Bobcats Baseline Observations: Charlotte @ Dallas 12/12/09
It won’t show up in the standings but the Charlotte Bobcats won a big game against the Dallas Mavericks Saturday night in a valiant defensive effort as Gerald Wallace, Raymond Felton and Stephen Jackson all topped 20 points and held a solid Western Conference contender to just 39% shooting from the floor. Final score 97-98.
AP recap here | Box score here
Where Have You Gone Tim Donaghy?
I’m not going to recount it here in detail but the officiating was worse than brutal tonight. You could sense as much as the Bobcats headed into the 4th quarter up by eight, 70-62. The Mavs were struggling, yes, but Mark Cuban was at his manipulative best by trotting out The The Protectors of Freedoms and Liberties on the sidelines complete with Gary “Lt. Dan” Sinise leading the charge. What official in his right mind is gonna let this many war veterans go home unhappy with a loss to the Charlotte-freakin’-Bobcats? Thus we had several magical off-the-ball fouls on the ‘Cats to get them into the penalty early in the quarter and combined with the team’s sloppy handling of the ball (18 turnovers to 13), allowed the Mavericks to come back and tie the game, send it into overtime and let Dirk go to work.
Bullets:
- Gerald Wallace gave Nowitzki fits all night on defense until Rick Carlisle wised up and switched Dirk off of him. Wallace’s 23pts and 16rbs gave him his fourteenth double-double of the season. Outside of his 5 TOs (including a terrible one at the end of regulation), Wallace’s effort was incredible. He played 51 minutes and never let up on either end of the court.
- Raymond Felton continued his development into a Derek Fisher-type by hitting clutch basket after basket in the 2nd half + OT. He nailed half of his shots going for 20 points and dropped in 8 dimes to boot.
- For all of Dirk’s heroics at the end of the 4th and OT, he actually played a very poor game and was handled easily by Boris Diaw for most of the night as he finished a tawdry 14-34 from the field. His pump/headfake from the perimeter is still unguardable though as I can only imagine trying to stop a deadly long-ball shooter who releases the ball a good 10 feet in the air. Great job by Boris.
- D.J. Augustin got a little playing time but didn’t do much with it. In fifteen minutes, he made a three, dished out an assist and got totally schooled by J.J. Barea. Barea, who is absurdly listed at 6 feet but is closer to 5’9″, actually blocked one of Augustin’s shot attempts. Have you hit rock bottom yet, D.J.?
- Stephen Jackson went on a personal 14-0 run for the Cats late in the 3rd/early in the 4th and finished with 28. Jackson has been an offensive godsend to a Bobcats team that still needs at least one more creator on the roster.
- Can’t believe how quickly this supposedly “old” Mavericks team still pushes the tempo. Jason Kidd and Shawn Marion looked very quick and the Mavs didn’t slow down much with Terry or Dampier out there as well. They look more like Nellie’s old Mavs than they have in quite a while. That said, the Bobcats stellar D held them to just 98 points.
The Bobcats have the Knicks and Pacers up next and will need to take both of those games if they want to continue to float around the .500 mark.
Until next time, Enjoy the Loss Bobcats Fans…