The home opener has arrived! After dropping the season opener to the Mavs in Dallas in Wednesday night, the Charlotte Bobcats will be taking on the Indiana Pacers on Friday night at Time Warner Cable Arena, aka The Cable Box. Tipoff is at 7:00 PM ET.
The Pacers come in also 0-1 after losing 122-109 in San Antonio on Wednesday night, despite Roy Hibbert’s big 28/9/3/3 statline. The Pacers start new addition Darren Collison at the point, Mike Dunleavy and Danny Granger on the wings, and Josh McRoberts and the aforementioned Hibbert on the blocks. Lottery pick Paul George, veteran James Posey, and onetime Bobcat trade target TJ Ford are also in the rotation. Meanwhile, former Tarheel favorite Tyler “Psycho-T” Hansbrough pulled a DNP-CD in the Pacers opener.
The Pacers don’t play much D, so look for the Bobcats to get some offense going. I’d like to see Jack have a big night against Dunleavy, in particular — especially because he was quiet in the opener and finished that game on the bench.
When the Bobcats are on defense, I’d watch out for the Augustin/Collison matchup. Collison is one of the faster points in the league, the kind that DJ struggles to stay in front of.
More links:
Dr. E’s Twitter (I’ll be tweeting live from the game)
I swear to God, Tyler Hansbrough gets the whitest injuries. Last year it was an ear infection and now vertigo. Yes, vertigo.
I will be live tweeting as well, albeit from my room. @CardboardGerald
Whoops, my fault. Hansbrough is over his bout with vertigo but may not play because the coach doesn’t feel he’s grasping the offense.
The coach says he isnt playing because he has to earn PT not because he hasnt learned offense. Jim Obrien is an idiot anyway, when has he even been a consistent winner. Tyler is way better than McRoberts and is the type of player that the Pacers need with the oh so soft Hibbert at Center. Tyler Hansbrough gets the dirty work done and boards at high rate, draws fouls, and hits free throws. You remember when they played Bobcats, him and Gerald kept getting into it because noone ever tries to bang Gerald back, well Tyler does and he would only improve Pacers with PT. I mean honestly does a player really need to earn PT by learning offense? Everybody knows the offense of every team in league via game tape or practice. It is the same coach as last year. Anyway Bobcats win by 10 because Gerald contains Granger and Hibbert gets in foul trouble. Oh by the way… PLAY Derrick Brown
Apparently it’s a combination of both having to earn playing time and learning the offense (http://www.indystar.com/article/20101029/SPORTS04/10290363/O-Brien-keeps-Hansbrough-sitting-on-bench?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Sports).
Regardless, I would agree that he is better than McRoberts – and it’s not even close.
I think there isn’t a Bobcats fan alive who doesn’t want Derrick Brown. He’s going to be a very important part of our bench as well as Crash insurance.