Charlotte Bobcats @ Knicks, 1/7/10
Win Streak Ends At 3
The Charlotte Bobcats’ 3-game winning streak came to a halt on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, as they fell to the Knicks 97-93. AP recap here, box score here. The Bobcats fall to 15-19 on the year.
The fourth quarter was essentially a barrage of three-pointers (4 for the Cats, 6 for the Knicks) with a big ugly dry spell for both teams (no points for either team for a 4 minute stretch) in the middle. The Bobcats tied it at 84 after consecutive Stephen Jackson-Raymond Felton threes with just over 2 minutes left, but then gave up a three to Chris Duhon on the other end. Stephen Jackson appeared to answer with yet another three on the ensuing Bobcats possession, but after a lengthy review, it was ruled a two-pointer — 87-86 Bobcats.
Then the Danilo Gallinari Three-Point Show started. Gallinari hit a three to put the Knicks up 90-86. After the Bobcats came up empty on the other end (2 missed threes), the ball found it’s way back into Gallinari’s hands, about 29-30 feet from the basket. Appropriately expecting a drive, Gerald Wallace gave a bit of cushion. Instead, Gallinari used the space to rise up and drain the long three — 93-86 with 44 seconds left — huge nail in the coffin.
Remember, in the Bobcats’ loss to the Knicks back on December 20th, Gallinari had a big late three and the game-clinching block of Acie Law’s layup, so this guy is beginning to make a habit of beating the Cats.
Besides Gallinari, there were several other problems for the Cats in this one: 1) Gerald Wallace never quite got it going (13 points/9 rebounds) as we’ve become accustomed to, 2) we couldn’t stop Wilson Chandler (27 points on 11-21 FG, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3) we succumbed to a 3-point shooting contest with the Knicks.
Bullets
- This one would have been nice to have, as the Cats could have clinched the tiebreaker on the season series with the Knicks, who will likely be among the teams fighting with the Bobcats for the 7-8th playoff spots at the end of the regular season. Instead, the season series between the two teams ends at 2-2.
- With Gallinari having beat us twice, and Andrea Bargnani doing the same last week, can we send these guys to the Jersey Shore to hang out with Snookie and The Situation?
- The Cats did continue to keep their turnovers low, with only 7 tonight; but that’s probably as much from the Knicks lack of defense as anything else…
- The Bobcats start a huge 6 game home stand on Saturday night with the Grizzlies coming into town — 7 PM ET start.
hard to swallow this one. would have been tremendous momentum heading into this home stretch.
i see other people on ROF thinking that Tyson would have helped us out a bit more, but from what ive read/heard (because apparently, time warner and fox are still rivals), Gallinari would have given him problems anyway.
no doubt this team may be better off with a different option thats not Chandler, but the problem is now finding that option.
best case scenario: Chandler opts-out after the season and we use that money on David Lee. any takers?
starting to have drawbacks at the thoughts of DJ running the team. i know hes a great talent, but recently, Raymond's production has been incredibly solid. depending on what he wants in a long term deal (i think hes worth a solid 6-7mill a year), id keep him over DJ.
another PF thats not Diaw? i doubt it–not because of money, but because it 1. blows chemistry 2. impacts our ability to stretch the court on offense. hes a versatile player thats being played out of position. why not swap him and Crash? (kinda rhetorical since i know of GWs injury history) he makes a better SF than a PF.
as far as me being absent, ive been busy around the holidays and just now settling down. the whole school + family thing gets hectic. glad to see i was missed.
This game really upsets me. Our perimeter defense was just flat awful and esp. with the wings. A lot of that had to do with Boris trying to guard Lee; he couldn't and the wings/PGs started trying to help. Vs. a 3 pt bombing team like the Knicks that's just begging for disaster.
I know Crash sat out of practice Wednesday, but c'mon dude. You are our best player and we don't win games like this without you.
It's like they got too full of themselves. Let's at least get to .500 before we consider doing that in the future…k?
I would love to pick up David Lee He would help our rebounding greatly He would give us a real post threat out of the front court. He would help us matchup better on Deffense than either Diaw or Chandler. I love Lees game.
The only David Lee the Bobcats need is David Lee Roth.
just a random thought..
what if we trade diaw for corey maggette and move gerald to the 4th….he is getting all the rebz for us cats anyway LOL
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just a random thought..
what if we trade diaw for corey maggette and move gerald to the 4th….he is getting all the rebz for us cats anyway LOL
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