The Bobcats vs. the Celtics 3/3/10

I started to worry after one pregame tape I watched in which ‘Cats Coach Larry Brown said Celtics Coach Doc Rivers must be glad to see the Bobcats on the schedule. The Celtics have had difficulties at home losing seven of the last twelve home games. Coach Brown said that the Bobcats must appear to Coach Rivers as a “cupcake” game that would help them get back on track at home. Unfortunately for the ‘Cats, that appears to be exactly what happened. I’m always concerned when coaches have to call their teams out because, more often than not, the teams do not respond in a positive manner. I can’t blame Coach Brown – the Bobcats have not played well since the All-Star break – but the team played like a “cupcake” rather than a play-off team. Coach Brown’s brother, coach Herb Brown, indicated in another pregame interview that Larry Brown has let the players know what is at stake, a play-off berth, and lets them know often.

The Bobcats fell behind by as many as seventeen points early against the Celtics. The ‘Cats defense was “not bad” but they could not score with any consistency. You have to hope that there will not be too many games that the top-two Bobcats scorers, S. Jackson and G. Wallace, will shoot a miserable 5-15 (33.3%) and the team shoot 36% from the field. The Celtics played very good defense but 36% shooting is wretched for a team looking for a play-off berth. Another concern has to be the lack of maturity that newly acquired forward Tyrus Thomas displayed. Players are fouled in the NBA, some called and some not called, and all NBA players have to learn to deal with the fouls not called by the referees. Thomas, after one non-call, proceeded to vent his frustration by intentionally fouling a Celtic player, and receiving a technical foul for good measure. Another play by Thomas when time was running out could have easily resulted in a flagrant-foul call – Thomas fouled S. Williams and it was difficult to see if he made a play for the ball or Williams’ head. I imagine it is difficult for the ‘Cats players to deal with the three lop-sided loses to the Celtics this year, but both these plays indicated to me Thomas still needs to work at becoming a more mature player.

The loss leaves the Bobcats in ninth position in the Eastern Conference, three games below (.500), with a (28-31) record.

The Good:

The game finally ended!

D. Brown and G. Henderson had playing time.

DJ Augustine had a solid game off the bench but shooting (33.3%) remains a concern.

The Bad:

Tyrus Thomas lack of maturity.

The Ugly:

S. Jackson and G. Wallace combined 33.3% shooting from the field.

Team shot 36% from the field.

Next game for the Bobcats: Friday 3/5/10 7:00pm vs. LA Lakers

Tuesday night’s loss was ugly to watch if you’re a Bobcats fan. In an 82 game season, all teams have a couple of nights where the effort just isn’t there. This game was puzzling though,  the lack of effort came directly on the heels of a 4 game winning streak where the Bobcats had played their best ball of the season and seemed to be on the cusp of “figuring it out”.

Via the Charlotte Observer, there were two quotes that jumped out at me:

Brown called a timeout less than two minutes into this game because he was so dissatisfied with his players’ body language. He saw fear, he saw confusion and he saw selfishness.

This is troubling, if we’re are curling up into the fetal position because the other team has Celtics across their jerseys, then we are much farther away from competing than we thought.

“Layup after layup after layup,” said Bobcats forward Gerald Wallace. “We don’t want to be a dirty team, but we’ve got to start taking some hard fouls.”

Agreed and cosigned 10,000 percent. Sometimes you just need to knock somebody on their ass… It makes the world a better place.

Let’s hope that this was just a one game setback.

Highlights/Lowlights from last night’s game

Welcome back to the NBA! In about an hour, the Bobcats will start the 2009-2010 season in Boston. We finally get a chance to see Tyson Chandler, Gerald Henderson, Derrick Brown, and Stevie Graham show off Larry Brown and Rod Higgins’ GM’ing skills (Flip Murray is still out as far as I know), and the new Bobcats uniforms are put on display. Here’s your starting lineups (projected):

PG: Rajon Rondo vs. Raymond Felton
SG: Ray Allen vs. Stevie Graham
SF: Paul Pierce vs. Gerald Wallace
PF: Kevin Garnett vs. Boris Diaw
C: Kendrick Perkins vs. Tyson Chandler

Bench Battles: Rasheed Wallace vs. Nazr Mohammed
Marquis Daniels vs. Gerald Henderson
Eddie House vs. DJ Augustin

Notes:
* Bobcats G’s Raja Bell and Flip Murray are inactive to injury, and Boston is missing Glen “Big Baby” Davis after a fight where he hurt his hand.

* Celtics G Eddie House played for the Expansion season Bobcats, but was traded away in the team’s first year.

This presents a tough challenge for the Bobcats, and trying to beat the Big Three in the Celtics home opener is no easy task, considering injury and conditioning issue the Bobcats face, but Charlotte usually plays well against the Celtics and if the Bobcats want to make the playoffs, they have to show they’re worthy against a great team tonight. Enjoy the game!

The playoffs back in those years between local NBA franchises were kind of fun.  The Hornets basically left town in 01-02, but that was my freshman year in college and anything cheap and different was awesome.  We got in to 3 Playoff games that year for $5 each, sure we were sitting in the top of the cavernous old arena but it was fun (covered sections and all), one of our favorite local bands, Weekend Excusion, would play pre-game in the parking lot and like I said, $5!!!  They won the first round series against Orlando and in the second round, the fate was sealed and the move was official.   It was still fun to go see those games and the Lakers were the cream of the crop, which makes it fun to watch the finals, even if it was NJ that were the sacrificial lambs.

The next year, I mean it was hard to follow because there was no easy team to root for.  Also, the NBA outlawed all NBA TV games in the Carolinas except nationally televised games.  This probably prevented a lot of people from following the Hawks or Wizards or someone but mostly, there was no regular viewing.  Playoffs came and went with the Spurs beating the Nets.  Whoopie!  Actually, that was the lowest rated finals until the ’07 finals, so no one really cared.

The next year they announced that we’d get a team and the owner would be this awkward little billionaire from Washington named Bob Johnson.  While we were waiting the NBA played on.  It wasn’t great but we kept up because these guys would be the competition next year.  Oh yeah, watch out league the BOBCats are coming.  Wait, did that guy name the team after himself?  Is Charlotte an area known for having Bobcats?  Other than the little bulldozers on the hundreds of jobsites in the area, not really.  It wasn’t great but Detroit played solid ball and beat the Lakers who became the Yankees of the NBA with Karl Malone and Gary Payton added to their crumbling, aging, argumentative roster.

The next year, finally we had NBA in Charlotte.  I had new roommates, we made sure to get C-SET, which sucked, except for Bobcats games.  Who would have thought a 82 game season could make a whole network?  Bobcat Johnson, that’s who.  5 years later and we’re still watching, it’s been a couple channel changes and 3 coaches, but we’re still kicking.

Anyway, the point is, this season was the best and closest for me to any postseason.  Missing it, legitimately, in the final week sucked.  Watching the playoffs this year feels cheap, hollow and honestly, I don’t care.  I don’t like any of the teams in it.  There is no underdog.  There is no great dynasty.  There is no supreme team that’s easy to hate but you want to see them collapse or something like those Lakers in ’04.  I’m not really even watching games.  Sure the Bulls/Celtics went 7 and 3/4 games but who cares?  I hate the Bulls for having the best luck ever in a draft lottery last year and we all hate the Celtics because they are the Celtics.

I’m a Bobcat’s fan.  I love the NBA, I love the players, I love the play and action but I am attached to the ‘Cats.  They aren’t in it, so why should I watch?

–BigCat Bobcat

I present to you the most valuable player of Wednesday night’s Boston Celtics / Charlotte Bobcats game. Don’t be fooled by his scrawny size and crypt-keeper-like appearance, Dick Bavetta was the most dangerous man on the court. In an episode of gargantuan screwjobedness (I know it’s not a word, but work with me here), Dick Bavetta and his merry band of officiating rogues limited the Charlotte Bobcats to 7 free throw attempts in 58 minutes of basketball. 7 attempts… I personally believe that its impossible for a team to play defense well enough that your opponent only receives 7 attempts from the free throw line. Hell, Kendrick Perkins was practically bludgeoning Okafor on the defensive end for the entire game.

I know that we could have avoided this loss by not letting Jesus Shuttlesworth open for 3 in critical end game situations… twice, but in all honesty if this game were refereed anything remotely close to even then this game would have been over in regulation by double digits.

What are your thoughts on this travesty of officiating?

I HATE Ray Allen

Come on Ray, why can’t you just miss one? Just one man! You gotta be kidding me! I mean, last year: