I hate to be the one to say “I told you so”, but here we are 1-3 to start the season as predicted. A heartbreaking loss to the Heat at home started a 3 game losing streak involving the Magic at home, and a blow out loss to the Heat at the American Airlines Arena. We met with 2 really tough teams and I won’t go over the top to start pointing fingers, but to me, there are two ways of playing a losing hand. The first one is to try to bluff it, take the bigger team by surprise and blow by with full throttle. The other hand is to fold while the stakes are low, try to read the opposing hand as much as you can and learn for the next hand. What dazzles me is how the Bobcats have played their hands so far. Especially in this last blow out loss to the heat.

With our young core group as i tried to explain in my last post,our guys need to keep their heads cool and play fundamental basketball. Paul Silas played the home game against the Heat, exactly as he should have. He bluffed from the start. No one expected this team to even compete against the Heat, and in the 1st half, our fundamental unselfish team basketball took the Heat by surprise. Unfortunately the Heat called the bluff in the 3rd quarter, and with three seconds to go in the 4th, down by one, we just didn’t have the high card. Excellent game by the entire Bobcats team, included it’s coaching staff obviously, and just a good tough loss against a superior team. What fans must know about this game, is that even if we almost managed to bluff this one to a W, the Heat took it right back once they called our bluff and they didn’t even break a sweat. We cannot compete with the Heat yet, and I think you all know that especially after tonight.

When the season finally got started a lot of the talk surrounding the Charlotte Bobcats was not all too positive to say the least. For the most part the team is pretty young; there is not a lot of experience on it; there really isn’t a go-to player in the group.

While I understand the logic behind what most people think, I have to say that three games in I have a lot of hope for these guys still. A recent quote by head coach Paul Silas is exactly why:

“This is probably the first team I’ve had where everybody was so on the same page. You don’t have to point your finger at somebody, saying, ‘you’re not getting…”

What this tells me is that the team is doing the best thing it could do without having a marquee, go-to player on the roster. They are actually playing a team game.

It’s a crazy notion; I know. In a day and age when the game has become more and more about one guy being the offensive focal point–like LeBron James during his time with the Cleveland Cavaliers; like Dwight Howard with the Orlando Magic—the concept of playing a team oriented sport like an actual complete team has become foreign.

Of course some super stars have been forced to come to the stark realization that they alone cannot win championships. This has forced them to team up with other so-called superstars in order to create a supposed dream team of sorts, i.e. those guys from South Beach.

If the Miami heat showed us anything last year, they showed us that teamwork does matter (because they had none at the start of last season when they got off to such a slow start) and while talent can take you a long way if you can’t work together—I’m talking all five guys on the court, not just the Big Three—titles will be hard to come by.

The Bobcats have been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention after losing to Orlando. The ‘Cats were once again playing without the injured Stephen Jackson, but Gerald Henderson shined with a 32 point night for Charlotte. The Bobcats had four starters, DJ Augustine the lone exception, score in double figures. Surprisingly, offense was not the problem for Charlotte as they shot a reasonable 46.4% from the floor and an outstanding 90% from the free throw line. They could not stop an Orlando team that shot 53.9% from the field. The loss does leave the ‘Cats fan base looking toward the draft now that the playoff hunt is officially dead.

The game started out well when DJ drew a foul on Dwight Howard in the opening seconds of the 1^st half. However, the Bobcats stopped attacking the rim and couldn’t get DH to commit his second foul. This led to a rough 1^st half. A barrage of three pointers by Arenas and Ryan Anderson and poor bench play quickly resulted in a 15 point second quarter deficit. Yet, the Cats hung around and trimmed the Magic’s lead to 8 at the half (59-51) thanks to Jack’s 20 1^st half points. The bench offered nothing but fouls. The newest Bobcats, Przybilla, Cunningham, and White combined for 7 fouls and Najera and Carroll failed to score.

Lets see if this sounds familiar to you.  The Bobcats fall down early by double digits to [insert opposing team name], Fight there way back into the game late in game behind hot shooting by [insert player name here] only to fall flat and fail in the closing minutes. I know that Larry Brown teams usually start the season slow, but this game (especially the 1st quarter) had a real Vincent-ish look to it. See for yourself.

As a fan it hurts, but having your team lose in the playoffs should hurt.

The Bobcats gave it everything that they had, but in this game as well as the rest of the series against the Orlando Magic, they were simply outmatched. The Bobcats managed to find a way to contain Dwight Howard in all 4 games which is an amazing feat, but they simply had no answer for Jameer Nelson and the horde of three point shooters that the Magic pounded them with game after game.

There were many lessons learned and questions raised during this series and I’m sure that we’ll be discussing all of these in great detail on the blog and in the forums. A few to touch on briefly are.

• The Larry Brown situation. will he be back, or is he off to Philly’s front office?
• If LB leaves, then who will his replacement be?
• Raymond Felton. Will he be re-signed this summer or will they let him go? Is he the PG that is capable of leading this team to the next level.
• Speaking of point guards, CP3 was seen at the Bobats game on Saturday (He and Jordan are tight). The Hornets are in the process of selling their team, so they may go into “shedding salary” mode, they have an inexpensive young PG in Darren Collison, so maybe… just maybe they decide its time to deal CP3. Wishful thinking?
• Tyrus Thomas. In my opinion he absolutely must be signed, sealed and delivered this summer. His 21 points and 9 boards along with his stellar defense is just a taste of what he could give us next season if he comes back and is given starting PF minutes.
• And speaking of starting Power Forwards. What do we do with Boris Diaw? He has been absent many times during the regular season and was a no-show in the playoffs.
• The rookies. Can Gerald Henderson and Derrick Brown develop over the summer to the point where LB trusts them with relevant minutes?
• DJ Augustin. If Ray doesn’t come back, Is he capable of running the show?
• Alexis Ajinca. With Lexi, I have no idea what to expect.

As you can see there are many decisions to be made that are ahead of the Bobcats this summer.

Even with all of these questions ahead of us and the far too abrupt end to the playoffs, I would like to say that we as Bobcats fans are extremely proud of the progress that the team has made this season under Larry Brown.  This team has come a long way from the days of Jeff McInnis, Primoz Brezec and empty arenas and we as Bobcats fans are thankful for that.