Bobcats Prevail Over Pistons, Finish Trip 4-2

Photo by J. Dennis/Einstein/NBAE via Getty Images

The Bobcats used a 20-1 run spanning the third and fourth quarters to defeat the Pistons 97-87 in Detroit on Wednesday night. Stephen Jackson poured in a season-high 39 points (14-26 FG, 3-7 3PT, 8-10 FT) to lead the Cats as they finished their 6-game road trip at 4-2. The Cats are now 21-27 and hanging on to the 8th playoff spot heading into a brutal three game home-stand against Miami, Dallas and Boston.

AP Recap | Box Score

The last game of a long road trip is always dangerous; it’s human nature for the mind to start wandering towards putting the keys in your own door and sleeping in your own bed whilst being blown out. But with Rodney Stuckey and Jason Maxiell out with injuries, Rip Hamilton exiled to the end of the bench, and their fans stuck at home under a foot of snow, the Pistons were hardly in position to take advantage of a possible letdown by the Bobcats anyways.

Stephen Jackson got the Bobcats off to a nice start despite DJ Augustin’s early foul trouble. Sherron Collins picked up seven first quarter minutes and played well, going 2-2 from the field and presiding over a 19-11 Bobcats run. The Cats maintained a small lead through the second quarter as Jack poured in the buckets and Kwame Brown hit the boards.

The Pistons came out strong after halftime and ran out to an 8 point lead before the Bobcats calmed things down. Towards the end of the third quarter, down 65-64, the Bobcats embarked on their epic run. Amidst a barrage of jumpers from Steven Jackson and dunks/layups from Kwame Brown, Gerald Henderson and Nazr Mohammed, the Pistons couldn’t get anything going.

Up 84-66 with 8 minutes left after Jackson’s three free throws capped the run, the Bobcats took their foot off the gas a bit. The Pistons went on a small run of their own to cut the lead to 7 with three minutes left, but Jack put an end to that with a strong drive into a layup. From there, a few DJ Augustin free throws iced the game.

Notes

Quick and easy numbers: The Bobcats shot 50.7% to the Pistons 43.6%, outrebounded the Pistons 46-30, and went 20-25 at the line to the Pistons 12-17.
Quintessential Boris Diaw line: 36 minutes, 0 points on 0-3 FG, 4 rebounds, 9 assists/2 turnovers, and a team high plus-minus of +15. Just embrace it.
Quiet game for DJ after his early foul trouble trying to match up against the stronger Ben Gordon. DJ scored 5 points in the final 46 seconds to get to double digits at 10 — but overall didn’t play well. Nice to see that the Bobcats could get a win despite that.
Another double-double for Kwame Brown: 14 points/10 rebounds.
So while the quality of the opponents (Sacramento by 5, Phoenix by 7, Golden State by 8 in OT, Detroit by 10) leaves something to be desired, a 4-2 road trip is a pretty impressive feat for this team. As noted above, the Bobcats now face a three game home-stand against a murderers row of opponents: Miami on Friday, Dallas on Saturday, and Boston on Monday, all 7 PM ET starts.

-Dr. E

be sure to follow Dr. E, ASChin, and Cardboard Gerald on Twitter

Turnovers, Pistons Conspire To Vanquish Bobcats

One of the 22 turnovers, courtesy AP/Duane Burleson

The Charlotte Bobcats fell on the road to the Pistons, 97-90, on Friday night to drop to 1-4. Only a few games into the season and it seems like we’re already beating a dead horse: turnovers. The Bobcats had 22 of them (compared to the Pistons 12) which completely negated their 55% to 43% shooting advantage.

AP Recap | Box Score

Observations

The Cats got off to another slow start in this one, playing soft D and allowing the Pistons to build a 41-19 lead just a few minutes into the second quarter. Nazr Mohammed continues to underwhelm, and was benched for the second half in favor of a small lineup.
Another concerning stat: the usually aggressive Bobcats only got to the line 11 times; while the Pistons earned 27 free throws (and made all but one).
The Cats comeback in the second half was OK. Derrick Brown and DJ Augustin both played pretty well; each hit a couple of big threes to keep the Cats hanging around.
And Stephen Jackson had his best game of the season, pouring in 28 points on 12-19 FG/4-8 3PT. But he also had a team-high 6 turnovers.
To hammer home the turnover issue a little further, the league average looks to be around 15 per game. At the beginning of the night, the Kings lead the league in fewest turnovers per game at 11.8 per; the Timberwolves give up the most at 20 per. The Bobcats are the second worst at 18.3 per game; obviously that number will creep a bit higher after tonite’s 22.

-Dr. E

be sure to follow Dr. E, ASChin and Cardboard Gerald on Twitter

Bobcats Weekend Preview and… James Johnson?

With an away-home back-to-back in Detroit tonight and hosting Orlando Saturday night, it was already shaping up to be a busy weekend for the 1-3 Bobcats. Now we can add a trade rumor to the mix.

Friday Night at Detroit

The Cats are in Detroit tonight looking to build on their first win of the season against the Pistons, who are making a nice case for being the worst team in the league. The Pistons have been in all of their games except the loss to the Celtics, but are nonetheless winless at 0-5.

What’s worse is that the two biggest Pistons stories of the season are finger-pointing between players and coach over a lack of leadership and Charlie Villanueva’s tattling on Kevin Garnett’s over-the-line trash talk.

The latest scuttlebutt is that in Wednesday’s loss to the Hawks, coach John Kuester benched Rodney Stuckey. Head over to Detroit Bad Boys for the latest on the Piston’s struggles.

Gametime is 7:30 PM ET and the game will be televised on SportSouth (in HD for Time Warner customers on channel 1510! — a quick check last night showed that 1510 had been added to my channel lineup!).

Saturday night vs Orlando

From one extreme to the other. The Magic are 2-1, having only played three games because their Tuesday night tilt with the Knicks was postponed due to asbestos in the Garden (weird to type that), but are clearly one of the most dominant teams in the league. Their loss was an ugly one to the Heat, but their two wins were both absolute throttlings of the Wizards and T-Wolves, by 29 and 42 points, respectively.

The Cats will be looking for a small measure of revenge after getting swept out of the first round of the playoffs last spring, but look no better equipped to combat Dwight Howard and company now than they were then.

Gametime is 7:00 PM ET at the Cable Box.

James Johnson

When Michael Jordan asserted in a recent interview that the “roster churn” was most likely over, we at Bobcats Baseline were skeptical. The shaky 1-3 start has only reinforced that.

One of the main problems has been mediocre play from Nazr Mohammed (ahem), and a lack of depth behind him. But with Kwame Brown and Dominic McGuire getting ready to return from injury, I figured Larry Brown and company would at least give those guys a run before making a move.

So I was a little surprised to wake up this morning and see the Bobcats once again leading off Hoopshype.com’s Rumors page. Via Marc Stein of ESPN.com, the Bobcats and Bulls have been talking about James Johnson.

Johnson is a big, tough 6’9″ 250 lb forward in his second year in the league. He was drafted 16th overall by the Bulls in the 2009 draft out of Wake Forest and averaged almost 12 minutes per game last year. He was decent as a rookie, but was looked at as somewhat expendable in the offseason after the Bulls acquisition of Carlos Boozer.

But with Boozer’s preseason boxer’s fracture putting him out for the first several weeks of the season, and Johnson coming into camp in fantastic condition, his future in Chicago was temporarily looking a little brighter. Johnson’s 2011-12 option was recently picked up by the Bulls after a good preseason, and he had a nice 19 minute/8 point/9 rebound/4 assist/3 block/2 steal/+24 PER night against the Pistons last week.

But with Taj Gibson playing pretty well, Boozer’s return around the corner, and new Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau looking to make his mark on the team and take them deep into the playoffs, Johnson is apparently available again.

What would Larry Brown and the Bobcats be seeing in Johnson? Probably George Lynch, or Dominic McGuire with a higher ceiling. Here’s an excellent breakdown of Johnson’s game from Bulls Confidential.

A better question is: what would the Bulls be looking for in return? They need upgrades at SG and backup PG, but I can’t see the Bobcats being able to accommodate that. Any ideas, Baseliners?

-Dr. E

be sure to follow Dr. E, ASChin and Cardboard Gerald on Twitter

Augustin, Hughes Push Bobcats Past Pistons

Charlotte Bobcats vs Pistons, 4/10/10

The Charlotte Bobcats survived a late Pistons push for a 99-95 victory at the Cable Box on Saturday night. With Raymond Felton out due to flu-like symptoms and coach Larry Brown trying to limit the minutes of banged-up stars Gerald Wallace (33 minutes) and Stephen Jackson (28), the Cats needed their backup guards to pick up the slack. DJ Augustin (13 points/9 assists in 40 minutes) and Larry Hughes (18 points on 6-10 FG/4-6 3PT, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals in 26 minutes) obliged.

AP recap here | Box score here

With Raymond Felton scratched due to flu-like symptoms, DJ Augustin got the start and 40 minutes of playing time. The Cats and Pistons played a pretty close first half, with the Cats coming out on top 50-43. The Bobcats proceeded to build 11 point leads a couple different times during the third quarter, but the rest of the way the Pistons made it interesting.

Ben Gordon and Jason Maxiell led the Pistons on a 27-13 run over a 9 minute stretch spanning the 3rd and 4th quarters that culminated in an Austin Daye three for an 88-85 Pistons lead with 5:15 left. The Pistons accomplished this against an odd Bobcats lineup of Hughes/Jack/Graham/Brown/Chandler that just wasn’t getting it done; so down the stretch Gerald Wallace, Boris Diaw and DJ Augustin returned to the floor to restore sanity.

DJ hit a tough, fading jumper with just over a minute left to put the Bobcats up 96-95. Some scrambling Bobcats defense and a little luck would make that lead hold up.

The ensuing Pistons possession seemingly lasted forever; for the record, it included 0-5 field goals (2 of them threes), 4 offensive rebounds, 2 Pistons timeouts, and accounted for almost a full minute of game time. Gerald Wallace finally ended the fiasco with a rebound with 16 seconds left, but only hit 1-2 free throws to keep the Pistons hopes alive.

Fortunately, the Pistons would miss again; this time Larry Hughes secured the rebound, then hit 2-2 free throws to secure the win.

Tidbits

The Cats were rocking some awesome black warm-up t-shirts with “Clinched” across the chest — a blue version was available in the Team Store. Well played, Bobcats, but still no match for our SarcophaCrash Gerald Wallace t-shirts, now on sale for the playoffs for $18!
Tyson Chandler was 9-10 from the free throw line — he added a tip-in for 11 points total.
Stephen Graham was solid-as-usual off the bench: 11 points on 5-6 FG/1-1 3PT in 20 minutes.
Ty Thomas sat out again with his bad thumb.
I saw this kid coming up the stairs near my section at halftime and thought, “Wow, that looks like NCAA Champion Jon Scheyer’s 16-year-old doppelganger.” Eventually, after he posed for a few pictures with fans, I realized it was Scheyer himself. Damn, I feel old.
Strange box score tonight: the Cats outshot the Pistons 53.8% to 45.6% and beat them at the free throw line 22-26 to 17-26. Rebounds and assists were essentially even. So how did the Cats almost lose this one? 2 issues, both concerning. 1) the Pistons nabbed 13 offensive rebounds and 2) the Cats coughed up 15 turnovers. Can’t be giving up extra possessions in the playoffs like that.
The win pushes the Cats to 31-9 at home on the year. Pretty amazing.
Technically, there’s still a chance the Cats could get the sixth seed. If the Cats win out (away at New Jersey, home against Chicago) and Miami goes 1-2 to finish the regular season, we’d tie them at 45-37, and would get the nod due to winning the season series against them. But the Heat have the Knicks, Sixers and Nets in their last three games, and figure to go 2-1 at the absolute worst.
The Cats get a day of rest on Sunday before taking on the Nets in New Jersey on Monday night (7:30 PM ET start). In case you’ve been under a rock for the past few months, the Cats have turned in a couple of embarrassing performances in losing two in a row to the Nets, the NBA’s worst team this year. Don’t count on it happening again on Monday.

-Dr. E

Bobcats Take Care Of Home Court Against Pistons

Charlotte Bobcats vs Pistons 12/22/09

TCOB

The Charlotte Bobcats defeated the undermanned Detroit Pistons 88-76 at the Cable Box on Tuesday night. AP story here, box score here. The Bobcats were keyed by Gerald Wallace’s 29 point/4-6 3PT/12 rebound/3 assist/2 steal/4 block effort, turned in after he missed Sunday night’s game as a precaution due to headaches.

Meanwhile, the Pistons suffered from severe lack of firepower. Key rotation players Rip Hamilton, Ben Gordon and Tayshaun Prince all missed the game with injuries. Both Charlie Villanueva and Will Bynum, who had torched Charlotte back in November in Detroit, were largely held in check tonight.

The Cats pulled away in the second quarter behind a strong start by Gerald Wallace and maintained a double digit lead the rest of the way. This was very much a “Taking Care of Business” kind of home game against a struggling, beat-up, but still dangerous visitor.

Stephen Jackson gutted it out for 13 points/8 rebounds/4 assists in 41 minutes, but was clearly bothered by his stiff lower back. Nazr Mohammed was his usual efficient, productive self with 12 points/9 rebounds in 18 minutes off the bench.

Tyson Chandler left the game in the third quarter with a sprained foot; funny, I hardly noticed. It might as well have been a tactical benching, as the Pistons were trying to go small anyways. Larry Brown, through Raymond, DJ and Jack, seems hell-bent on trying to turn Chandler into Amare Stoudemire on the pick and roll. But it is painful to watch Chandler fumble away pass after pass while trying to roll to the basket. I know Larry Brown likes to preach that players are never too old to learn new tricks/skills, but maybe Chris Paul was onto something when he threw Chandler exclusively lobs in New Orleans.

Bullets

The Bobcats shot 9-18 from 3PT range — one of their best showings of the year in that regard.
I’d love to see a breakdown of what percentage of Gerald Wallace’s points are scored in the first half versus the second half — he had another huge first half tonight. That he often fades as a scoring threat late in games is one of the only weaknesses that I can nitpick about. I tried checking on hoopdata.com and 82games.com, but half-by-half (or quarter-by-quarter) breakdowns weren’t readily available from what I could see. Anyone know how to mine that data?
DaJuan Summers is going to be seeing Gerald in his nightmares — Gerald had two amazing blocks in the fourth quarter, both on Summers. The first one is in the ESPN.com highlights, the second one is available on NBA.com.
Felton totally shook Chucky Atkins coming down the court (not hard, I know, but still) in one of my favorite plays of the game. Atkins ended up on his butt while Raymond stopped and popped. The NBA.com video folks must be on a skeleton crew for the holidays, because they don’t have the full game highlight package available yet as I’m about to post this — hopefully that one will make it on there.
The Cats improve to 11-16 overall (10-4 at home), currently good for 8th place in the Eastern Conference
The Cats get a three day break for Christmas — let’s hope no one’s going on the road (get it?). Next game is Saturday night at Oklahoma City.