Bobcats Defeat Thunder After Slow Start

Charlotte Bobcats vs Thunder 3/17/10

The Bobcats scored another win, 100-92, over the visiting Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night. The Cats had to overcome an awful start that had them down by as much as 19 points late in the second quarter. Stephen Jackson led the Cats in scoring with 20 points; Kevin Durant led all scorers with 26.

AP recap here | Box score here

The Bobcats poor start seemed to be due to a general malaise; meanwhile, the Thunder were making it all look so easy. The trio of Russell Westbrook, Jeff Green and Kevin Durant did most of the damage as the Thunder built their big lead. But the Cats woke up for a quick 11-0 run in the last couple minutes of the second quarter to seize the momentum.

They kept it going in the third quarter, winning the frame 30-19 and overtaking the Thunder for the lead. As usual, the run was keyed by the defense. When the Cats weren’t racking up blocks inside, they were forcing contested jumpers outside. Durant may have led all scorers with 26, but he needed 26 shots to do it (9-26 FG, 0-7 3PT).

The Thunder threatened briefly in the fourth quarter, cutting the Bobcats lead down to one at one point. But Stephen Jackson soon responded with a three and the Cats were able to keep the Thunder at arms length the rest of the way.

Stephen Graham

Dude gets his own section. After setting a new career high in last night’s loss to the Pacers with 19 points, Graham got another start for the injured Gerald Wallace… and responded by tying his new career high with 19 again (7-9 FG, 1-1 3PT, 4-6 FT). Graham added 5 rebounds and a block to go along with his efficient offensive performance in 30 minutes of playing time.

In the three games Graham has started for Gerald, he is averaging 16.6 points and 6.3 rebounds in 30 minutes per game. Huge.

Tidbits

In case you missed it, the NBA’s board of governors unanimously approved Michael Jordan’s bid to but the Bobcats today, so it’s all nice and official now.
Speaking of, apparently bobcats.com will be posting a Q&A with His Airness in the morning, while Stephanie Ready has scored the first on camera interview since he became owner; this will air during the Hawks game Friday night.
The Cats are now 35-32 overall (25-8 at home) and alone in 6th place in the East. 5th place Milwaukee just lost, which brings the Cats to within a game-and-a-half of them. Behind the Cats, the Heat were off Wednesday and are just a half game back. 8th place Toronto won a thriller to keep pace, while Chicago lost their ninth in a row to fall further out of the race.
The Bobcats (and Gerald’s ankle) have a day off before a tough Southeast Division road back-to-back in Atlanta and Miami on Friday and Saturday. Good luck, Cats.

-Dr. E

Charlotte Bobcats @ OKC Thunder 4/10/09

Bobcats fall to Thunder, Chad Ford Loves the Thunder

1. The Playoff Hunt is officially over for the Bobcats as they fall 84-81 to Chad Ford’s favorite team (OKC) Friday night. The team stands at 35-44 with 3 games remaining in the season.

2. Ugly, ugly, ugly game for the Bobcats. Charlotte shoots a combined 33% from the field (29 of 87) and commits 14 turnovers. Quick question:
Name the 6 Charlotte Bobcats Players who shot:

4-13
8-21
1-5
3-12
4-16
6-16

Answer: The 6 guys who played the most.
The starters sucked it up bad and then DJ came in and sucked it up in reserve. It wasn’t like the Thunder were playing Championship Defense (although the OKC broadcast team thought so). The Bobcats as a team just couldn’t get the ball to stay in the basket. I lost count of how many fast breaks, put-backs, easy 2-footers, etc that just didn’t fall. And no disrespect to the Thunder, they played very good defense (notably 2008 Bobcat 2nd Round Pick Kyle Weaver on Gerald Wallace) but hardly the kind that should inspire 33% shooting.

3. So, is Thunder GM Sam Presti secretly just taking orders from ESPN.com’s Chad Ford? Seriously, take a look at OKC’s roster:

Kevin Durant (phenom in the making)
Jeff Green (Scottie Pippen meets Dwight Howard in the making)
Russell Westbrook (ESPN Insider equivalent to The Hottest New Band Nobody’s Talking About)
Nenad Kristic (Super-skilled Euro Center with strange male-pattern baldness)
Thabo Sefolosha (Euro wing defender, kind of a young Raja Bell)
DJ White/Kyle Weaver (late first round gems in the making)
Shaun Livingston (former Chad Ford idol; 6’7″ PG making a comeback at the ripe old age of 23)

Add this to the fact the OKC has about 37 first round picks in the next two drafts and we can all rest assured that Portland’s Kevin Pritchard will be receiving far less bon-bons and roses from Mr. Ford this June.

4. Jeff Green (btw) looks fantastic. He finished the game with 10pts and 11rbs but scored his 5 buckets in every way imaginable. Kristic was the real surprise though. Even though he came back from Europe looking like a Rasho Nestorovich mannequin, the dude really lit it up with 19pts on 9-12 shooting and made Emeka look pretty useless all evening.

5. Speaking of Okafor, how is it biologically possible that a human being as atheletically endowed as Emeka can’t jump more than four inches off of the ground? Someone please explain this to me. Looking at the guy, you’d think that he’d be able to out-jump assistant coach Capel but in reality… no dice. And isn’t his inability to put back a shot (while jumping) completely incongruent with his proficiency at blocking opponents shots? Rebounding? I have a theory on Emeka and it goes something like this:
A few years ago Emeka Okafor read Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Blink.” He then decided to dedicate his life to doing the opposite of whatever that book had to say.
I honestly think that Okafor is too damn intelligent for the NBA – his mind is just too analytical and he doesn’t have the ability to shut if off when he’s on the court.

6. OKC’s crowd went into this game (their home court finale) like it was Game 7 of the Finals. Seeing the arena jam-packed and the crowd completely attentive and excited brought back some fond memories of the old Charlotte Coliseum and the glory days of LJ, ZO, and Muggsy. [HEY! RON GREEN, SR. stop hacking into my computer!]

7. Speaking of the old Hornets, OKC’s pre-game interviewer (their version of Stephanie Ready) is none other than Matt Pinto, who served as the Charlotte Hornets radio announcer (and Gerry Vallaincourt’s radio co-host) back in the early 90s.

8. Bright spots for the Bobcats? Well, Dontell Jefferson came in and played very well in a cameo scoring 6pts in 6 minutes. Other than that…well Radman had a steal in the open court early in the first and then finished it off with a reverse EURO-JAM! but then proceeded to brick a bunch of threes and get burned on defense by guys getting paid an eighth of what he does. Hmm…more bright spots? Maybe I’ll have some for you after Saturday night’s game in Chicago against the Bulls.

Till then, enjoy the loss Bobcats Fans…

-ASChin

Charlotte Bobcats vs. Thunder 12/3/08

1. Two in a row! The Bobcats took care of business at the Cable Box tonight, defeating the Thunder 103-97. AP story here, box score here.

2. The exclamation point in the previous item was kind of forced. This game was an absolute sleeper. The Cats clearly looked like the better team all night, and did just enough to keep Durant and company at bay. I’m not sure if we should be disappointed that they never were able to definitively put the Thunder away, or impressed that they won in such ho-hum, business-like fashion. A little of both, probably.

3. There are no wildly impressive lines in the box score, and that pretty much jibes with my experience of the game. No one really dominated. That said, Emeka Okafor certainly deserves special mention. He led the Bobcats with 25 points (8-11 FG, 9-12 FT) and 13 rebounds (6 offensive). Very efficient game for Mek tonight. As opposed to Monday night, they weren’t really looking for Mek in the post tonight – most of those shots were putbacks and layups. He was the beneficiary of more than a few of Raymond’s 12 assists.

4. Sean May had what was easily his best game of the year, going 27 minutes and grabbing 11 boards to go with 10 points. Much to my surprise, he can still dunk and did so off a feed from Raymond early in the third. Overall, May is still a quarter-step slow and still has a lot of rust to knock off, but this game was certainly a step in the right direction.

5. J-Rich had a very average game (18 points on 16 shots) but did pass 10,000 career points and got a nice hand from the crowd.

6. Larry Brown has really tightened up his rotation in the past couple of games. Nazr Mohammed and Ryan Hollins were inactive tonight; neither Matt Carroll nor Alexis Ajinca got off the bench again tonight. And Shannon Brown, Adam Morrison and Dwayne Jones only had brief stints in the first half.

6. Other than Kevin Durant (who had 24 effortless points and is clearly a special talent) and Russell Westbrook (who has a lot of potential, but is too raw to contribute in any meaningful way), the Thunder look like a bunch of role players. Mouhamed Saer Sene, Johan Petro and Robert Swift, where are you!?!?!?

7. Next game: Friday night in Milwaukee. Go Cats!

-E