Charlotte Bobcats vs Suns, 1/16/10
.500
The Charlotte Bobcats decimated the Phoenix Suns 125-99 on Saturday night at the Cable Box, and it wasn’t really even that close. AP recap here, box score here. The Cats are now 19-19 overall and 15-4 at home. They’ve won 7 in a row at home and 7 of their last 8 overall.
Unlike the night before, when the Cats played even with the Spurs before turning up the heat midway through the third, the Cats jumped all over the Suns right from the opening bell tonight. Gerald Wallace and Stephen Jackson were both on fire. It was 12-0 just 2 1/2 minutes in, 43-22 after the first quarter and 103-64 at one point in the third quarter. Only a meaningless spurt by the Suns’ last-five-off-the-bench in the closing minutes brought the final margin under 30.
The Suns don’t play much D; the Cats took advantage of this while resisting the urge to do the same. For the second night in a row, the Bobcats trapping defense took a top-notch, veteran Western Conference team out of their comfort zone. The Cats scored 26 fast break points to the Suns 5 and scored 24 points off 15 Suns turnovers.
Gerald Wallace had 29 points (11-15 FG, 2-2 3PT, 5-6 FT) and 13 rebounds. Stephen Jackson also had 29 points (11-17 FG, 4-6 3PT, 3-3 FT) and added 5 rebounds, 8 assists and 5 steals. Perhaps most important is that both got to sit most of the 4th quarter with the game well in hand; Gerald played 31 minutes, Jack 29.
Everyone got into the act; literally. Derrick Brown was in double-digits by halftime and finished with a career high 18 points. Gerald Henderson played 10 minutes, and even Acie Law got a bucket in junk time.
Bullets
- While attendance was not nearly the 17,574 that was announced, it was a really good crowd. Probably the biggest crowd I’ve seen this season (note, I did not attend opening night).
- So can we all stop clamoring for Gerald Henderson to get playing time over Flip Murray, or even Steven Graham? Henderson’s 10 minutes tonight were not pretty. I’m OK with him learning by watching at this point. Jack and Flip are pretty good guys to learn from.
- Both Jack and Amare Stoudemire scored their 10,000th career point tonight.
- The Bobcats play next on Monday afternoon in a Martin Luther King Day special at 2PM ET. Tyreke Evans and the Kings will be in town.
I get annoyed w/ all the Hendo whining as well. I do think he deserves more pt than he's getting though. I don't care so much about his development(he does show up to practice after all) but am more concerned about keeping Jax healthy and ready for the playoffs.
I’d have to begrudgingly agree on your point about Henderson. I knew he would get significant minutes as the 30 point cushion was sustained throughout the 3rd. He had an open jumper, and even made a few strong moves towards the rim, but nothing was working for him.
I also noticed that he had the worst +/- by far on the team: -20 compared to Graham’s -1, even though they both played 10 minutes each. -20 when we win by 26 points?! I can’t even use the excuse of him being rusty, because whenever Graham is pulled out of moth balls, he always manages to nail a jump shot or two.
So, yeah, I definitely won’t be pining for his playing time again any time soon. Besides, Derrick Brown is starting to crack the rotation on a regular basis, so it’s not like Larry has an issue with playing rookies as long as they’re productive when their number is called.
GO CATS!
Simply amazing. The first half was a thing of beauty.
Charlotte hasn’t seen basketball played at this level in a decade.
As for Henderson, he’s a rookie and needs his reps. Give him time and he’ll get there. Derrick Brown is playing great and eventually Augustin will remember how good he was last season just like Diaw has recently.
Still, the biggest concern is minutes. Crash is leading the League in mpg and that needs to stop. Hopefully Higgins can pull the trigger on a deal soon to shore up the PF spot.