I'm not ready to attribute last night's unsightly 88-74 loss entirely to lack of Gerald Wallace. But no Crash and no rebounding make David something something.

The Bobcats actually played the Blazers evenly through the final three quarters; the first quarter was such a disaster that they could never quite recover, and Portland seemed to be coasting, to boot.

There isn't much use dwelling on this one game, because they've got to play at altitude the next two games, in Denver and in Utah, on Friday and then Monday, both without Wallace. The pattern's been set. Let's see if they can manage better than a 45-26 rebounding margin in either game. If not, then the org's plan to mortgage the future to make the playoffs this year will look in danger of being for naught.

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For those of you who stayed up to watch the past two game, thank you. If you dropped by to chat here, thank you for your support. These are the times that test fans' resolve: a long, difficult, road trip, most of which is played without the team's best player.