Charlotte Bobcats @ Hawks, 1/22/10

Shenanigans

The Charlotte Bobcats saw their six game winning streak come to an end and their old road bugaboos return a Friday night loss to the Atlanta Hawks, 103-89.  AP recap here, box score here, UPDATE PopcornMachine.net GameFlow here.

Slow start?  Check.  The Cats were down 29-13 after 10 minutes.  The Cats would bounce back for a decent second quarter, but the damage was already done.

Turnovers?  Check.  17 of them (leading to 29 Hawks points).  Stephen Jackson led the way with 7.  The Hawks were all up in the passing lines like they thought they were the Bobcats or something.

Invisible Boris Diaw?  Check.  35 minutes, 0 points on 0-5 FG, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 fouls.

Adding injury to insult, Raymond Felton went down with a sprained right ankle late in the first quarter and didn’t return.  Felton was cutting through the lane on the offensive lane and was thrown off balance by a slight bump from Josh Smith.  He stepped on Jamal Crawford’s foot and rolled the ankle.  Though the roll didn’t look all that dramatic in real time or on replay, Felton went down in a heap and didn’t put any weight on the foot as he was helped back to the locker room.

Felton did return to the bench after halftime and reportedly lobbied to return to the action, but Larry Brown did not insert him back into the game.  DJ Augustin played 23 minutes in Ray’s absence and looked OK, but ultimately failed to take advantage of the extra minutes.

Additionally, Bonnell is reporting that Gerald Wallace also aggravated his sprained ankle late in the contest.  That wasn’t evident during the broadcast, but then not many Gerald Wallace injuries are evident.

The Hawks got strong efforts from their starters + Jamal Crawford, who actually led them in scoring with 24 points off 8-12 FG/5-8 3PT.

Bullets

• This marks the halfway point of the season for the Cats; they’re 21-20 overall and sit at 6th place in the Eastern Conference.
• Despite the bad loss, isn’t it kinda cool that both the Bobcats and Hawks are good?
• If you need a laugh after this one, The Onion delivers: Shaq Misses Entire Second Half With Pulled Pork Sandwich.
• And if you need a Bobcats-related pick-me-up, here’s ESPN’s Marc Stein with the case for Gerald Wallace as an All-Star reserve (he even flirts with the idea of Wallace and Jackson on the squad) and a blurb about Larry Brown and Jackson.
• Saturday night’s 7PM home game vs the Magic is the last chance you’ll have to check out the Bobcats at the Cable Box for a couple of week, so let’s fill the place up.  Bonus, it’s Nascar Night!  After the game the Cats will leave for an important 10-day, 6 game Western Conference road trip.

-Dr. E