I’ll give you three guesses, but if you need more than one then you must not follow the NBA or watch FOX on Sundays (or any other day thanks to syndication; love them reruns). What’s the answer? Easy—

Low expectations.

Whether you are the optimistic or pessimistic type it is kind of hard not to agree with that. Coming into this season it was pretty easy to see that this season was likely going to be a rough one for the guys. While all the young talent is something to be excited and encouraged about, the team has no definitive leader or focal point.

The good thing is that in time a leader can develop. The problem is going to be in figuring out whom it will be and how long will it take for him to step up. Hence the theme of the post—low expectations (go ahead comedians let me have it).

I would not want to do this often, and I’m glad it is happening in a strike shortened season, but I don’t mind having a year like this. It may sound crazy, but hear me out a little.

Maybe the Bobcats are trying to tell us, the fans, something. It could be something along the lines of “now that we have your attention we’d just like you to know that, yes, we are now a bad team”. But if you’ve followed the ‘Cats after the trade deadline you already know that they are now a “bad team”. The Bobcats are 1-5, five straight losses, since the All-Star break. Their pathetic offensive output is down to a miserable 81.2 ppg during their five game losing streak.

The Bobcats, coming off a very large win over the Lakers, traveled to Chicago for another back-to-back game. The ‘Cats squared off against the third seed in the Eastern Conference, the Chicago Bulls. Tired legs showed for the ‘Cats, but they managed to keep the game close going into the third quarter down by only five points. The Bulls rolled off an 8-0 against the ‘Cats after a couple of minutes into the fourth to pull ahead by 13. But tired legs finally caught up with the Bobcats, that and turn overs, short shots, and defensive lapses over the last six minutes gave the Bulls 106-94 win over the ‘Cats.

There have been many Charlotte games when Gerald Wallace and Stephen Jackson had off nights and fans hoped other players would step-up, most of the time that never happens, but tonight the ‘Cats had four players scoring in double figures – Jackson was one, but three Bobcats not named Jackson or Wallace helped on the offensive end. Boris Diaw, 18 points,  Gerald Henderson, 22 points, and Shaun Livingston,  13 points, all stepped up offensively but it was obvious the ‘Cats were tired. The Bobcats had too many turn overs, 14, missed too many three point attempts, 2-11, and gave up too many points behind the arc to the Bulls, 7-14. Charlotte was also out-rebounded by the Bulls, 38-36. It was a tough loss for Charlotte on a night they could have gained ground against a Pacer team that lost to the Heat 110-103.

AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato

Yes, the title is correct. Yes I did it on purpose. Yes I know Brewer plays for the Bulls, I just answered all your questions about the title didn’t I. Aren’t I smart.

So why not write about the Bulls game by thanking the most wonderful person alive. Thank you Ronnie Brewer. Thank you for killing Crash’s ankle, and in the process pissing him off to epic proportions. Thank you for that, and because of that Crash decided to dunk a putback, and draw an AND-1 play, off your hand in traffic. And simply dominate the Bulls team single-handedly. Thank you for chucking away 2 key points and passing it to Deng who missed the three. Uncertain three or certain 2. Uncertain three certainly worked in our favor, so thank you Brewer. You are the man of the match in my eyes, for simply saving us in the 4th quarter.

It was an intense 4th quarter. D. Rose was able to slice through DJ’s, and promptly the Bobcats defense. But then it’s hard for anyone at all to stop him. However right on the wire, Silas put his faith in Gerald Henderson, which worked wonders. Henderson was able to stay right up close with rose, pushing him away towards the three point line. There, he drew him into a very tough fade away and Rose’s shooting isn’t his forte. He missed the shot by a fair margin, a testament to Rose’s shooting prowess and Henderson’s defense. Bobcats win and fist pumps, brofists and happiness all round. Bulls must be disappointed, losing to us again but hey that’s life. A couple of shocking calls during the end of the game, but we pulled it out.

As Charlotte thaws from the snow and ice that kept 18,000 fans away from the Memphis game, the Bulls made their way to town, even found a gate to deplane at the airport.  (Atlanta postponed their game against Milwaukee but then again they had dudes ice skating up and down streets downtown)  The Bulls presented a definite challenge to the newly sparked Bobcats.  The Bobcats fully feeling a 5-2 record under coach Paul Silas, entered the game, in my opinion, knowing they had something to prove.  You see, their 5 wins were against Detroit, Cleveland, Minnesota, Washington and Memphis, not exactly the cream of the crop.  Chicago, 4th in the East, beat Boston and Detroit but had lost to the Nets and Philly, go figure.  I don’t follow them, I like some of their pieces, remains to be seen how well Tom Thibodeau (had to look that one up 3 times) can coach, that is HEAD coach because he obviously is a good assistant.

So, according to Stephanie Ready, the team had a great shoot around.  She kept saying they finished it out by “clapping it up.”  Now I don’t know about you, but I love clapping it up.  I clap it up once a day just to let everybody know how I feel about something.  So, riding that excellent walk-through and clapping it up, the Bobcats got out to a great start, keyed in large part by Kwame Brown!  When Kwame is hot, you’re in trouble, unless it’s JUST Kwame heating up, then you’ll be fine and win the game 30 to 106 or something.  But Kwame sparked things, DJ found him, whoa, hold on…looking at the Play-by-Play on ESPN.com to check my statements, it looks like Boris Diaw was the key to Kwame’s success.  Gerald Wallace showed little rust in his return from an ankle injury.

The first quarter was exceptional, the guys really played well on all cylinders against a pretty good team, great young point guard.  They were missing Joakim Noah, but damn it was nice to see the Bulls without having to put up with him…not because he’d do so much damage but because I just can’t stand the guy.  My immediate thought after the game was, if you were to chart the day on a line graph, it’d look exactly like a standard EKG read out.

Good start with the shoot-around, great first, solid 2nd then it dips…the third quarter was not good.  Not fun to watch….The Bobcats couldn’t stop jacking up threes.  I don’t know what it was but just frustrating because all you could do sitting at home is say “SOMEBODY TELL THEM THEY CAN SHOOT CLOSER!”  Then Kwame started fouling.  Coach puts in McGuire in Kwame’s place, he starts fouling and a 13 point halftime lead is evaporated.  It wasn’t turnovers for once, it was the horrible shot selection.  6 of 19 over the quarter if my fingers count correctly….ugly shots, quick shots, no chance of a second chance, making these poor shot selections the equivilant of a turnover.  Just atrocious.  But they were not broken!

In all honesty, it’s surprising that the game was this close.

• The Bobcats were on the road in the 2nd game of a back to back after having to scratch and claw in last night’s brutal overtime matchup against the Bucks.
• The Bulls out-rebounded the Bobcats 56-34.
• Stephen Jackson was held to only 8 points, and sat out the entire 4th quarter with a painful hamstring.

So how did the Bobcats manage to even be in the game? They managed to make this game interesting by having an absolutely ridiculous 8 minute stretch of defense that took them all the way from a double figure deficit to a 5 point lead. If you love defense, then this stretch was like Jessica Alba and Kim Kardashian pouring melted butter over each other while modeling their new thong bikinis… In other words, it was a thing of absolute panoramic beauty.

With that 5 point lead, Boris Diaw was at the free throw line with 2 shots and an opportunity to push the lead to 7 points. Boris goes 0-2 from the stripe, Derrick Rose puts on his superman cape…

… and the rest unfortunately was history.

The Good

The Bobcats are still in the driver’s seat as far as making it into the playoffs. The Bulls would need to just about win out, while the Bobcats would need a 6 game collapse.

The Bad

Stephen Jackson’s hamstring, finger and other miscellaneous injuries. Here is Rickey B’s take on it.

“I felt like I was running in quicksand. I didn’t want to be in there hurting my team,” Jackson said of asking out of the game. “I felt like it all kind of caught up with me. I couldn’t move.”

Coach Larry Brown said afterward that he’d seriously consider shutting Jackson down if it takes that to get him healthy before the post-season. Jackson said he’d understand that decision, with a caveat:

“If we’re already in,” Jackson said of qualifying for the playoffs. “But I don’t want to miss time (until then.) Hopefully it won’t come to that.”