The Bobcats haven’t won on the road yet. The Bobcats have only won 3 games so far. The Bobcats have looked bad in some of the losses. It’s frustrating because there is no consistency of play and therefore, for me, there is nothing to say “That’s the problem” about. I wish I could say the lineups suck. I would love to say it’s all about injuries. It’s just this very nebulous, questionable, loose, flat way of playing, coaching and being a professional team that is so lackluster, I’m not complaining. I simply don’t know enough about what we’re going to see night in night out to do a preview or a review.

Last night against the Pistons in Detroit, The Pistons jumped out to an early lead but the Bobcats came back to lead going into the 2nd quarter and sort of played out the half. 11 Points deficit at halftime, who knows what was decided and discussed in the locker room but all I know for sure is: 3rd quarter, one guy, Charlie Villuenuva, beat the Bobcats 18-12. The Pistons scored 11 additional points in the 3rd to make it a 28 point deficit going into the fourth quarter. They haven’t scored 28 points in a quarter all year. Actually they have 3 times but still, this is not a team that can allow another team to get more than about 6-12 points ahead and hope to come back. It just won’t happen. We don’t have the shooters and don’t have the cutters to the basket.

So, offense, obvious flaw. But now defense is as well? One guy scores 18 in a quarter? It’s not like he was getting to the line a bunch like Dwayne Wade or Allen Iverson. It’s not like he was pounding the Bobcats on the boards and posting up like Shaq or Dwight Howard. He was moving, getting open looks, shooting, scoring and yeah, there were 4 other guys out there who found 11 points in that quarter as well.

It’s a void, a lack of something. I’m not going to say like many would “play harder,” “this team has no heart, drive, determination” all the rest of it. These guys are professionals.

The things that Larry Brown says about “Playing the Right Way” according to my t-shirt are:

Defend Every Possession, Play Harder than our opponent, rebound the ball and respect the game.  The only thing the Bobcats have done the last few games is respect the game and that is questionable.  The rebounds were there last night, 33 to 34 (Det advantage) but the points and the defense were lacking.  It’s just not smart basketball at this point.  There are guys trying these wild passes, funky layups and floptastic defense.

You can’t play every possession like you’re trying to trick somebody and that seems to be the only thing I can put my finger on when it comes to schemes or style of play.  Work with what you’ve got and play legit ball!  The loopty loop passes and falling out of bounds hook shot aren’t working.

That’s all I can think of, play the right way.

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

We’re done. Stick a fork in us.

Don’t get me wrong, I would love to have the basketball gods prove me wrong and have the Bobcats win their final 5 games while either the Pistons or the Bulls lose their final 5 games, but lets be realists here… That’s not going to happen.

What accepting the Bobcats’ fate does for me now is that allows me to fully reflect on this season without being pulled in a direction by my basketball psyche that’s screaming “We can still do this!!”. After the loss to the Pistons today, Even my basketball psyche has shut up.

Even though we are not going to be making our first trip to the playoffs this season, there are many things to be proud of if you are a Bobcats fan. Over the course of the past year we have gone from a team that was coached by one of the most inept individuals to ever hold a clipboard to the legendary Larry Brown. That’s like upgrading from a ’92 Escort with 3 bald tires and a donut to a brand new Mercedes off of the showroom floor. Last year we started Jeff McInnis at PG (insert Jeff McInnis joke here), this season the coaching staff divvied up the minutes between Raymond Felton and DJ Augustin. From a personnel standpoint, we took Jason Richardson & Jared Dudley and turned them into Boris Diaw and Raja Bell. When this deal went down, the Suns fans pronounced it a theft on par with last season’s Pao Gasol deal. I think its pretty clear to everyone now that they were a little overzealous. Raja Bell’s defense and Boris Diaw’s superior passing and versatility are both gigantic reasons why we played .500+ basketball since that deal went down. J-Rich can do this though.We even managed to turn Adam Morrison and Shannon Brown into Vlad Radmanovic. Shannon Brown had some moments with the Bobcats, but he was never going to be more than 9th or 10th man on the roster, Adam was horrible this season… that is honestly the nicest way that I can put it.

Barring injuries we will certainly be a playoff team for the 2009-2010 season. I (and all of the other diehard fans) wanted it this year, and we were damned close but you have to crawl before you can walk. I can confidently say that this is our final season of crawling.

This is a big BIG BIG game.  The pregame interviews show that the team knows it.  Need to close the gap with Detroit and get the tie-breaker in case of a tie with the Pistons to end the season.

Cartier Martin makes the start.  My first thought is, not a good idea.  Really though, who else are you going to play?  Go big with Diop and shift everyone up?  Go small with DJ and risk foul trouble for both of your PG’s?  You could start Vlad but I don’t like him guarding McDeyss.  Pretty much locks you into Cartier “What time is it?” Martin.

Detroit are a bunch of old guys, for real.  I mean can you remember any of these guys in their college days?  Probably some of us in the late 20s and up do but not many more.  Rodney Stuckey is young and he had a great year last year but the rest of them, yikes.

All the guys who were there in ’04 came over to give Larry Brown some love.  Respect but come on let’s get this game going here.

Quick start for the ‘Cats but that’s nothing new.  Finally stretching it to 10-2 followed by a 16-2 run for the Pistons.  Is this a scripted thing?  Easy baskets for Detroit, lots of dunks, lots of layups, lots of fast breaks.

Dontell Jordan, Jefferson, what’s the kids name?  Enters the game for the first time all year.  And he immediately loses a pass out of bounds.  So, we are starting a Rookie former D-Leaguer and then our other rookie D-Leaguer gets early minutes?  Hmm, ok.

Down by 7 to end the first, not great.

The second unit is much younger.  Bynum, Rip, Kwame Brown, Aaron Afflalo, even Banana Hands is young.

Opening of the quarter the Bobcats start to get things going with Vlade getting in some passing lanes away from the Detroit basket.

Vlade is getting some serious PT.  I like it, he’s really zoned in tonight.

Speaking of Zone, i think the Bobcats have been playing a zone defense.  This has helped them get some nice rebounds and get out quick in transition, leading to some easy shot attempts throughout the 3rd.

I do not like a 6pm start.  It screws up my whole eating schedule.

What was the whole development there at the end of the 3rd?  Away from the ball foul on Gerald, then they change their mind and call one on a Piston, i don’t remember who, then Okafor goes to the line, misses both, then they come back from their 2nd commercial attempt with Rip Hamilton walking to the locker room and DJ Augustin shooting the tech.  Steve Martin tells us that it was a double tech one on Diaw one on Hamilton and that was Hamilton’s 2nd.  But if it’s a double tech, why is DJ on the line?

I don’t mean to act a little aloof but come on, If Will Bynum is your guy scoring all the points in the 4th, you aren’t going to win the game, sorry.

I wish Steve Martin would figure out what is going on.  “Offensive foul on Gerald, NO!  It’s good!  Foul on Prince!”  Really nice drive by Gerald, I think Larry is exactly right (no suprise) when you drive to the basket, good things happen.

Diaw has found his 3 point shot.

I take it back.  Will Bynum is a freak, hitting crazy shots and drawing fouls.  Ray comes back and does the same thing.  Tossing up a shot that looks like it has no chance and then drawing a foul, I hate it when D-Wade does it but I love when Ray does.

Suddenly, the Bobcats decide they need to shoot threes or drive too deep and get blocked or make a bad pass.

Well Bynum with 20 points, Gerald has fouled out.  No one is hitting shots.

Tough, tough last 3 minutes.  Frustrating to say the least and you can just see the playoffs slipping away.  I think we must be cursed or something.  It sucks when the Pistons are basically handcuffed, AI is out, Sheed has been on the shelf for a while and ineffective tonight, but they find a way to win behind Will Bynum.

Everyone show up on Tuesday because that’s the last game you get to see in person until next year.  Hang it up.  Lottery here we come…or did we trade that pick?

We are in uncharted territory. 

Following last night’s road win against the Knicks (see highlights below), The Bobcats are now 1 single game out of the 8th spot in the eastern conference.  This would have seemed unimaginable this time last season to those of us who suffered through The Sam Vincent era, but Larry Brown has these guys playing team ball reminiscent of his Pistons teams. Take a look at last night’s boxscore and you’ll see what I mean, every starter was in double figures, every starter shot over 50% from the field, we outrebounded the Knicks by 7, had 7 more assists, we matched them in 3 pointers made although we were more judicious in our attempts (11-22 for us, 11-32 for the Knicks). 

Next up is the San Antonio Spurs on the road, Call me crazy but I think we’ll be extending our win streak to 7.

Thoughts? 

If you take the win % of Charlotte and add it to the % of games won by Detroit you get .997.  Does that mean these two teams that will face each other tomorrow night at the Palace of Auburn Hill are polar opposites?  Charlotte at .368 and Detroit at .629, ummm I’m going to have to go with yes?  Is yes the right answer?  Well lets look at the history: Charlotte is 4-12 all time against the Pistons, not the worst but close to it.  The biggest most obvious angle is Larry Brown’s history, but that goes for about a third of the league as well.  Brown had largest success in Detroit.  He found a group of guys who bought into what he wanted to do: play defense, pass the ball, find the open man, don’t take stupid shots.  He turned his 5 starters into All-Stars and the whole team into Champions.  Larry was only there for 2 years but he came in and made it work.  54-28 both years and trips to the Finals both years…but those were not his best years, except for the one outcome in the Finals.  Anyway, Larry returns to his last coaching job.  What?  You think I forgot one?  I didn’t.   The stint “under” Isiah doesn’t count.  Usually Detroit jumps out to an early lead and sits on us like a mean older brother.  If we fight back they start to hock loogies in our face, that loogie is usually Rasheed Wallace.