Charlotte Bobcats vs Warriors 3/6/10

The Charlotte Bobcats defeated the Golden State Warriors 101-90 in front of another sellout crowd at the Cable Box on Saturday night.  AP recap here, box score here.  Charlotte’s favorite son, Stephen Curry, led all scorers with 25 points for the shorthanded Warriors in a losing effort, while DJ Augustin played his second straight solid game in leading the Cats with 19 points on 7-10 FG in just 28 minutes.

The game was tight until the waning moments of the third quarter, when the Cats were able to open up a small lead.  In the fourth, the Cats turned up the defensive intensity and the Warriors wilted.  Gerald Wallace blocked 3 shots in the deciding final frame as the Warriors were only able to manage 14 points.

The Bobcats dominated the paint against the defenseless, run-and-gun Warriors, who trotted out some guy named Chris Hunter to play center and jump-shot their way to 38% FG for the night.  The Cats outrebounded the Dubs 60-36 and scored 56 points in the paint.  Good thing, too, because the Cats didn’t take good care of the ball — 19 turnovers.

For the umpteenth time, Boris Diaw came oh-so-close to netting the first triple double in Bobcats history: 14 points (6-10 FG), 12 rebounds and 9 assists.

Tidbits

• Gerald Wallace’s night ended about a minute early when he was ejected for throwing an elbow at Anthony Tolliver under the basket in the waning seconds of the game.  It was a strange incident — very few people caught it in the arena, and Gerald was upset that the ref ejected him for it.  I didn’t notice it live at all, and it’s not in either NBA.com or ESPN.com’s online video highlight packages, but apparently it was replayed on the television broadcast a few times. Bonnell blogged in detail about it.  Gerald had 19 and 10, by the way.
• Gerald Henderson played first half minutes again tonight; he was not as productive as he was Friday night, but still decent.  Hopefully this will continue, as it allows Larry Brown to give Stephen Jackson and Gerald Wallace a little extra rest and get away with it.
• Stephen Graham had two nasty baseline jams in the second quarter, so naturally the NBA.com highlights contain neither of them, featuring instead a pull-up 18 foot jumper he hit.
• Best line I’ve seen in awhile: Andris Biedrins — DNP Athletic Pubalgia
• The Hawks could’ve done us a solid tonight and beaten Miami, but it didn’t happen.  The Cats are 30-31 and a half game back of 8th place Miami at 31-31.  Which leads me to…
• Next game will be the biggest game of the year so far.  Tuesday night Miami will be in town for a 7PM ET start at the Cable Box.  A head-to-head matchup against the team that’s a half game ahead of you for the last playoff spot — you can’t ask for anything more.

-Dr. E