Vince Carter

Bobcats Down Suns, Start 2-0 on West Coast Swing

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Bobcats play loose and shoot fifty percent from the field on way to a 114-107 victory over the Phoenix Suns.  Cats improve to 19-25 and start their first major road trip of the season 2-0.

AP Recap | Box Score

OBSERVATIONS

Thanks to some international broadband issues, I didn’t get to see much of this game so will intersperse some observations from writers around the Association.

  • Gerald Henderson and D.J. Augustin in double figures?  Wha?  Clearly not the team leaders (yet) but have shown enough promise under Silas that the ’08 and ’09 Drafts look absolutely salvageable.  That’s a big deal in Bobcats country.  Henderson’s blocks on Gortat and Grant Hill were major game shifters.
  • Rick Bonnell really likes what he’s seeing from Henderson too, going as far as saying he’ll help fill the void left by Tyrus Thomas.  Also love the point he makes about Larry Brown vs. Silas.  It’s like going from Larry David to Mike “Brady Bunch” Brady.  All is good in the ‘hood.
  • Really like what I’m seeing from Crash and Stephen Jackson thus far on the road trip.  Those two shooting a combined 15-33 on the night is a massive improvement from the stinker the two captains dropped on Atlanta last week.  Hope Silas finally talked some sense into them.
  • UNDERRATED: Boris Diaw’s play under Silas.  You won’t see it in the stats (although he’s added close one full assist more per game in January) but Boris looks much more motivated now than he ever did with LB.  Big game against his old squad tonight going for 18/6/5 with a big boy rebound on the final possession to ice it.  When fans from your old team still talk about your exploits two plus years on from a trade, you know you got the better end of the deal.
  • Apparently, MJ is making the West Coast trip with the team.  Is it any coincidence that Jordan’s level of involvement with the team always results in consistently higher performance?  Maybe Charles Oakley’s hire just gave MJ more incentive to hangout on the bench.  It’s the NBA equivalent to “Friday.”

Until Next Time, Enjoy the Win Bobcats Fans.

-ASChin

Bobcats Almost Steal One From The Magic

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Late Rally Not Enough for The Bobcats to Catch The Magic

(AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

Charlotte Bobcats lose at home to the Orlando Magic : 91–88

AP Recap | Box Score

Observations

After falling to the Detroit Pistons last night, the Bobcats had a date with the Magic on the second night of their back-to-back. It looked like Orlando felt a little bad about the Playoff sweep and decided not to activate Jameer Nelson (recovering from injury) for the match-up at the Cable Box. Chris Duhon got the start alongside Vince Carter, Quentin Richardson, Rashard Lewis and the intimidating Dwight Howard. Charlotte used their standard starting five – D.J. Augustin, Stephen Jackson, Gerald Wallace, Boris Diaw, and Nazr Mohammed. By just pairing those names alongside each other, we should’ve expected a blow-out by the Magic.

The Bobcats should be commended for not digging a huge hole to start the game. They used their homecourt advantage to stick pretty close to Orlando for much of the first quarter, and stayed within striking distance at the half. Unfortunately, Charlotte only had 36 pts at halftime. Not too many teams are going to threaten the Magic with 36 pts going into the 3rd quarter. For nearly all of the second half, the Orlando Magic executed their offense efficiently enough to keep a persistent stiff-arm of around 12pts to hold the lead. The momentum swung Charlotte’s way mid-way through the 4th and the Bobcats’ run coincided with an injury to Vince Carter, allowing the team to nearly steal the game in the final minutes. On the last possession of the game, neither Stephen Jackson, Boris Diaw, nor D.J. Augustin had the firepower to get the final 3 points that the Cats needed to tie the game against the much superior Magic squad.

Dwight Howard Really Is That Good At Basketball

I had intended to use this space to recap how huge Dwight Howard’s slams would be and compare them to the types of dunks that he’s capable of throwing down in the new NBA JAM.  Honestly, I feel like I’ve seen him do some things in the past that are way crazier than the moves executed his cartoonish Jam character. Now, after the game, I have to say that the Bobcats did a great job of minimizing his monster dunks. Sure, Dwight had a couple really good ones while the Magic were rolling in the first half. But, I was more impressed by his hook shot from the right, and his 8′ jumper. Nazr Mohammed did his best to affect Howard, but it really just looked embarrassing for ol’ Naz’.  Dwight had everything going in the first half, but it seemed that Larry Brown adjusted the guys on defense and they kept Superman playing like a mortal at the close of the game. I’ll touch on this a bit more down the page.

Vince Carter Is Still Pretty Good At NBA Basketball

The first thing I noticed about Vince Carter during the game was his ability to get space to get off a good shot. He may not leap as high as he once did, but he knows when to cut, how to slide around a screen, and exactly how to make a jab step move his defender. Secondly, I was frustrated to see just how good Carter is at selling a foul. The Bobcats play more physical than they ever have, and yet they don’t seem to get the easy whistles. For much of the game, it seemed that Vince was getting Tyrus, Stephen and Boris called for fouls by simply turning his body to get contact in a manner odd enough to get a whistle. If he was fighting through a screen, it was like he would start high and come around the defender twisted and heading down like he had just been whacked in his shoulders. Vince Carter was selling the contact better than Vince McMahon.  Lastly, Carter’s injury in the 4th quarter looked bad. He appeared to slip on a wet spot at the top of the key and his legs went in absolute opposite directions. Hopefully, this wasn’t a serious injury.

Gerald Wallace Was On

Crash finished the game with 25 points, and it looked like he had plenty of energy despite going for all but a few minutes against the Pistons on Friday. From what I could tell, that ankle sprain in New Jersey should be behind him soon. Wallace opened the game with a couple of jumpers and helped to spread the floor by knocking down open threes. He seemed to pair well during his time with the other Gerald (Henderson), too.  Henderson knocked down a couple of open shots and showed some defensive prowess with a crazy-athletic sprint-to-leap-to-block on Rashard Lewis. Larry Brown should note the benefits of an excessively athletic set of Geralds on the wings.

Good and Bad

Stephen Jackson and Boris Diaw both looked really good and really bad during the game. Stephen Jackson just seems out of sync at times and his bad passes seemed to always result in a score by Orlando. Boris Diaw looked good for stretches and then totally out of place and out of rhythm on offense late in the game. Neither of these guys were horrible, and neither were incredible. If they can both minimize those periods of inexplicable mistakes, the Bobcats would start to look pretty good. While Diaw’s offense went into hiding during the last stretch of the game, he seemed to do a great job guarding Dwight Howard. Larry Brown chose to go really small with Diaw at the center spot, but Orlando couldn’t find a way to let Dwight dominate the paint. Actually, I think Boris had a couple of blocks on Howard in this one. While the Frenchman may have missed the potentially game-tying three-pointer in the last seconds, I’m not sure they would have been that close without his surprisingly solid defense.

Loose Notes

D.J. Augustin appears to be improving. It’s exciting to see him build to his repertoire of skills. His passing, awareness, and shooting are all on the upswing, right now. The crowd at the arena went crazy over his floater in the lane late in the 4th quarter.

Tyrus needs more minutes. When we see Tyrus Thomas come out for a few brief plays in the first half, he seems out of place and he picks up a couple of fouls pretty easily. As he plays for longer stretches, Thomas really starts to influence the game and he plays in rhythm. When he stops pressing, he plays like a serious threat on both ends of the court.

Lastly, Saturday night was Nelly’s birthday and he spent it with us and the Bobcats at Time Warner Cable Arena. Nelly, a partial owner of the Bobcats team, sat courtside and received a big ovation from the audience when he was shown on the big screens above the court. The promo for his upcoming release “Nelly 5.0” did not receive such a warm reception.

Bonus Observation : Eduardo Najera had a pretty great style going in street clothes for the game. If anyone has a picture of Eddie in his white jacket, please post it in the comments.

Next game is Monday night at the Cable Box versus Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and the San Antonio Spurs.

-Mike

Magic Complete Sweep Of Bobcats

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Charlotte Bobcats vs Magic Game 4, 4/26/10

AP/Chuck Burton

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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Bobcats Can’t Handle Magic; Go Down 0-2

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Charlotte Bobcats @ Magic Game 2, 4/21/10


The Orlando Magic scored another definitive victory over the Charlotte Bobcats, 92-77, in Game 2 of their first round playoff series on Wednesday night.  Stephen Jackson led the Bobcats with 27 and keyed a fourth quarter rally that briefly made things interesting late, but the Magic ultimately led wire to wire, putting all five starters in double figures.

AP recap here |  Box score here

This one had an even uglier start than Game 1.  8 minutes into the first quarter, the two teams had only combined for 16 points; problem was, the Cats only had three of those.  Fortunately, the Cats got a few buckets to make the count a not-quite-as-embarrassing 18-14 after the first quarter.

But frankly, the damage had been done.  Orlando’s zone-ish defense rendered the Cats offense (not exactly potent to begin with) into a bogged-down, turnover-filled mess.  The Cats finished the game with 21 turnovers, and no one outside of Stephen Jackson ever figured out how to score.

The fact that the Bobcats  play some pretty good defense themselves kept the game reasonable; the Cats were only down 11 at the half, and cut the lead to 8 with 3:15 left in the game before succumbing.

The Magic simply had too many weapons tonight.  Though Dwight Howard was held to a modest line (15 points on 5-10 FG/5-12 FT, 9 rebounds, 2 blocks) he was absolutely dominant for a stretch early in the third quarter that set the tone for the rest of the second half.

Vince Carter, infamous for shrinking into a jump-shooter when the going gets tough, had smooth sailing into the paint all night long, resulting in 9-11 free throws.  (As a team, the Magic shot 35 free throws.)

Rashard Lewis and Jameer Nelson were solid and reliable, if unspectacular, while Mickael Pietrus and Ryan Anderson provided an onslaught of threes off the bench, combining for 5-7 from distance.

There were almost no silver linings for the Bobcats in this one.  The late run that cut the deficit to 8 was intriguing for a minute, but rationally you knew it was too little, too late.  Nazr did show some signs of life (5-6 FG for 10 points in 16 minutes).

But basically, I’m grasping at straws here.  The only one that may be worth a damn is simply that the Cats have played much better at home this year and Games 3 and 4 are in Charlotte.  The Cats had the biggest home/road record differential amongst all the playoff teams this year, for no reason that anyone could logically explain.  At this point, I’d give up trying to explain it if I could just see it for Games 3 and 4.

Tidbits

  • Apologies for recycling my Twitter posts, but is anyone else getting the same feeling they used to get watching Jeff McInnis a couple of years ago when watching Larry Hughes these days?
  • Raymond Felton and Boris Diaw have been frustratingly ineffective, as have Hughes and Tyrus Thomas off the bench.
  • The Cats have a couple of days to stew on this one.  Game 3 is on Saturday afternoon at 2PM ET at the Cable Box.

-Dr. E

Bobcats vs. Magic Playoff Preview Part II

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Bobcats Magic 2010 Playoff Preview Bobcats Baseline

Bobcats have hit the Bigtime and are going up against last year’s Eastern Conference Champion Orlando Magic.

If you missed part one of our preview, check it out here.

ASChin: One more thing that I wanted to touch on before we get to the wings and guards:  We’re dealing with the League’s second best offense (behind Phoenix) going up against the League’s best defense (points allowed).  If defense does indeed win championships, the Bobcats might be able to pull an upset in this series.

On to spots 1-3…

Dr. E: Out on the wings, we’ll have Gerald Wallace, Stephen Jackson, Stephen Graham and Larry Hughes matching up against Matt Barnes, Vince Carter, Mickael Pietrus and JJ Redick.  Barnes is a solid player who brings some much-needed toughness to the otherwise soft Magic.  But he’s not going to intimidate Gerald Wallace.

Wallace broke through this season as the Bobcats first All-Star, but is still not appreciated much beyond hardcore NBA fans.  A playoff series against the Magic would be the perfect opportunity for Wallace to insert himself into mainstream basketball consciousness.  Obviously, the Cats need Gerald to play well in order to make the series interesting.

ASChin: Crash is great and we all love him but I’m really hoping that the big stage doesn’t intimidate him like it did during All-Star weekend.  I’m tempering my expectations until I see Wallace handle the higher stakes of the postseason.  Fortunately, Wallace’s ability to settle into BIONIC ROLE PLAYER mode when his shot’s not falling will at least allow him to pull down a dozen boards and alter a few shots until he can ignore the butterflies.  On talent alone the Bobcats win this matchup but if you’re measuring experience, then the Magic’s combo of Barnes and Pietrus trumps here.

Dr. E: I like Pietrus a lot.  On the Magic, he’s a bit redundant; another soft wing who loves the three-pointer (which is why the tougher Barnes starts).  I’d love to see what Pietrus could do on another team where he’s not just encouraged to stand 25 feet away from the basket and launch threes.

PlayoffRoster_1Unit

ASChin: The shooting guard matchup should be fun.  You have Vince Carter, famously maligned for his Playoff dissappearances going up against Mr. Makes Love To Pressure himself, Stephen Jackson.
Carter’s Playoff numbers don’t look so bad at first glance it’s only when you factor in his 42% FG percentage and some of his late game fades that you realize why he’s earned the reputation.  Jackson’s Playoff averages are actually much worse than Carter’s (39% in 54 games) yet JAX has two major notches on his postseason belt: Winning a Championship with the Spurs in 2003 as a starter and then leading the 8th seeded Warriors past the top seeded Mavs in 2007.
I see these two guys negating each other during the series.  With Vince getting most of his points early in the game and JAX contributing a little more towards the end.  The real battle might be with the backups as sharpshooter JJ Reddick has come on in the second half of the season.  If he can provide a much more consistent bench scoring threat than Bobcats new addition Larry Hughes, the ‘Cats might be in some trouble

Dr. E: In addition to getting Howard into foul trouble and Gerald Wallace being Gerald Wallace, one of the other breaks that the Bobcats need to make the series interesting is for Vince Carter to do what Vince Carter does in the playoffs: underwhelm and shrink.  Bill Simmons mentioned this in his NBA regular season wrapup/playoff preview column, and it bears repeating: last year, down the stretch, the Magic put the ball into Turkoglu’s hands to make a play and he was great at it.  Will Vince, when the pressure’s on, be able to deliver like Hedo did in that role?

I can’t wait until Redick enters game 3 in Charlotte for the first time.  By the way, why do we say that someone was “booed lustily”?  It doesn’t make much sense.  I can understand staring lustily, like Sean May does at crab bread, but booing lustily?  Strange adverb choice.  Whatever the case, Redick will be booed lustily.

ASChin: And the sad part is is that JJ is a much better pro than 2006 #3 pick Adam Morrison will ever be.  Ugh.

PlayoffRoster_2Unit

Dr. E: And at the point, we have Jameer Nelson vs Raymond Felton.  I have to admit, I was stunned to look at Jameer’s numbers this season and see how far he’d fallen off. His FG% and 3PT% are way down, as is his scoring average, and he’s only playing 28 minutes a game.  I know Jason Williams has been a pleasant surprise at backup PG for the Magic, but jeez.  What happened?  Anyways, the diminutive-but-not-super-quick Nelson is a good matchup for Raymond Felton.

Felton is easily having his best year as a pro — a contract year too, how nice.  Now, the sharps know that Raymond’s improved stats/PER are mostly due to the fact that Stephen Jackson is now around to take all of the tough shots.  Raymond has been able to be much more selective in the shots he attempts, and his FG% has accordingly improved significantly.  But I still worry that he’s already made himself a lot of money this year — more money than the Bobcats might be able to pay.  A strong showing in the playoffs could give a team like New York or Miami googly eyes for Raymond.  I hope Raymond’s not thinking too much about that, but he’s human, so…

ASChin: Hey, now.  I thought this was a Playoff Preview not a 2010 Free Agency Breakdown.  Felton has proven himself to be a solid starter in the League and I imagine that he’ll do well in this series.  He’s played in big games in college (winning a championship with UNC) and (at least according to 82games.com) he’s been the Bobcats best offensive player in the clutch.  He’s bigger and stronger than both Jameer and White Chocolate and still has the speed to beat anybody down the court.  If Ray can keep his shooting percentage up, turnovers down and play his usual solid D, I could see him being the series’ most valuable player in a potential upset.

As for DJ Augustin, I almost don’t want to write anything about him.  He had a terrible sophomore season until finally coming around in April.  I hope he’s figured it out because the Bobcats will need all the scoring (especially outside shooting) they can get.

-DrE & ASChin