The best thing you can say about the Bobcats game on Wednesday night is that there are only six more of them to go. But the second-best thing you can say is that the Bobcats came out on top against a Philadelphia 76ers team that was desperately looking to keep their playoff hopes alive. They’ll have to keep looking, though, because through a combination of Bobcat hustle and Derek Fisher’s poltergeist possessing Jrue Holiday, Charlotte came out on top. “We were able to prove again that we’re very interested in the outcome coming down the backstretch,” said coach Mike Dunlap. On behalf of Bobcats fans everywhere, we thank you for your team’s interest, coach.

The game’s beginning was certainly no bed of roses. In fact, it was more like a bed-wetting, as the Bobcats found themselves trailing by 16 early in the second quarter. Scratch that; I hate the phrase “found themselves,” as if they just woke up in a 16-point deficit. There was no existential mystery here, as the Bobcats went on a 12-minute journey of self-discovery and 2-for-15 shooting, including a collection of greatest hits from Tyrus Thomas on his late-season farewell tour: a missed 18-footer, a spectacular missed slam dunk, a missed 18-footer, and a missed 20-footer. Thomas would later miss a 13-footer and yet another 3-pointer—his fifth 3-pt attempt in the last two games…is he just trolling the Sloan Sports Conference?

“We got a lot of guys with pride and a lot of heart,” said Gerald Henderson after the Bobcats’ failed semi-comeback against the Knicks on Friday night, “We just couldn’t come up with it at the end of the game.” An answer for J.R. Smith and Carmelo Anthony is the “it” with which the Bobcats couldn’t come up. In fact, in the first half, the only thing more unstoppable than Smith was his tattoo artist, as the former Zhejiang Golden Bull went 9-for-11 and attacked the hoop as if it were a New Jersey traffic court judge. Between him and the diabolical Anthony, the Bobcats found themselves trailing by 30 points in the first half, and although they were able to cut the deficit to 7 with about 2 minutes left in the fourth quarter, they couldn’t close the deal. “You like to win big when you are up big, but to me a win is a win,” said Knicks coach Mike Woodson, whose opinion of wins is in line with the generally-held perception of them.

The following night’s results in Philadelphia—a 9-point loss—were the same but acquired differently. This time the Bobcats squandered an early lead but played neck-and-neck throughout until they let a guard take control late. Jrue Holiday, who was in the midst of a 2-for-13 shooting debacle (which doesn’t include his four missed free throws), came alive with 11 points in the 4^th quarter to save Allen Iverson Bobblehead Night for the Sixers. Holiday’s versatility was impressive; he hit 3 jumpers and blew past the Bobcats’ guards twice for layups. Thaddeus Young and Royal Ivey combined for 5 steals as well, and the Sixers’ overall 52% shooting was enough to force the war-torn Bobcats to surrender.

Let’s start with the good news, because there’s enough bad Bobcats news to depress a Syrian: Michael Kidd-Gilchrist is back from his concussion. He also seems to be back to normal, playing 39 minutes in the last two games. He’s only shot 2-for-11, including 0-for-4 on jump shots. On the other hand, he couldn’t make those shots before he was injured, so that doesn’t really mean anything. In fact, it would be funny if his knock on the head actually caused him to lose that weird hitch in his jumper. Also, if it made him think he was King Tut. All kidding aside, I’m really relieved MKG seems to be okay, because he’s the backbone of this team.

It’s just too bad this team is Christopher Reeve. You’re probably assuming that the Lakers loss two nights ago—featuring a blown 20-point Bobcats lead with about 17 minutes remaining—destroyed me, but it didn’t really; in fact, it only partially damaged me. I really think that 18-point choke-job against Portland back in December, followed two days later with another self-strangulation in New York, more or less inoculated me against future outbreaks of devastation. It’s like watching two of your kids die after suffering through long painful diseases over several years, and then a few months later, your third child suddenly gets sucked into an airplane turbine—sure, it hurts, but you’ve had worse. Let’s not forget that December also saw nearly the exact same thing happen to these Lakers in LA: the Lakers reeling and injured, the Bobcats coming out of the gates on fire, a huge third quarter lead squandered—been there, done that. I think I would have been surprised if the outcome had been different.

This is all Ron Rivera’s fault.  The head coach of the Carolina Panthers seems like a great guy, with solid Edward James Olmos looks and values.  I imagine he really appreciated the film Stand and Deliver.  But the man has an unfortunate verbal tick in which he adds the phrase “a little bit” to nearly every sentence he speaks.  Here’s a small sample, courtesy of the Herald Online:

• “I think I can help a little bit more on the defensive side.”
• “That was a little bit different for me, obviously.”
• “We’ve struggled a little bit. It’s going to be two teams that need to win.”
• “He’s kicked it pretty good but I’m a little concerned about him being just a little bit sore.”
• “You’d like to bring it up a little bit but Cam is able to scoop them up.”
• “It takes the wind out of your sails a little bit, especially the way we’ve been playing defensively.”
• “It was a little bit expensive back then but it stands the test of time.” (He was talking about his favorite Christmas present)

I don’t why I started noticing this, but now I can’t STOP noticing it.  I’m like Roddy Piper in They Live, except instead of aliens I’m seeing that stupid phrase.  And now I’m convinced that Ron Rivera was Patient Zero and the Little Bit disease is spreading.  I see why it would be commonly used among jocks, because they’re desperate to sound even-keeled and uncontroversial whenever speaking to the press, so everything is “kind of” this, “sort of” this, and “a little bit” that, but now it’s being taken to new extremes.  Witness Chris Bosh in Monday’s Daily Dime: “It kind of pissed me off a little bit.” (Bosh is the perfect victim for this syndrome, when you think about it: he’s mealy-mouthed and unassertive even when he’s trying to be blunt.)  Then last Friday George Karl upped the ante to a zany level: “I can’t deny that my head has felt like it’s ready to burst a little bit.”  C’mon, men, there’s no such thing as being a little bit pissed off (or sort of shocked or kind of furious); quit half-stepping and own your verbs and adjectives!

Brent Wojahn/The Oregonian

Here in our Bobcatsplanet Forums we’ve come up with a term for all of the losing that the players and fan base have had to suffer through this season. We have given this painful process the title of  The Cho Objective. Now we didn’t give it this name out of anger or in a ‘Lets run Rich Cho out of town’ mentality, This title is actually named out of respect for what Rich Cho is doing…

Yep, you heard me right. The Bobcats are planted firmly at the bottom of the league’s standings yet we as fans are very happy with what he has done, And this is why. As an organization in a small to mid-sized market in today’s NBA, moving players that will not be a part of your long term plans ( like Gerald Wallace or Stephen Jackson ) for draft picks is the right thing to do. If you look at it from a long term perspective, moving a player that won’t be helping your team 3 to 4 years down the road for additional spots in the draft is like getting Free Picks.

Rich Cho understands all of this perfectly. He realizes that the NBA of today that unless you’re the Knicks, Heat or Lakers then you have to get decidedly worse before you have any chance at all of getting better. Small to mid-sized markets like Charlotte will never get their hands on the type of game changing free agent that can single-handedly turn around a team’s fortunes. It simply will never happen. Rich Cho realizes that having a mediocre team and pinning your hopes on nabbing that free-agent savior to push you to that mystical next level is a fantasy.

I don’t actually have anything to say about Jeremy Lin; I’m just trying to drive traffic to our website.[1]  In fact, as an NYC resident, I mostly can’t even watch Lin play, due to James Dolan’s dispute with Time Warner.[2]  I’ve written about this at length, and the bottom line is that Knicks games aren’t available to Time Warner customers.[3]  This is especially problematic because Time Warner is the only cable provider in town.[4]  There is no “good guy” in this dispute that fans can back, by the way—both entities are loathsome; it’s like trying to cheer for Alien vs. Predator.  So while the rest of the world has been enjoying Lin’s exploits, I’m stuck watching the Bobcats, who unfortunately are heavily sponsored by Time Warner and therefore can’t be in a dispute that knocks them off Time Warner.[5]

At least the Bobcats played their latest two opponents (the Sixers and the Timberwolves) close—well, closer.  In fact, I think we could have beaten the Timberwolves if we’d played them two weeks ago when Kevin Love was suspended…Well, maybe not, because two weeks ago we wouldn’t have had Corey Maggette or DJ Augustin in the lineup.  But if the Bobcats of last night had played the Timberwolves of two weeks ago, then I think we would have won…Well, maybe not, because I think we would also need Gerald Henderson, too, and he’s probably not going to be back for two more weeks.  So put it this way: if the Bobcats of two weeks into the future had played the Timberwolves of two weeks ago last night, I think the Bobcats would have won.  But only if the game was also at home.