Wallace Leads Bobcats To Another Home Win

Charlotte Bobcats vs Bucks, 12/28/09

Seriously, I’m Running Out Of Angles Here

The Charlotte Bobcats get another solid win on the home floor Monday night, 94-84 over the struggling Milwaukee Bucks. AP recap here, box score here. The Cats are now 11-4 at home; but their dismal 1-13 road record has them at just 12-17 overall. The Bucks have now lost 14 out of their last 18 to drop to a matching 12-17.

The Cats took control in the second quarter with excellent defense and cruised to a 22 point halftime lead. Scott Skiles, unhappy with the Bucks’ first half performance, benched starters Andrew Bogut and Michael Redd in the second half. Redd, in particular, looked awful. I have to wonder if he’s done. In looking at his game log, I’m surprised to see he went for 32 points against the Wiz last week — he looks like he’d have trouble mustering double digits.

The Bucks made a bit of a run in the fourth quarter but never seriously threatened. The Cats outshot and outrebounded the Bucks by just a bit, and kept their turnovers a bit lower than the season average.

The Cats were led by Gerald Wallace, who finished with 21 points (7-13 FG, 7-9 FT), 14 rebounds and 4 assists. Pretty much your standard Gerald Wallace game. Raymond Felton continued his solid play with 11 points (4-6 FG, 2-3 3PT), 6 rebounds, 3 assists and no turnovers. Steven Graham had a nice game off the bench with 11 points in 18 minutes.

Gana Diop deserves special mention. With Tyson Chandler out, Nazr Mohammed deservedly got the starting nod again. However, Nazr had to sit early with two fouls and Gana was pressed into early and extensive action. Gana acquitted himself well with 7 points on 3-4 FG with 3 rebounds and a block in 12 minutes. He even hit a free throw. Of course, he airballed another — that’s our Gana!

Tidbits

The dichotomy between the Bobcats’ home and road records continues to mystify. At 11-4, the home record is better than Dallas or Boston’s. But the 1-13 road record is only bested (worsted?) by the abysmal New Jersey Nets. The only other team with a similar split is New Orleans: the Hornets are 11-3 at home, 2-12 on the road.
Speaking of dichotomies: how is it that Brandon Jennings couldn’t get any playing time last year in Italy, yet he is essentially running a decent NBA team this year? Even though he’s hit the rookie wall pretty hard and a bit early, dude is still a player.
Luke Ridnour and Micheal Cera — separated at birth?
Gerald Henderson really should be sent to the D-League to get some regular playing time. He’s not getting any regular minutes now, and when he does get some garbage time, really seems to be pressing.
Next game is Wednesday night in Toronto, 7 PM ET start. This would seem like a good opportunity for the Cats to get a road win, as the Bobcats manhandled the soft Raptors in their first meeting back in October. However, that game was in Charlotte, and the Raptors are on a season-best 4 game win streak right now.

-Dr. E

Bucks Take Down Bobcats at Home to Go 7-3

Bucks Charlotte Bobcats @ Milwaukee 11/20/09

Bucks play another outstanding game tonight as they turn away a directionless Bobcats team 95-88 Friday night at the Huey. The Bucks are now 7-3 for the season (good for 5th in the conference) and 6-1 at home. Box score here. AP recap here.

1. Be Thankful for Brandon Jennings

A Karmic Shift has occurred. Not sure how it happened but after suffering through years of lackluster effort and constant rebuilding, the Bucks have finally seemed to put it all together. We here at Bucks Baseline have been through it all, the injuries, ownership hijinks, salary dumps, coaching changes, pissing off the Chinese government, you name it but on June 25th, when the Bucks selected Brandon Jennings with the 10th overall selection, our luck finally changed.

Just six days ago, on November 14th, Jennings officially started “beasting it” (as our friend “eddie” likes to say, lol!) by dropping 55 points on the Golden State Warriors. Brandon came into tonight’s game with the Bobcats ranked 9th overall in the NBA in scoring and bettered his 24.8ppg average by dropping 29 on the Bobcats (boo-yeah!) on 12-23 shooting from the field. Jennings looks so smooth and natural out there scoring easy basket after easy basket. It seems that his quickness, combined with his left-handed shot and total belief in his game just throws opposing defenders off. No part of Brandon realizes that he shouldn’t be this good this fast! I think he’s an All-Star this season for sure. Basically, he’s the complete and total opposite of Charlotte’s PG combo (Raymond Felton/D.J. Augustin) as those two guys look completely mechanical and have no confidence in their jump shots. I think maybe Larry Brown has been over-coaching them. Glad I’m not a Bobcats fan! It would be tough to watch those two guys try to lead a team for 82 games, that’s for sure. In fact, maybe we should call them “Matthew” and “Fox” because they’re totally LOST (LMAO!).

2. Future’s So Bright We Gotta Wear Shades

Did I mention that the Bucks took out the Bobcats tonight despite playing with three of our starters? That’s right, Andrew Bogut (16ppg/9rpg), Michael Redd (career 20ppg) and our best defender, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, all sat out with minor injuries. Can you imagine how easily we would have dismantled this lottery bound Bobcats team if we had our full roster? What’s best is that during the 3rd quarter (when the Bucks stretched out to a 16 point lead) I had a little time to compare salary cap situations between the two teams. Did anybody realize that the Bobcats are basically capped out until 2013? Ha! Hey MJ, Isiah is on the phone, he wants his cap management strategy back (lol)! The best part is is that the Bobcats don’t even have any All-Stars or potential All-Stars on that expensive roster. Stephen Jackson, Boris Diaw and Gerald Wallace are nice veteran complementary players but neither of those guys will ever sniff an All-Star game before 20-year-old Brandon Jennings does. Oh, and those three Bobcats players are owed a combined $90 million over the next four seasons (YOWSA!) while 25ppg scorer Jennings is only owed $10 million. Just shows you that the teams that drafts well will always beat the ones who don’t. And yeah, MJ, at least Isiah knew how to draft (HA!).

Our other young players played very well tonight as well. Hakim Warrick came off the bench tonight to play 31 minutes in Bogut’s absence and scored 16pts and grabbed 9 boards. He looked a little bit like a younger, more energetic, $3 million a year Gerald Wallace. Our 2nd round selection, PG Jodie Meeks played some nice minutes in relief of Ridnour and Jennings by dropping 8pts (7 more points than that combined outputs of Bobcat lottery picks Gerald Henderson and Augustin).

Have to say that the Bucks immediate future (with the return of Redd/Bogut/a Moute) and long-term future (just $19 million in guaranteed salaries as of July 2011) look amazing. Timbuk3 said it best: The Future’s So Bright (I Gotta Wear Shades).

3. Tale of Two Coaches

Scott Skiles and Bobcats coach Larry Brown share a lot of similarities. They’re both former PGs who are known for their emphasis on defense. Both have been accused of over-coaching in the past. This season, Skiles seems to have turned it around though as the entire Bucks team looks loose and the offense looks as liquid-fluid as we’ve ever seen. The Bobcats meanwhile look like they are thinking through every possession. You would have thought that Charlotte would be less mechanical after trading Mr. Roboto himself, Emeka Okafor, during the summer but they look even more unnatural this season without him. Sucks to be them.

IN CONCLUSION

The Bucks look like a guaranteed Playoff team come this Spring and when Bogut & Redd come back into the lineup to join the League’s newest Superstar Brandon Jennings, LOOK OUT! Everybody have a great weekend, enjoy the win and be thankful that you aren’t a Charlotte Bobcat fan.

Peace Out.

C.S. Adams

Delonte West, Cavs Shoot Bobcats Down In Cleveland

Bobcats Charlotte Bobcats @ Cleveland 10/31/09

More of the same tonight at the Q as the Charlotte Bobcats follow up a solid first half effort with only 13 third quarter points and lose to the Cavs 90-79. Box score here.

1. Find somebody who can score by December 1st and the Bobcats make the Playoffs

The Bobcats played very well in the first half, negating Lebron James and held Cleveland to just 45 points per half. In the second half, Lebron, Mo Williams and Delonte “Have You Seen This Boy?” West got hot and the Bobcats started playing Hot Potato again, unsure as to who should be shooting the ball and when. This has to stop in order for the Bobcats to be taken seriously. Charlotte did a great job of forcing turnovers (17) but committed just as many themselves by taking errant shots or passing the ball two or three too many times. Cleveland’s Mo Williams led the way for the Cavs with 24 points (including 5-8 from downtown) while the ‘Cats were lead by Vladimir Radmanovic off the bench. He scored 12 points.

The Bobcats had a very good chance of stealing this game in the third quarter when both teams started slow and if they’d had someone whom they could have gone to consistently for offense they probably would have. I’m starting a list right now of scorers who could be available to help now. Thus far: Rip Hamilton, Monta Ellis, Michael Redd. Please send me anymore that you could think of.

2. Silver Linings?

Gerald Henderson played well tonight. He played 18 minutes and guarded Anthony Parker and Delonte tight on defense but his best play was during a second quarter Cleveland fast break when the rookie raced down the court and pulled a ’05-’07 era Gerald Wallace monster stuff on 6’9″ J.J. Hickson. The Sequel came out of nowhere and just threw it back. Play of the game for the Bobcats. Henderson’s shot selection was mixed (went 2-4 from downtown but 1-4 from in close) but he finished with 11pts and 3rbs. Not a bad third game in the NBA.

After a shaky start, the Radman finally resurfaced as Vlade dropped 2 of 3 from beyond the arc and played his sneaky good defense mostly against Anderson Varejao. Speaking of Varejao, the Cleveland broadcast color man calls him “Andy” but does so in such a voice that he basically mimics Morgan Freeman’s “Redd” character from The Shawshank Redemption. I kept waiting for him to go all sentimental and reflective, “My friend Andy never had the most skill or the most athleticism but devil-be-damned he hustled and that’s what kept him in the League.”

3. On Second Thought, Maybe Raymond Isn’t The Man

After two quality starts to begin the season, Raymond struggled against the Cavs turning the ball over 8 times against just three assists and the team played visibly better when D.J. Augustin came in and took over late in the third and into the final frame. I’m not “hating” here. If Raymond could develop a consistent three pointer, he’d be every bit as good as Mo Williams, especially if he was on a team like the Cavs. For the time being however, the lack of respect the opposing teams have for his jumper makes him a liability in the half-court set.

IN CONCLUSION:

Nothing new here. Bobcats play comparatively stellar Defense but can’t score on offense which leads to turnovers which leads to easy buckets by the other team which leads to Charlotte being forced to shoot itself back into the game which is something that they are currently not configured to do.

Cross your fingers Bobcats fans, let’s hope that MJ and Ron Higgidy Higgins got the memo and are working on bringing in reinforcements before it’s too late.

Next up is Brook Lopez and the Nets at the Cable Box on Monday night. Dr E will tweet you there.

-ASChin

Charlotte Bobcats @ Bucks 1/2/09

1. So I caught a really good show at the Cable Box last night — only it wasn’t the Bobcats, who lost badly on the road in Milwaukee 103-75. AP story here, box score here, PopcornMachine.net game flow here. Bobcats drop to 11-22; Milwaukee improves to 16-18.

2. The show I saw at the Arena last night was Lil’ Wayne’s I Am Music Tour. It was fun, but note that I said it was a “really good” show — not great. I missed the first two opening acts and got to my seat just as Keyshia Cole took the stage. Unfortunately, Cole is not the R&B diva responsible for the song “Single Ladies“, which would pretty much be the only chick R&B song that I enjoy hearing these days.

T-Pain was up next — he did a fun set with a circus theme, complete with mimes/clowns, fire dancers, contortionists, and little people/midgets/whatever is PC these days. The obvious problem with a T-Pain set is that all of his recognizable songs are duets at best, or feature him just singing the hook at worst. So he ran through all those verses and hooks, danced around and goofed off, and that was that. Everyone seemed to enjoy.

Lil’ Wayne, the artist of the 2008 by any criteria, was up next. It was a solid show that, as the Observer review pointed out, lacked clear direction. There were some cool moments: T-Pain came back out on a Segway (a la Gob Bluth) for “Got Money” and stuck around for a few more minutes, Wayne did his verse from the “They Know” remix (my favorite Wayne verse), and “Ms. Officer” and “A Milli” were big crowd pleasers.

But again, it was a scattered effort. While Weezy himself has a strong, clear identity as an artist (“The Greatest Rapper Alive” who has begun to flirt with being an all-out rock star), his set lacked any such identity. There was no theme, no point to all the action. Some really good parts were in the mix, but they didn’t sum up to anything unified, consistent, or great.

Sound like a certain basketball team you know of?

3. Back to the Bobcats; there was no local TV for this game, and the Broadband NBA League Pass is giving our international correspondent some issues (insisting on showing him the ATL/NJ game when clicking the CLT/MIL link), so we don’t have any first-hand observations for you.

Looks like a bad loss, though. Michael Redd came out and jumped all over the Cats, going for 18 in the opening quarter and 10 more in the second (he had 3 more in the third for a total of 31 before sitting the entire fourth). My first thought on seeing those numbers was that, with Raja Bell out with a strained groin again, Redd had toasted Matt Carroll. But in looking at the game flow, Redd did it to everyone: Carroll, Shannon Brown and Felton.

And a quick look at the video highlights on ESPN.com shows that Redd was mostly hitting open jumpers after penetration & kickouts from his teammates. Rotations looked slow in those highlights, and Redd was in the zone.

4. Has DJ Augustin hit the rookie wall already? It’s about that time, as he has logged 30+ games. Since his 29-point dismantling of Derrick Rose and the Bulls back on December 16, Augustin has had 7 straight lackluster games, only going for double figures once during that stretch.

5. That’s all for now. The Bobcats are back in town tonight, hosting the Bucks for one of these strange same team back-to-backs that the schedulers like to give us. 7:00 ET at the Cable Box — I’ll be there and will be back with some post-game observations later tonight.

-E