Celtics Crush Bobcats 92-59
by David A. Arnott on Oct 28, 2009 10:11 PM EDT
24 comments
The Celtics absolutely smoked the Bobcats in the season opener at Boston's TD Garden. The final score was 92-59, which doesn't really do the beatdown justice. There were flickers of life throughout the first half, but in the third quarter, the Celtics manhandled the Cats, outscoring them 25-10 and pulling away for good.
Parsing the box score, there isn't much to be happy about; the game brought to life every fear the pessimists had for Charlotte before the season. They had near-zero offensive presence on the inside, which had a cascade effect. Gerald Wallace and others couldn't slash because defenders could help more readily, and the shooters, already a mediocre bunch (even more so without Raja Bell or Ronald Murray), couldn't shoot because there was no worry about anyone trying to score from inside ten feet.
Highlights (maybe) and Lowlights after the jump:
GOOD
-- Wallace had 10 points and 12 rebounds, by default the best performance of the night. Emphasis on "by default".
-- Nazr Mohammed very nearly earned that honor with 5 points and 8(!) rebounds in only 18 minutes. Seriously, he's probably the team's biggest inside threat on offense. That hurt to type.
-- Derrick Brown certainly looks like he belongs. Obviously, this is small sample size theater, but so be it.
-- It's fair to say Alexis Ajinca has two intriguing NBA skills: backdoor alley-oops and a nearly unblockable eighteen foot fadeaway jumper. Even his most ardent haters have to admit that his greatest shortcoming last season was his complete lack of basketball IQ even close to an NBA level.
-- The Cats outrebounded the Celtics, 44-41 46-44.
BAD
-- 59 points.
-- Tyson Chandler: 0 points, 6 rebounds, 3 turnovers, 21 minutes. Ouch.
-- D.J. Augustin, Raymond Felton, and Stephen Graham combined: 5-27 from the field.
-- 59 points. If this is any indication, let's hope for a lot of 83-78 victories.
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Lottery Purgatory
Not that I’m giving up all hope after losing (badly) to a very good Celtics team on the road but… there are two ways out of lottery purgatory. One is up, the other is down.
ewww.....
Some things that stood out to me that have more to do with philosophy than a bad shooting night:
-Gerald Wallace played awful defense. He didn’t close out on shooters, didn’t rotate on the pick and roll, and gambled on hopeless steals leaving the rest of the team exposed
-Pick and Roll defense was just awful, and in the NBA you better know how to play pick and roll D
-Very poor decision making by Stephen Graham (who shouldn’t be starting on any NBA team, “Larry Brown guy” or not) and D.J. Augustin. Poor passing, poor shot selection… Poor everything.
On the plus side, the rookies looked nice. Brown got his points against scrubs, but I like his enthusiasm and bravado, trying to throw it down. Henderson looked good against the Celtics starters. He hustled, stayed with Ray Allen, picked his spots, hit some jumpers… He’s going to be a solid replacement for Bell.
I wanted to see a lot more from Ajinca since I didn’t see any preseason games. He didn’t show anything in the 5 minutes he was in besides an easy alley-oop where Rasheed Wallace couldn’t have cared less playing D.
At least we have the Knicks next. They’re a mess too.
We can't score.
Same problem as always. A.I. would have been a great fit here (assuming complete chemistry).
Talk about a gazillion turnovers too.
My opinions.
The Good
- Derrick Brown: Kept fighting even though the game was gone, showed good touch on offense.
- Gerald Henderon: Clearly had some early jitters, but played well later on knocking down some good jumpers
The Bad
- DJ Augustin: Looked lost when Felton was getting stitched up. Didn’t show enough poise to run the offense tonight
- Raymond Felton: Gave up on passing… jacked up shots late in the game and drove for no reason.
The Ugly
- Stephen Graham: Looked like he’d never played basketball before and/or hired from a Russian B league before the game. I groaned every time he touched the ball.
- Tyson Chandler: 0 points, 6 rebounds and a technical… thanks Tyson! Okafor had 18 and 10 tonight by the way.
Cat Scratch Reader's resident optimist.
by James The Aussie on Oct 29, 2009 12:51 AM EDT reply actions
Call me the Bobcat's optimist, but...
I think their is lots to be positive about after last night’s opening night.
-Both rookies showed lots of promise.
-Murray and Bell should be key contributors and they will return to hopefully score some points and hit some threes.
- Chandler and Augustin could not really play any worse than yesterday, so they will only improve.
- The ’Cats were hanging with the (awesome) Celtics until Felton went out in the 2nd quarter.
Just like with Chandler and Augustin, for the entire team there is only room for improvement, so it can’t get any worse really. I look for us to play 10 times better against NY tomorrow.
A few observations...
We should be able to handle the Nicks on Friday.
I would HATE to have to bear the gaze of Larry Brown during practice after this debacle!
The only way we would have beaten the Celts tonight would have involved semi-automatic weaponry and an exit strategy.
Felton can now make a GREAT commercial endorsement deal – “Butter?” “No, parquet!”
Let’s keep in mind it was opening night, on the road, against a team most are calling one of the absolute best in the NBA this season.
Our defense was fairly respectable.
Shooting was a disgrace, to be sure, but there is a deeper and uglier truth. We had more turnovers than Pepperidge Farm and that meant we didn’t even get a chance to MISS a shot. Offensive output was nauseating.
When you are getting schooled on the court this badly, it is NOT the time to be trash talking. Tyson Chandler was running his mouth at least twice as much as he was running the floor. He has a LOT to answer for and a long way to go before he redeems himself with THIS Bobcats fan.
In the NBA there is always another game ahead. One loss does not a disaster make.
As always, Coach Brown was the picture of class in the post-game press conference. He took all the blame for the loss and said he did a poor job of getting his team ready for opening night. I completely disagree with him – the team let him down, not the other way around. Anyone watching the preseason games saw the flashes of cohesion and had every reason to hope for more than the Bobcats presented tonight. Nonetheless, his refusal to point fingers, blame the front office, rail on about the officials, or offer any of the other excuses that are as common as sneakers in the NBA is one more reason why we’re so fortunate to have him in Charlotte.
Oh, and his nickname, “Pound!” That’s one of the best I’ve heard in a while! (For those not watching the game tonight, it’s because of his initials – Larry Brown – L.B.= Pound. I love it!)
wow the bobs looked bad!
Let me start by saying this….why did u trade for Chandler? Cp3 couldn’t even make him look good… anymore that’s is! No seriouse scoring threats anywhere for the bobs. The celtics on the other hand probably could have sat a few if not all the starters tonight…and had it been a mid season game I think that would have been the case. Ray, Paul, KG, Rondo, Perk, Sheed, Quizy etc…..all on point. I see the celtics winning #18 this year. I see the bobs winning less than 20 games. The bottom of the east just got lower…59 points may not be a strAnger to charlotte. It may be the new norm!
you are right about chandler
this is the normal game of chandler .. just pure D.. no offensive moves.. I really hope Ajinca and Nazr could play more minutes.. GO BOBCATS.. WE CAN BEAT KNICKS..
The Rookies looked good.
Henderson had a nice little first game, and Brown was much more athletic than I remember from him at Xavier. I think once they both start getting comfortabe with the NBA game they’ll be real contributors on this Bobcats team. Not that that’s saying much.
Blogging at Ridiculous Upside, where my terrible writing meets people's eyes.
Chill Out
This loss was ugly and inexcusable, but its only one loss. The Cats have 81 games left to play and I am confident they will play a hell of a lot better. It’s too early in the season to be overly critical.
"Late to bed and late to wake keeps you long on money and short on mistakes".
by Julius Coxswain on Oct 29, 2009 9:58 AM EDT reply actions
totally agree. not to mention
Raja Bell and Flip Murray were both out.
The absence of those two made Felton’s mid-game injury extraordinarily detrimental to the team’s play. Up until RayRay got his face messed up by KG, the Cats were showing some signs of life. But with those three missing, that meant that 3 of the teams top 5 (maybe 4) guards were absent during the horrendous stretch from late in the 2nd quarter through the 3rd.
Couple that with the fact that Boston man-handled Cleveland the night before, and are arguably one of the deepest teams ever assembled in the NBA, and the 3O point beat down is not quite as ominous as many are suggesting.
I'll say it again
Brown and Henderson looked good…
They looked damn good to be rookies going against the Celtics…
You’ll see them blended in…I could almost see Henderson starting against the Knicks and Brown coming off the bench for Wallace…though…I’d love to see Brown and Wallace on the floor at the same time…Slide G Wallace to the SG and stick Brown to SF…
Henderson should start
Sure he’ll make rookie mistakes. But I’d rather see that than Grahams because I suck mistakes. Plus the more Henderson plays now, the better he’ll be later.
on behalf of tha dirty south: soul food, carolina blue, southern hospitality, and tha queen city
by southtunnel on Oct 29, 2009 2:30 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Ouch!
I am a HUGE optimist, but this was just bad!
I agree with what most of you guys are saying, its only one game, theres 81 more and theres no reason to panic. I honestly didn’t think we were going to win this one, but I thought, hey, as long as they keep it respectable, I’m satisfied…not even close.
Grant it, I"ve got the Celts takin it all the way this year. But even so, NO team should lose that bad to anybody in this league. It was down right embarrassing and as much as I love my Bobcats, if they don’t make some HUGE adjustments, then this is going to be the longest season ever for Bobcats fans.
Everybody keeps saying well look at the good side, or look at the positives…WHAT POSITIVES!? I’m sorry, I’ve got my fingers crossed that things are going to get better, but with Bell out, Murray out, Chandler barely able to run the floor (Although he seems to have no problem running his mouth) and Augustine doing NOTHING (He had 1 point, 1 steal and 4 assists) I just feel embarrassed. It reminded me of the NCAA tournament when the Number 1 seed plays the number 16 seed. Some no name college thats just happy to be in the tournament gets routed by The Heels or by Kentucky or something like that. The Bobcats looked like they didn’t care.
I don’t think 59 will be the norm, I do think they can win a lot this year, I even still think they can make it to the 8th spot in the playoffs…but they have got to get healthy and they’ve got to be more efficient in pretty much every facet of the game. I’ll be there Friday night, and I’ll have my fingers crossed that this game was just a fluke, and there ready to turn the corner. I know Boston’s great, I know it was their home opener but 92-59 in simply unacceptable for an NBA team.
Again, I love my Cats, they’ve got a lot of heart and I think they can make some adjustments and get a lot better, but this game was a huge let down for me and I’m sure it was for a lot of you guys as well! Hopefully a win against the Knicks will get them back on track…Man I hope!
Could it just be early season jitters?
We’ve seen all these guys play much better, and against good teams. This game just looked like their was no chemistry, and nobody was sure what to do. They should improve the more they get comfortable in Brown’s system, and get used to a new center, and some new players in rotation.
on behalf of tha dirty south: soul food, carolina blue, southern hospitality, and tha queen city
by southtunnel on Oct 29, 2009 2:36 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
Also...
Not only do I think Henderson should start, I don’t think Graham should play! The dude isn’t good. And I think if you get a guy in the draft who is as solid as Henderson, let him start!
I think a lot of it does have to do with early season jitters, and I’m not surprised there a lack of chemistry considering the starting and back up shooting guards are out.
Not only do I not understand why Graham started, why didn’t VladRad play? The whole reason we fell behind by so much was because we couldn’t score the ball. Umm…is that not the reason Charlotte traded for VladRad? The dudes the best shooter we got (and with Bell and Murray out and D.J. playing as poorly as he was, just about the ONLY SHOOTER we had).
I think Henderson and VladRad need to see a lot more court time for the Cats to have a chance. Even Brown showed some heart even if the game was well over. Sorry Graham, I think you belong with Diop, way down the bench with the warm ups on.
Graham..
isn’t that bad of a player. On a night when the entire team did extraordinarily bad he tried to get us back in it. He’s not a great shooter but he has improved on that greatly considering he used to be all defense. He’s a rugged defender who Larry Brown has really taken a liking to. I mean if last night was DJ’s only game, would you say that he shouldn’t play either? I think not. I DO agree that Henderson is the starter in this situation, but Graham is a veteran and my guess is that LB didn’t want Henderson to start against the Celts on his very first regular season game in the NBA. Graham will never be an all star, but he is the right kind of role player the Cats need. We were hurt more by injuries than any one person’s play.
Its game 1 of 80 + more, relax folks.
Brown will fix things. I love how he took full responsibility for the Cat’s awful performance. Chandler is just getting back into the swing of things, Ive said before Augustin is not ready to be a full time starting NBA PG, Ive said Brown was a beast at Xavier & he looks to be the same in the NBA also. And James, your hero Chokafor might have had 18 10 but they still lost.
"it's a bad day to have a bad day"
The bobcats played last night.....
not to win or even because they wanted to win, but because on the schedule there was a game
*yawn*
People do realize that 59 points is now the all time low for points in an opening game in the shot clock era?
Just checkin’
WE’RE RECORD HOLDERS!
Cat Scratch Reader's resident optimist.
by James The Aussie on Oct 29, 2009 11:28 PM EDT reply actions
I was at the game...
Against the Rockets when they set the mark the first time…in Charlotte…what was it…like 60…
You could have heard a pin drop during that game in the “Cable Box”
I won tickets to that game…
How does Sprite have a contest to win tickets to a game…and those seats are upper deck?
I still wonder about that…glad I won, and that was my first ever Bobcats game…but why give nosebleed seats as a prize
by andrewlail76 on Oct 31, 2009 2:03 PM EDT up reply actions
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