Should we be scared? Should we panic? Should the Cats flee for their lives like the Miami Heat are Omar and the Cats are simply a bunch of corner boys?

Side note: If you haven’t watched The Wire (the greatest television series ever) you should immediately hit up ebay or amazon and snag that series. If for some reason you have watched The Wire but didn’t care for the series, then with all due respect… Go drown yourself.

The answer to the earlier question of should we panic is simply NO. Lebron James and the Heat are coming off of a huge, tough win against the Orlando Magic, this will be the second night of a road back to back for them. The Bobcats on the other hand are coming off of a very successful 4-2 road trip, they are well rested, they are at home and their confidence is high.

The Miami Heat are in prime position to catch a beatdown tonight. Tonight will be a Bobcats win.

Who else is with me?

Just like the rest of the league.  In their last 20 games, the Heat and the Lebronettes are 18-2, the two losses being to Dallas, who, if not for the recent woes, would probably be considered second best in the league.  I had no rose colored glasses for this one.  By the way, who is the last person you know that wore rose colored glasses?  Gorilla Monsoon?  Yeah me too.

It would be an uphill climb.  The Heat turned around a 20 point deficit against Golden State, who had beaten the Bobcats, into a 7 point win.  So logically, I was saying, “Bobcats lost, were behind most of the game to Golden State, Golden State lost a 20 point lead to these freaks, Bobcats lose.”  Easy to see that, isn’t it?  Well, add all that positive negativity, that is, I was positive of a negative outcome, add to that Gerald Wallace was out with his trick ankle, Nazr Mohammed was out with his umm, age.  Via his twitter on January 1, Saturday: “I gotta get rid of these nick-nack injuries cuz I’m ready to take it up a notch for the New Year. Ready to hoop and have fun.#Bobcats”  I think he means ticky-tack, nick-nack are those things your grandma keeps on a shelf….wait, I think he might be right!  He’s kept on the shelf…anyway, you get it.

Worst of all, coming into the game, Gana Diop was listed as out for the season with a ruptured Achilles tendon.  What would we do without his 1.3 points per game, over 16 games!  He’s broken the rotation, seemingly to get his trade value up, and the fella ruptured his damn Achilles!  Oh well, no bother…we have umm, Kwame Brown.  Don’t throw things, I’m only the messenger.  For whatever reason he hadn’t yet broken the rotation under Paul Silas, but he’d be thrust into it tonight.  I heard, when Miami was looking at Dust Dampier, they had 6 centers, which really meant they had no centers.  Well the Bobcats had 3 centers, down to Kwame Brown, who Silas obviously didn’t trust to wear a uniform in the previous 2 games…the Bobcats were without a center.

Kwame started, Henderson started in place of Wallace, almost immediately got a foul.  Again, no bother, Bobcats got out to a 7-2 lead and held that 5 point stiff-arm throughout the first quarter, extending it out to 7 at points within the second.  Lebron and DWade decided at some point to start taking things a bit more seriously.  Their defense is pretty outstanding.  But I’m not sure that’s what led to their size-able third quarter lead.  The story of this game was the absolute inability of the Bobcats to make a shot.

Compiled from one of our distinguished forum threads, I present to you the top 10 reasons that the Miami Heat are going to get their collective behinds kicked on Friday night.

10 - We have 4 days off to rest and prepare- nazsquad

9 - The Cats were a combined 7-4 against Miami, Toronto and Cleveland last season. – BlockParty

8 - Gerald Wallace owns Lebron every time they match up – plowman5

7 - Our owner can dunk on their owner – BlockParty

Much has already been said about the trade that brought Erick Dampier over to the Bobcats along with the likelihood of the team actually signing him to a contract since that $13.1 million that Mark Cuban had promised him is just way too much.

Sure enough the talks have stalled and the team is looking to dump him in September and then possibly resign him for less. However, if they do waive him with the hopes of resigning him they may end up seeing him simply walk away.

Now for many of you I know that would not be a big deal. The guy wants too much money and is simply not worth the price tag he is waiving. Me, I hate to give anything up and then essentially get little back. I refer to the trade.

Personally, I was a fan of Tyson Chandler (after having him on my fantasy team during the 2007-08 season when he averaged a nice double-double). Yes, he has not done as well since and has only played in 45 and 51 games the last two seasons, but I had hopes to see him rebound in 2010 myself.

Of the three players that the Bobcats got for Chandler (and the seldom used Alexis Ajinca) Dampier is the most proven commodity. Matt Carroll and Eduardo Najera have not done much in their limited NBA time yet so unless your banking on Larry Brown turning those guys into players then the lynch pin of the trade for Chandler has to be Dampier.

There has been some discussion recently in our forum about just how good this new and improved Miami Heat squad is going to be in this upcoming season. What I would like to do is put my predictions here on public record so that they can either be praised or ridiculed at the end of the season. Let me preface these predictions by saying that I am in no way a Lebron James fanboy, but this is just how I see it… Here goes.

• The Miami Heat will win 68+ games this season.
• Lebron James will come closer than anyone since Oscar Robertson to averaging a triple double. 25 points, 9 assists, 8.5 rebounds sounds about right.
• Lebron James wins his 3rd consecutive MVP
• The Heat lose only 1 game in their playoff run on their way to winning the championship
• Lebron James wins the finals MVP

After reading these predictions you must certainly think that I’m a closet Heat fan, but trust me that certainly is not the case. I just look at this lineup and don’t see how they can be stopped. Who are you going to put your 2nd best perimeter defender on James or Wade… Seriously? Are you going to attempt to guard Chris Bosh with single coverage… Really?  If you do anything other than try to guard these guys straight up, you can count on Mike Miller (and now Eddie House) being wide open behind the stripe draining threes, Are you comfortable with that? I didn’t think so.

Well for better or for worse that’s how I see it. If you’d like to make a few predictions of your own, then comment below.

Just a few days ago, we saw the Charlotte Bobcats play horrible basketball in Washington, D.C. but somehow come out with an overtime win over the Wizards, 95-86. There would be no overtime tonight, as the ‘Cats survived multiple attempts at a comeback by the Washington Wizards to win 107-96. The Bobcats earned their franchise-record 38th win, and are for the first time ever four games over .500%. The Wizards, however, set their own franchise record with their 14th consecutive loss. While it wasn’t pretty, it’s a win, and that means the magic number to make the playoffs is down to 7.

Suspended Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas showed up for his sentencing earlier in the day (30 days in a halfway house and community service, if you were wondering), but most of his teammates were nowhere to be found. Mike Miller scored just 10 points in 36 minutes and just three Wizards scored more than 10 points. One of them is D-League call-up Alonzo Gee, who replaced the injured Al Thornton in the starting lineup with 19 points, making him Washngton’s leading scorer. No Wizard had more than 7 rebounds, and they had shots blocked by the Bobcats 8 times. Believe it or not, Raymond Felton had two of those blocks to go along with his 19 points (on 8-10 shooting) and 11 assists. Felton said postgame that “we’re treating every game like a playoff game” and attributed his recent performance boost to “being at my comfort level.” But he was far from the only Bobcat to contribute. Gerald Wallace had 23 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 steals along with several crowd-pleasing dunks. Stephen Jackson dropped in 20 points, and Boris Diaw put out a 12/5/4 line. Tyson Chandler had 4 points, 5 rebounds and a block off the bench, but his post presence was more valuable than numbers can show. New Bobcat Larry Hughes had his best game in a short period, going 4-10 for 10 points with 3 rebounds. But perhaps the most encouraging stat of the game is playing time: No starter played more than 34 minutes, and league leader in minutes per game Gerald Wallace played just 32:28 with just as much effectiveness. While I doubt this will push Coach Larry Brown to rest the starters more, considering the poor play of the bench (outside Chandler and Hughes, there were just 11 bench points on 16 shots, and 7 turnovers from the bench), it’s at least a good sign for one night. Regarding the game, LB said “I wasn’t crazy about it, we turned the ball over too much, we got beat on straight line drives.” He’s also been keeping tabs on NCAA tournament action, saying “Hell, you can be Northern Iowa, St. Mary’s, Butler, it doesn’t matter, we gotta respect whoever we play…Sometimes, I don’t know if we completely understand that.”

Notes: The Bobcats led the whole game…Former Bobcat Earl Boykins did not play in a coach’s decision for the Wizards…Despite sitting himself in the previous game against the ‘Cats, Andray Blatche started and played 38 minutes…The Bobcats swept the season series with Washington 4-0…Two of the Bobcats’ next three games are against close rivals in the playoff race, Monday the 29th vs. Toronto and Friday April 2nd vs. Milwaukee…With the Bulls being inactive tonight, the magic number of Bulls losses and Bobcats wins is now 7, and the Bobcats could possibly clinch a playoff spot by beating the Bulls in Chicago next Saturday (april 3rd), though mathematically it could be as soon as the 2nd…Miami beat the Bucks tonight, placing Charlotte 1/2 game back of the 6th spot in the Heat but just 1 1/2 games back of 5th (Milwaukee).