was made of Jason Richardson’s four 3-pointers in the 4^th quarter, and it’s true, he Shannoned us, but two of them were also second-chance opportunities.  Byron Mullens is the team leader in defensive rebound rate, but he’s only ranked 24^th in the league among guys getting at least 10 minutes of burn a game.  So for the Cats to get over the 7-win hump, they’re going to need to start cleaning the glass like Charlie Sheen snorting coke off a mirror.

I’ll start off with a full confession: I didn’t see the second overtime of the Bobcats win against Washington, because I had recorded the game and only gave myself a half-hour buffer afterward.  But even if I had been watching the game live I might not have seen it, because I probably would have passed out from the agony of the regulation and the first OT—I was the Steve Austin to that game’s Bret Hart, and I was caught in the sharpshooter.  Thus after dealing with the several minutes of suspended, tortured horror that was Chris Singleton’s free throw sequence to end the first OT, I had to do the thing in which I raced to the computer to look up the score…and the computer was loading really slow…and when the screen finally populated, the first thing I saw was this totally indeterminate picture of Michael Kidd-Gilchrist:

Finally, though, I saw Rick Bonnell’s headline and write-up, and thus did Rick deliver me from my suffering.  You’re beautiful in your way, Rick, ‘cause God makes no mistakes.

But first, let’s tackle the Atlanta Hawks game, which took place the night before.  Even with a good visiting team in the house, the crowd was somewhat listless, which I chalked up to Black Friday fatigue.  It’s so depressing to see such mindless consumerism devour people’s souls, a fact I noted to Siri in my brand new iPhone 5.  As it turned out, the crowd didn’t miss too much, because Atlanta was firmly in control of this game from start to finish.  Seemingly every time the Bobcats got it close, Atlanta it would answer with a devastating 3-pointer.  You know what, I don’t even think it was “seemingly,” I think it was literally:

• Devin Harris made it 29-21 after the Bobcats had cut the lead to 5
• DeShawn Stephenson made it 39-33 after the Bobcats had cut it to 3
• Jeff Teague made it 42-36 after the Bobcats had cut it to 3
• Kyle Korver made it 60-53 after the Bobcats had cut it to 4
• Korver made it 65-57 after the Bobcats had cut it to 5

I got a hard time from some fellow Bobcats enthusiasts this week for a gaffe on Charlotte’s winning streak. That was my bad. A few people also said I was over-reacting to the Bobcat’s 5-4 start. I disagree there.

It was another narrow win, but the Bobcats got past the Toronto Raptors 98-97 on Wednesday night, and proved (to me, at least) once again that they have the talent and coaching to be a serious playoff contender. And at the very worst their days at the bottom of the Southeast division standings should be over in 2012.

With a 6-4 record, the Bobcats march into their Friday battle with the Atlanta Hawks trying to land their second three-game winning streak of the year, and get to an unlikely 7-4. The great news is that they’re already surpassing my expectations. You know, those gaudy expectations I had prior to the season that suggested they could go 6-9 in the month of November? They already have the six wins, and I wouldn’t be shocked to see a few more before the month is up.

Let’s breakdown their next game against the Hawks and see if they can get to 7-4:

1. The Point – Edge: Hawks

I’ve been really impressed with the leadership and balanced play from Kemba Walker. He’s turning into a great scorer and knows when and where to set up his teammates. Ramon Sessions offers really nice depth, too, which gives Charlotte’s lead guards a shot against just about any team in the NBA on any given night. However, I think Jeff Teague and Devin Harris get the edge here. Neither are as explosive of scorers as Walker right now, but both can shoot the three well, play defense, and are legit point guards. This one is pretty close, but I’m giving Atlanta the edge by a hair.