Charlotte Bobcats vs Magic Game 4, 4/26/10
The Charlotte Bobcats were swept out of the first round by the Orlando Magic 99-90 on Monday night at the Cable Box. Again, the Cats were able to limit Dwight Howard’s minutes due to foul trouble, and again it really didn’t matter. Again, the Cats got decent play from a couple of starters and one reserve, and again it was not nearly enough to contend with the Magic.
AP recap here | Box score here
It’s late and the season is over, so I’m going to keep this relatively short and sweet. The Bobcats came out and competed, forcing Dwight Howard into foul trouble and taking a two-point lead into halftime. But the rest of the Magic (particularly Lewis, Carter, Nelson and Pietrus) again picked up the slack, while the Bobcats continued to struggle to score whether or not Howard was in the game.
Despite the continued struggles, the Cats were in in this one until halfway through the final period. After Tyson Chandler hit two free throws to pull the Bobcats to within one at 77-76, Michael Pietrus drained a three. On the ensuing possession, Dwight Howard snatched a DJ Augustin layup out of the air. While the crowd and the Bobcats benched yelped about the lack of a goaltending call, Pietrus drained another three. The sequence took less than a minute and completely took the air out of the the arena.
And if you were hanging on to any hope that the Bobcats could come back from seven down with six minutes left, two missed free throws by Gerald Wallace, followed by another Jameer Nelson three to put the Magic 86-76 with under five minutes left was enough to convince even the most optimistic Cats fans.
The Bobcats were actually led by Tyrus Thomas, who rang up 21 points on 9-12 FG and added 9 rebounds in 29 minutes off the bench. Tyrus had the baseline 12-15 footer going early and was actually 8-8 from the field at one point. But just as in the first three games, no other Bobcat produced off the bench.
Tidbits
- Stephen Jackson picked a terrible time to have a bad night — Jack was 2-11 FG and 0-3 3PT for just 8 points.
- Seeing the Heat take a game from the Celtics this weekend and the Bucks tie up the Hawks tonight just reminds you how important the regular season is. Those losses to the Nets and Pacers come back to haunt.
The Elephant In The Room
And now the Bobcats enter what is shaping up to be a very difficult offseason. Michael Jordan’s mettle as owner will certainly be tested. We’ll certainly be writing more about this in the coming days and weeks, but here’s a quick primer:
- Larry Brown, having partially restored his reputation by getting the Cats to the playoffs, is probably gone back to Philadelphia for a front office position. Let the coaching search begin.
- Raymond Felton, fresh off getting toasted in this playoff sweep, is an unrestricted free agent. Hopefully, Miami will come along and make Raymond a Godfather offer with the money they have leftover after resigning Wade and getting Boozer or Bosh and we won’t even be tempted to match it.
- Tyrus Thomas has shown inconsistent flashes in his couple of months with the Bobcats. Kinda similar to how he showed inconsistent flashes to the Bulls for three or four years. He’s a restricted free agent. Keeper or not?
- The Cats have no draft picks this year (both were traded away in prior deals) and very few assets that have any trade value around the league.
-Dr. E
POLL : SHOULD CHARLOTTE RE-SIGN RAYMOND FELTON?
- YES
(32%, 59 Votes) - NO
(68%, 127 Votes)
Total Voters: 186
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Another big question is whether Lady Cat Jordan is coming back. Can't forget that one.
The only good part about this game was the fans booing J.J. Reddick every time he touched the ball.
Wow…and I thought the sweep was depressing. Sure you don't wanna post Nazr & Diop's contract figures just to make sure the salt is thoroughly rubbed into the open wound? lol
I agree in that we shouldn't chase after Ray if someone throws ridiculous money at him, but he's worth around 4-6 mil a year to Charlotte. He certainly didn't put together a solid playoff resume, but you can say the same for the entire roster except for Wallace and *maybe* Captain Jack.
What's most disheartening is that Brown could leave almost out of nowhere, but if it does happen, I trust that Jordan has enough memories from Vincent's era/error to pick a solid successor.
I think Thomas is a keeper, provided either Larry stays or the next coach can continue to point him in the right direction.
hard to watch the meltdown at the end. The two three by Pietrus and the tech foul by Capt. Jack. Even worse the Magic started laughing at the calls and decided to keep cool heads because they KNEW they were going to win. Sad. Off season will be tough with no draft picks and limited monies.
Keep Thomas, lose Ray Felton, he got dominated on the court. Bad turnovers and not a calm leader.
I was glad to have the chance to really experience Playoff basketball. Maybe the Cats didn't play so hot, but the fans came out stronger than the team's ever seeen.
Let's hope Larry Brown sticks around for another season.
It should be an interesting off-season. I expect to see Diaw, Mohammed, and Augustin in trade rumors all over cyberspace.
I bet we could get max value out of a deal for Stephen Jackson this summer.
Yeah, it was pretty sad that the two things the fans were relegated to getting excited for in the series were 1) cheering D Howard fouls and 2) booing Redick.
During the slow, foul-and-free-throw-and-timeout-filled finish, Howard was having a running conversation with some fans in section 113. They were doing the "Over-rated" clap-clap-clapclapclap chant and Howard did the claps and nodded along with them. Then he turned around, held four fingers up, and mouthed "four games."
Tough to watch.