Charlotte Bobcats

Bobcats/Hawks Preview 

Bobcats hit the road, well 4 hours away, do they fly or drive to Atlanta?  It’d be a bit ridiculous to fly wouldn’t it?  They have been home for, ever.  The last travel day was exactly 2 weeks ago.  It’s only been 6 games straight at home, longest of the year and it has not turned out the way we had hoped.  An early long home stand you would hope would turn into at least 4 wins but it’s been only 2.  The west is not that great this year, the wins have shifted back east.  The Bobcats are the second worst team in the East but there are 4 teams with fewer wins in the West.  Bobcats beat New Orleans and Utah but lost to Toronto, Denver, Orlando and Dallas.  New beginnings down I-85 start Friday night? 

Atlanta was the team that had everyone going “Really?  They’ve won 6 straight to start the season?”  Believe it or not they lost 4 straight after that and just got off the streak against Washington who really seems to have some problems.  If you want to stop a losing streak, play Washington.  If you want to end a win streak, play Detroit right now.  So there’s no real pattern no real streak for either team coming into this game so let’s take a look at the match-ups or actually, you know what?....... 

I’ll be honest, I have no idea what makes the Hawks any good but that’s no different from the casual sports fan in Atlanta.  I know they have Joe Johnson, who flipped off the crowd walking off the court after a double tech in Charlotte a couple years ago.  I know they have Josh Smith who seems like a good player and somehow made his way into the All-Star Game last year.  He’s hurt.  They traded late last season for Mike Bibby, who I’ve never been really impressed with but he filled a need for them, I think?  They have Al Horford from Florida’s championship teams, he’s hurt too.  They have Zaza Pachulia who seems to have a big game when he plays in Charlotte just because the announcer who acts like he hates saying the other team’s player’s names, actually loves saying Zaza Pachulia so it sticks in my head.  Oh and the #1 overall draft pick for no real reason other than upside and motor Marvin Williams who spent a year coming off the bench at Carolina.  

Couldn’t tell you the coach’s name, couldn’t tell you any other players.  I know they don’t draw much of a crowd down there.  They made the playoffs last year and gave the Celtics quite a scare in the first round.  The 6 game win streak was nice for them.  I really don’t have a feeling one way or the other about this game.  I think J-Rich has a shot at coming back but he might skip the trip to get the knee strong at home.  That’s pure speculation because I haven’t read a report.  Can this team get it together?  Is it possible that this sparks a run against some mid-level opponents and all eastern conference teams at that coming up next week?  Larry has hinted at benching May again.  Will that happen?   

Side note:  I just typed Sean May into Google tool bar and you know how it guesses what you might mean and lists the most searched items?  Well “Sean May Fat” was #1, followed by Sean May “Denver,” “Murder,” “Girlfriend” and “Out of Shape.”  I don’t know what Denver has to do with it, really?  Murder?  Girlfriend = Wendy, you know the one with the red hair and the square burgers?  Poor guy, he’s known for one thing now: being not-so-slim. 

So many questions, I just want to see some roundball, can’t think about all of it anymore.  Play hard, win or look good doing it.

Yikes, has the first quarter ended yet? 

If the NBA decided for some reason that the first quarter of all games tonight didn’t count, the Bobcats would have won.  By one.  28 to 10 in the first quarter.  I got the game late as usual and saw after hardly any time that the Bobcats were down 17-0.  I went to the bathroom and I think it was 19 to 4?  I don’t know.  My buddy that sits behind me says “See what you did?  You better get here on time one of these days.”  I tend to agree.   

The Mavs were not that much better.  As Neil Everett asked at the beginning of the “highlights,” who do you think has the worse record, Dallas or Charlotte?  The answer was Dallas.  3 and 7  not that great for a team with 2 Olympian starters, one of which was an MVP 2 years ago.  You know what?  When your leading scorers look like this:

      Mavericks   Charlotte

      Nowitzski 32   Augustin 21

      Howard 21   Felton 11

      Terry 15   S.Brown 11

You aren’t going to win the game most of the time, especially when you get outscored by 18 in the first quarter.   

I’m not mad, I mean they just weren’t done scoring from their overtime 124-114 beating of the Knicks and they have a national TV game against the Rockets tomorrow night.  I am pretty upset with the starters.  Matt Carroll couldn’t find a shot.  Sean May couldn’t cover anyone on defense and he couldn’t get back and move enough to get open on offense.  Emeka Okafor had to step out and guard a 7’ former MVP who hits threes like Jason Terry used to.  I do like the adjustments that were made in the second half.   

Larry went small and young with DJ Augustin, who played huge tonight, Ray Felton, Ajinca, Gerald Wallace and Ryan Hollins?  What?  That’s two PG’s?  Two 7’ guys who weigh less than Shaq, combined?  They went to a full court press with Jason Kidd off the floor, got tons of steals and forced turnovers, made up some of the distance, never got closer than 13 though because Rick brought Kidd back in the game.  I liked that adjustment.   

Gerald had a particularly confusing game to me.  I’m looking at his line and he sure does fill it up like usual but he didn’t put up big totals anywhere.  He had a sick block on a breakaway by Jason Terry, who I thought had been around a lot longer than 9 years.  He had some nice dunks and I’d look up and check to see how many points he had, 4, 6, 8?  What?  I thought he was all over the place but the production wasn’t there.  I think that’s why I like him and also why a lot of people don’t. The eyeball test makes you go “Yeah, this guy is a great ball player.  Worth whatever we pay him, I like him a lot.”  The box score and win/loss total makes you say, “Could we do something with this guy?”  I don’t want to trade him.  He’s the guy on the way up the escalator that you see modeling the uniforms with the mayor at the unveiling (along with silly looking Jason Kapono).  He will make you get out of your seat about 3 times a game.  Gerald does great things in the community as a lot of us learned at the pre-game press conference last season.  He’s not going to do it every night but bang for the buck you’re hard pressed to find a better guy, in my summation. 

Back to this particular game.  Larry, in his postgame presser, sounded down and dejected.  Tone with him is a pretty big thing.  He says what he thinks, almost to a fault.  He didn’t totally rip on the starters but he barely mentioned them.  He heaped praise on DJ Augustin and the bench players in general.  He likes, as do I, what Shannon Brown brings off the bench.  Speaking of bench, what happened to Adam Morrison?  12:42 minutes 2 points, one rebound?  Yikes, not a good night for our white jump shooters, who people get confused a lot up in the two-one-six.  Ajinca and Hollins get mixed up from that vantage point as well. 

Speaking of my vantage point, I was looking right down on Mark Cuban the whole game.  He’s a fascinating person, really.  First thing I had to decide was  if it was him, I thought he was balder and I was staring at his crown.  Second, t-shirt tucked into jeans, with no belt?  Come on you’re a billionaire, with a B!  Get someone to tell you how you look.  He was wearing jeans that as a heterosexual male, made me uncomfortable because they were so high and tight.  He cheers, he high-fives the players, gets in the huddle.  He pays attention to what the fans say, well not everything because I yelled “Hey Mark!  Got any good stock tips?” at the end of the game, probably lame but I was frustrated.  He turned around at one point on a questionable call under the basket on Dudley and let someone in the 5th row that he got whoever it was on the arm.  Something made me want to watch him, maybe because he’s an approachable billionaire? 

I just read the NBA.com, well I guess it’s from the AP, they called the Bobcats “undermanned.”   How?  There were only 3 inactive for the ‘Cats (I’m really trying to be “journalistic” and not say “we” or “us”) (and use parenthesis and quotation marks): J-Rich still with the knee, no worries there.  Linton Johnson III and Alex(I think) Brown.  Who else are we going to have right now?  I don’t see any trades coming.  I don’t see any guys coming in and helping.  Undermanned and SOL if we have these kinds of matchups coming.  Atlanta?  Do they have bad match-ups for us, umm I mean the Charlotte Bobcats.  Damn being objective, it’s us!