First of all in case you missed it, THIS is the dunk that Demar Derozan had last night that caused all of the SportsCenter anchors to get so uncontrollably wet in the panties:

It was a nice dunk, but dunk of the year candidate? Get Serious.

Now that we have that out of the way, we can talk about the game.  The first half of the game was ugly, The Raptors jumped out early in the first quarter to grab a 9 point lead. The same problems that we’ve been seeing from the Bobcats all season were prevalent ( lack of intensity, poor perimeter defense etc ). Through the second quarter it was more of the same, The Raptors scored when they needed to and the Cats offered little resistance.

Halftime saw Charlotte Bobcats owner Michael Jordan be inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.  How on earth was he not in there already?

Maybe the players seeing this, along with their owner’s threats that they better not lose on his night had a little to do with the Bobcats second half turnaround. In the 3rd and 4th quarters they looked more like the Bobcats of last year than they have at anytime this season. They were hustling, getting out on the break and amazingly even defending the perimeter. I have no idea if the second half was just 24 minutes of inspiration or if it was some kind of turning point for this season. On that we’ll just have to wait and see.

Notes on last night’s game

  • The refs clearly have it out for Jax. From the looks of it, he can’t say anything more than “have a nice day sir” without getting teed up. Jax finished with 7 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists in 25 minutes before fouling out
  • In 19 minutes Nazr Mohammed had a strong 18 points and 8 rebounds. He didn’t set foot on the court in the 4th quarter though.
  • Dominic McGuire got almost as many minutes as Matt Carroll, Derrick Brown and Gerald Henderson combined. Hmmm.
  • DJ  Augustin had 7 assists against only 1 turnover and even 1 blocked shot?!?!
  • Gerald Wallace ( 4 blocked shots, 2 steals ) looked better defensively in the 2nd half than he has all season. Unfortunately he suffered an ankle sprain during the game that looks like it may linger for a while

Gerald Wallace spoke post-game about the win and the condition of his ankle

Next up, the Memphis Grizzlies.