The San Antonio Spurs have traded 36 year old center Theo Ratliff to the Bobcats for a future second round pick, per multiple sources.

Ratliff, who was drafted 18th overall in the 1995 draft by the Detroit Pistons, played for Larry Brown in Philadelphia, and is well-known for his shot blocking skills. The Wyoming graduate has also played for the Hawks, Trail Blazers, Celtics, Timberwolves, and Spurs before making his way to the Queen City. The Spurs were looking to save money on their luxury tax bill and as Ratliff, who is making the veteran minimum of 1.3 million dollars, wasn’t playing much at just 8.7 minutes a game, the 2.6 million in savings outweighed Ratliff’s bench production. The Bobcats however, will need a body like Ratliff’s down the stretch run and into the playoffs, especially with each current Bobcat center (Nazr Mohammed, Tyson Chandler, DeSagana Diop, and Alexis Ajinca) suffering from injury. He will also be a body at power forward if necessary behind Boris Diaw and the newly acquired Tyrus Thomas.

Also, if you haven’t stopped by the forum, a trade between the Pacers and Bobcats almost went down earlier. That trade would have sent Nazr Mohammed, DJ Augustin, and Gerald Henderson to Indiana for TJ Ford and Brandon Rush, but it appears the Bobcats nixed the negotiations.

Wow. What a game. Every time I see this team play, they have more and more chemistry, and that is helping them smother teams on the defensive side of the ball. Last night, your Charlotte Bobcats took on the San Antonio Spurs, who coming into this game were 5-0 in Charlotte and 10-1 all time against the ‘Cats. But, by the end of the night, that would change.

Depsite the spectacular performance, the first half was boring, slow, and featured under 40% shooting for the ‘Cats, giving the Spurs the halftime lead, 42-38, and no player for either team was in double digits. But my, was that second half impressive. From the end of he third quarter to the beginning of the fourth, the ‘Cats went on a 19-2 run, and the Spurs went 1-14 in that stretch. Gerald Wallace (21 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 blocks, and 4 steals) had several huge defensive plays, including one where he got the steal on the defensive end, and took it coast to coast for the posterization of Manu Ginobili. That was far and away the play of the game (and Wallace’s skying blocks may have been 2-5) but the player of the game was, believe it or not, Boris Diaw (26 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks). Yes, that guy that everyone has wanted benched or traded for the last month (including me). But for tonight, and quite possibly the future (more on that in a minute) the Frenchman was the best player. He kept Spurs star Tim Duncan to just 10 points without any help defense, and was the game’s high scorer and the best ‘Cats rebounder. If this keeps up, and I think it will, then the ‘Cats are going to coast into the playoffs.

Now, as for why this should keep up. According to Bobcats.com writer Matt Rochinski, Boris sat down with Stephen Jackson (16 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals) before this homestand to talk about Boris’ role and how he could help the team by being more aggresive. Not only was Boris fine with that, but he’s taken it to heart, on both ends of the floor. His defense was just as impressive as those 26 points, and Diaw was finally taking those wide open threes he’s been passing up since he got here. If Diaw is in line, the next target should be Tyson Chandler, and if all 5 are living up to, or even close to their potential, the 5 seed might be a bit low. After the game, Jackson talked again with Diaw: “I told him after the game that we’re going to be hard to beat if he’s aggressive,” Jackson said. “There are not too many 4-men in this league that can handle the ball, shoot, pass at that size. I think he frees up a lot of stuff on the offensive end for me and Gerald [Wallace] when he can pick and pop or make plays for us.” Meanwhile Co-Captain Raymond Felton (4 points, 3 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 block) was shouting Diaw’s praises across the locker room.

Notes: Chandler missed his 10th game in a row, though he says that he doesn’t feel pain, just slight discomfort from the stress reaction in his left foot. Rookie Gerald Henderson played 1 minute and 40 seconds after not playing since Dec. 28th against Milwaukee, racking up 7 DNP-CD’s. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said “It’s a typical Larry Brown team, just tenacious, physical, pressure defense. Creating turnovers, creating offense out of turnovers. You knew it coming in. But we reacted poorly to it.” The Bobcats have won 3 in a row, and 6 straight at home.

Tonight, the ‘Cats take on the Phoenix Suns at Time Warner Cable Arena. The game starts at 7 p.m., and though there is no local tv, it will be broadcast nationally on NBATV. Since there’s no local tv, even those in the FSCR blackout zone should be able to watch the game there. The radio broadcast is on WFNZ tonight.

Video recap here: Bobcats beat Spurs 92-76

While watching the Bobcats demolish… yes DEMOLISH the San Antonio Spurs tonight with some of the most utterly ruthless defense that we’ve seen in a quite a while, there was one movie scene that kept popping into my head.

I ask you people of Charlotte… Are you not entertained?

an extended recap of this game is coming very soon.

Welcome to the 3 game win streak, by round of applause how do you feel?

Okay, today’s topic is, “Tim Duncan Is Stupid—Fact or Fiction?”  Ha!  Just kidding.  By the way, who says Tim Duncan isn’t engaging?  My musings last week incited a veritable cyber-riot of outrage.  Looking back, my biggest regret is that I didn’t up the level of accusations.  Instead of just insinuating he doesn’t care about NBA history, I should have accused him of trying to bomb a bus full of nuns.  Maybe I could have alleged he was in the KKK—I could have doctored up some footage to create a 7-foot tall guy in a sheet who was taking a suspiciously long time trying to light a cross on fire, just staring at it forever with his knees pointed inward, fidgeting with the matches while the other Klansmen stood around and wished he’d hurry up and just set the thing on fire already (especially when he’ll probably miss it anyway).
 
One last comment I wanted to make on that “de-blog-cle” was that the vitriol seemed to equally divide itself into three camps: those outraged that I would dare slander Duncan, those outraged that I would dare praise Kobe Bryant, and those outraged that I would dare mention Adam Morrison, period.  The disgust was remarkably symmetric.  Oh well, the important thing is, at least everyone could agree on one thing: I’m a goddamned moron—way to come together!  Once again, sorry for upsetting everyone; I blame it on that conference call.  Stay away from conference calls, kids, they’ll make you do terrible things.  Try drugs instead.
 
Moving right along.  I don’t know about you, but to me the draft lottery brought almost nothing but good-to-wonderful news.  Yeah, I know we technically lost a slot by ending up with the 9th pick rather than the 8th, but look at it this way: this limits the amount of damage Michael Jordan can do.  You know how some people say that it’s rare for former great players to become great coaches, because it’s hard for them (the ex-great players) to relate to and teach people who just don’t have the same raw talent?  To me, this makes complete sense.  I mean, Pablo Picasso could rise from the dead right now and give me 6 months of 12-hours-a-day instruction in cubism, and I still wouldn’t be able to paint a pair of fuzzy dice, let alone Le Guitariste.  Moreover, after about ten minutes Pablo would get so frustrated by my ineptitude, he’d start to wish my face looked like one of his portraits for real.  So I completely buy this theory.
 
But what’s harder to understand is why (at least in Jordan’s case) talent can’t seem to SPOT talent.  Picking Kwame Brown and Adam Morrison, trading away Rip Hamilton, selecting Sam Vincent as coach…Jordan’s reputation as an appraiser of young talent is littered with terrible judgment calls.  Why can’t Jordan recognize young guys who remind him of himself?  I know there “will never be another Jordan,” but does that mean he’s got to screw up so spectacularly?  Forget about another Jordan, just don’t get another Kwame Brown.
 
And that’s the beauty of the ninth pick: it’s a protective shelter from the fallout of another Jordan stink-o draft-pick bomb.  Plus, Larry Brown will be his co-pilot (more like his designated driver), and that should mitigate his decision-making further.  Here’s the other good thing about our slot: we had almost no chance at drawing picks 1 and 2, but imagine if we’d gotten “lucky” and been awarded with the #3?  Did you see who Chad Ford’s projecting for the 3rd pick?  Brook Lopez!  Egad, what if we took him!  I kid you not: Jay Bilas was on the radio yesterday, and he said Lopez was a great center, except that he lacks “rebounding and finishing” ability.  Umm, what’s the point then?  That’s like saying you’ve got a great accountant, except that he can’t add or subtract (note: when it comes to John McCain’s economics advisers, this might actually be the case).  Yup, I’ll settle for the 9th pick, get an economically-sound guard or big man, and…   
 
…continue falling out of my chair laughing at the Knicks.  As a New Yorker, this brings me to the third delicious outcome of the lottery, and it’s actually a two-parter.  The first was the priceless look on Mike D’Antoni’s face when his new team sank to #6 in the lottery, while his potential team scored the #1.  D’Antoni did this hilarious, “appear-then-disappear” tight smile of horror that I’ve never seen pulled off by anyone except by Jeopardy! contestants when they screw up the final round.  And then, almost by way of an encore, Chad Ford projected that the Knicks will use this pick on some Italian guy named Danilo Gallinari whose dad played with D’Antoni.  I swear, Madison Square Garden will collectively defecate itself if this happens—I can’t wait! 

Oooh yeah, three in a row!  Not since the halcyon days of November 1st to the 19th have we looked this good.  Apparently, Jeff McInnis’ way with the Dark Side was more powerful than even I thought.  Even without Gerald Wallace, we racked up one W on the road and another over a playoff-hungry Warriors team.  Granted, the Minnesota T-Wolves are the NBA equivalent of William Hung: sort of endearing and inspiring, but mostly untalented.  Have you seen these guys?  They’re all sort of misshapen, almost like they’re defective models off the NBA player assembly line.  Craig Smith is kind of rotund and overly sweaty, Corey Brewer is skinny, Marko Jaric is squinty, Randy Foye’s kind of stocky, Bassy Telfair is kind of slow and small and can’t really shoot, Antoine Walker is kind of a salary dump, etc.    
 
Even that “Wolf howl” sound effect blasts over the PA system at inappropriate moments.  I swear I heard one after Jason Richardson drilled a 3-pointer.  They also have a pair of television announcers who are unmatched in their ability to generate awkward silences after weird, vaguely homoerotic outbursts.  After a generic put-back, one of them inexplicably yelled out, “Kirk Snyder is GOOD!!” (ensuing long silence).  The best shout-out was, “Emeka Okafor is a MAN!” (ensuing long silence).  Not “the man,” mind you, “a man.”  I also took offense to one of them asserting that Jason Richardson is “the first go-to guy in Bobcats history.”  Excuse me?  Obviously, these guys have never heard of the legend that is Jason Hart.
 
None of this stopped the Wolves from getting indignant over a loss to the likes of us.  Head coach Randy Wittman went all Neville Chamberlain afterward.  "Tonight we tried to have a nonaggression pact with the other team, from the first play of the game to the last play of the game," Wittman said. "That's disappointing."  Wait, did he just compare Sam Vincent to Hitler? 
 
Then came the Warriors.  You know how there’s been an endless debate over who are the biggest trade-deadline “winners” and “losers”?  Here’s my choice for a winner: Chris Webber.  He’s got to be thanking his lucky boosters that this year’s deadline wasn’t as quiet as last year’s, otherwise people would have had nothing better to do than focus on what a terrible acquisition he’s been: 9 games, 14 minutes per, 4 points, 2 assists, 4 reboards (and all these numbers rounded up).  Fortunately for him, the plethora of deals has completely taken the spotlight off his disastrous reunion with Golden State.            
 
As for the game itself, the Warrior roared out of the gate with 38 first-quarter points.  Sam Vincent had to call two timeouts, and it had the same demoralizing effect as a boxer receiving two standing 8-counts in the first round.  Monta Ellis was so fast that at times he seemed to be moving through people; he’s like X-Men’s Kitty Pryde if she also had the ability to draw lots of shooting fouls.  Given Ellis’s speed, it’s mystifying why they didn’t just give the rock to him for the last 5-and-a-half minutes when they were ahead 106-105—he seemed a mortal lock to either score or draw the foul every time he had the ball.  Instead, Stephen Jackson, Kelenna Azubuike, and Al Harrington all missed two 3-pointers apiece, and we pulled away for the win.
 
But I’m skipping a whole bunch.  Before all this came a stunning turnaround of a 2nd quarter, in which we cut their first quarter scoring by half (just 19 points) and came storming back to take a 2-point lead at the intermission, spearheaded by Earl Boykins’ 9 points in the period.  Matt Carroll scrapped for 11 boards and 4 steals, and Okafor got to the foul line 18 times.  Our two most positive trends lately—Richardson and Jared Dudley—also continued to blossom.  Richardson scored 42 points and Dudley did just about everything else—18 rebounds, 2 blocks, and a steal.  He also drew numerous charges and generally played like a muthaf—in’ spiteful, delightful, eyeful. 
 
Winning feels better than anything—even better thinking of Jeff McInnis in the past tense.  Over the last two games, we’ve hit 52-of-70 foul shots, committed just 22 total turnovers, had 8 of the 10 starters score in the double-digits, and exhibited crunch-time defense (just 37 total fourth-quarter points allowed)—is this how it feels to cheer for the Spurs every game?  Woooowww.