So the Bobcats beat the hapless Raptors last night in Canada of all places…who knew they played basketball up there?  The ‘Cats and the Rap’s were both 1-6 headed into last night’s contest, however, coming into the season, the Bobcats were a revised version of a playoff team and the Raptors were 4 games worse, subtract the one dude they had that gave them any wins at all and ehh, not so surprising the Raptors were 1-6 but somewhat surprising that the Bobcats were.  Prior to the win, most of the true fans left were either on the ledge or in a brisk walk towards it.  It’s hard not to be concerned when a team is averaging around 18 turnovers and losing games to teams they theoretically should beat.

I thought, before the win, of proposing a team name change to the Charlotte Chuckin’ Turnovers, as the game versus San Antonio was a chuck-fest with the starters a combined 17 of 54 from the field.  Bad enough for Larry Brown to leave Jackson and Wallace on the bench for the final stretch.  I was so pissed about the shot selection I made some notes that are a bit un-readable and probably in bad taste to air in a public forum such as this.  It wasn’t just a 1-6 start, it was an ugly 1-6.  I realize there are growing pains (or regression pains) from losing your starting center and point guard but I didn’t think the fall off would be this bad.

I guess it was the high of the playoffs and the expectations going forward.  Young talent taking hold, a defined path from leadership on and off the court and a renewed fanbase just starting to shake off the cobwebs from being jilted those many years ago.  I think a lot of people were like me, expecting great things.  Sure the loss of Raymond Felton would hurt, but Larry Brown, Rod Higgins and Michael Jordan had a plan in place and DJ Augustin, while having the sophmore slump, was no slouch.  Tyson Chandler being traded for Matt Carroll, Eduardo Najera and Dust (oh by the way, we were relieved of the French Wonder in that trade as well), while wasn’t an improvement, shook things up and took away 2 of the great what-ifs (as in “What if Tyson could stay healthy?” and “What if that taller Frenchman will ever see real PT in the NBA”).  I didn’t know what to expect but I thought the team would be alright.

The Charlotte Bobcats survived the Toronto Raptors last night to gain their second win of the season. The Raptors played the Bobcats tough and had strong nights from Andrea (chick name) Bargnani, Sonny (Wait.. Who?) Weems and Reggie (good touch bad touch) Evans.

rambling sidebar – I really have a hard time calling a man Andrea, maybe its because when I was in this college there was this thick 5’5″ sister named Andrea that looked like Lisa Raye dipped in Hershey’s chocolate. She was phenomenally smoking, but to delve into further detail probably borders on a little to much sharing for this blog.

There were a few interesting things to note in this game.

• There were extended minutes for Gerald Henderson and he made the most of them. He showed his usual aggressiveness on defense and displayed a surprisingly consistent jumper. Hendo wound up with 10 points, 5 rebounds and 1 steal in 19 minutes.
• Tyrus Thomas was a defensive force in his limited minutes. If anyone can explain to me why Boris got 17 minutes more this game than Tyrus, I would be glad to hear your rationale on it. In 21 minutes TT tore it up for 14 points, 4 rebounds and 5 huge blocked shots.
• Jax was inconsistent for the first 3 quarters, but with the game on the line in the closing minutes he knocked down a couple of gianourmous threes and stripped the ball from Andrea ( theres that name again ) Bargnani. When things got tight, Jax stepped up big time.  He may not have exactly made love to pressure against the Raptors, but at a minimum he did some heavy petting.
• DJ Augustin had a solid game at the PG spot on his birthday with 16 points, 7 assists, 3 steals and shooting 3-5 from three point range. He seems to be doing his best not to be seen as any sort of weak link in this lineup since he has taken over for Felton who is doing his thing for the Knicks.

The Bobcats vs. the Raptors 3/29/10

It is the season for teams fighting for a play-off berth to step up and grab their place at the table. Teams behind want to catch those teams in front of them. Teams in front want to embarrass and take those behind out of their thoughts. Those not in contention for a play-off spot simply want to spoil the way for any team better than themselves. Tonight, the Bobcats played a team behind them in the standings and helped them feel better about themselves. This is not a good thing at this point in the season. The ‘Cats offense showed up shooting a reasonable 46.4% from the field and an outstanding 50.0% from three-point land…so what the heck happened? The Bobcats defense was not ready to play against a Raptors team unwilling to throw in the towel. Gerald Wallace, Raymond Felton, and Stephen Jackson all had their moments on offense. Boris Diaw, on the other hand, reverted to his past sin of passing up open shots to pass the ball at very inopportune times. Defensively, the Charlotte team let the Raptors shoot 50.6% from the field and allowed Toronto too many offensive rebounds (10-4). The long-ball might have been seductive for the ‘Cats but they allowed Toronto, a finesse team, to out-score them in the paint (34-24).

Team defense sagged since the ‘Cats refused to put “a body on a player” on numerous occasions, allowing the Raptors to score easy points. This was a very uncharacteristic defensive lapse for the Charlotte team. Giving hope to teams behind you wins nothing at this stage in the play-off chase! The ‘Cats had a chance to possibly drop the Raptors, depending on the Bulls game tomorrow night, into a tie with the team from Chicago. The point, at this point in the season, is to make your opponents sweat more than you and the ‘Cats failed plain-and-simple. They were at home, nice crowd for Monday, playing a team from which they could take the season tie-breaker, and they failed. This, thankfully, was not a do-or-die, or the Bobcats would be dead. The ‘Cats still hold the seventh place position in the Eastern Conference, two games ahead of the Raptors and three games ahead of the Bulls. The hope is that the ‘Cats begin to dominate and send a message that, not only do we want to be a play-off team, we will push you to the maximum. Let’s hope the Bobcats rebound.

The Good:

Raymond Felton (18 points and 7 assist).

Good offense, especially 3-pt. shooting (50.0%).

Free-throw shooting (80.6%).

The Bad:

Boris Diaw passing up open looks.

The Ugly:

Team defense…allowing the Raptors to shoot (50.6% from the field).

Next game for the Bobcats: Wednesday 3/31/10 7:00pm vs. Philadelphia 76ers

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).

After a disappointing loss in Oklahoma City, the Bobcats were home last night to face the Milwaukee Bucks, who they are battling for playoff position. This would be the final game played at Time Warner Cable Arena this decade (the Bobcats play one more game before New Year’s, but that’s in Toronto), and the Bobcats didn’t disappoint.

Charlotte started the game of rather tepidly, with only Gerald Wallace and Raymond Felton scoring the first 16 points and going into the second quarter with just a 23-20 lead. But in the second quarter, the ‘Cats took off, outscoring Milwaukee 33-14 and entering the half with a 22 point lead. In the second half, Bucks coach Scott Skiles attempted to send a message to his team by sitting stars Michael Redd and Andrew Bogut, and they were able to pull within 10, but never closer. Gerald Wallace scored 21 and had 14 boards, while Stephen Jackson had 12 points and Raymond Felton had 11. But tonight was all about the bench. Flip Murray dropped in 16, Stephen Graham contributed 11, and DJ Augustin and DeSagana Diop both had 7. Diop was credited with just one block, but from watching the game, he had at least three. This may have been Gana’s best game as a Bobcat, and he only played 12 minutes.

Post Game Quotes

Gerald Wallace: “I think, you know what, the first half was an A, the second half was a C. I think, the second half we got lazy, they got a lot of transition layups, a lot of transition wide-open shots, I think we got lacksadaisical with the lead, that we had. But I think the first half was great, we put ourselves in great position for the second half, and we were able to hold on.”

Gana Diop: on having more than the one official block – “Yeah, I got more than one, but I mean, I’m kind of used to that, from Dallas.”

on the bench: “We brought a lot of energy, you know what I’m saying, a kind of slow tempo of energy. Flip was real good on the break, we got a lot of rebounds, pushed the ball, and got a big lead in the first half.”

on coming in after watching all year: “Oh, I mean, it’s hard. But, being able to be out there and help the team, you know, being on the bench trying to cheer on my teammates, and work hard, come in for early practice, try to stay in shape, so I can get in there, I can do my job.”

on having inspiration to contribute: “Oh yeah, you got to. I mean, going early in the gym, with Cape [Assistant Coach Jeff Capel] and young guys, even though I got 9 years, DJ Augustin’s killin me. But yeah I just try to stay in shape and be ready for moments like this…it’s a long season, 82 games, you just gotta stay ready.”

Stephen Jackson: “We’re gettin better. That’s all you can ask. Still got room to grow but we’re gettin better. We’re gettin better as a team.”

on how important it is to beat another team in playoff contention: “Yeah, cuz we’re gonna be fighting for that last spot, you know, the last couple spots, should I say, at the end of the season, so it’s good to get one up on them. You know we lost one at home [in Milwaukee] against them already, so to even it out feels good.”

Larry Brown: “You know the first half we were great. I know they missed some shots, but I thought the first half we played great defense. The second half, just thank God for Stephen Graham and Gerald Wallace.”

on Stevie Graham: “I just, you know, I can count on him. He runs on the break, he tries to defend, rebounds, plays with energy. He gets better every game…I can play him almost any position, he can guard almost any position, I love guys like that.”

Next Up: Toronto

The Bobcats manhandled the Raptors the last time they played, winning 116-81 in Charlotte, the widest margin of victory ever for a Bobcats team. But the Raptors are on a roll right now, and the Bobcats are tied for the fewest road wins in the NBA with the New Jersey Nets (1 apiece). When asked about the upcoming game, Gerald Wallace said “We’re like 1 and forever on the road. We gotta figure out something or we’re gonna be watching the playoffs, because, I mean, it’d be good if we could’ve won all 41 home games, that’d give us a pretty good chance but I don’t think we’re gonna do that. We gotta figure out something on the road. Toronto, they’re a great offensive team, they have shooters all the way out to their assistant coaches, so we’re gonna have to figure out something for us as a team to prepare mentally and physically and what we can do to come out and be better on the road.” The game can be seen locally on Fox Sports Carolinas and heard on the radio on WBCN

Raptors/Bobcats Preview

Three straight losses all against the West?  This isn’t the Bobcats of the last 2 weeks!  Ok, I can understand San Antonio and Houston but Minnesota?  You realize they woke up Kevin McHale to coach this game?