he actually has been doing this to everyone this year, only chicago’s brilliant coach hasnt been playing him like a starter, so the per game stats arent gaudy.

Okay, this is the first time this season where we let one slip away. We could have had it in our pockets and had a nice start for the season as we prepare to host a tough team in our next home game. In previous years, this has been my biggest frustration as a Cats fan – 7/11 Syndrome, we never close. Let’s hope this is going to be an exception this season and that it doesn’t become the rule.

Tyson Chandler is starting to really come together with his teammates and make some good things happen. But he still has one glaring problem. Back when Shaq was in his prime the best thing other teams could do to try and slow his game down was the famous Hack-a-Shaq plan: Send the man to the free throw line where his skills were nonexistent. Well, unless things change soon, I think teams can just select a Chandler Handler who will drive on him early and often to get him into foul trouble. Tonight, once again, Chandler got into early foul trouble and had to ride the pine, ultimately winding up with 5 fouls. He can’t produce from the bench, it’s as simple as that and his backups are a lot easier for opponents to handle.

Boy, we sure played a pretty game for 2 1/2 quarters. After that it all went into the crapper.

It all comes down to conditioning. Back-to-backs are a fact of life in the NBA and this season the Bobcats play half their games on either the front end or back of them.

Tonight, as the game got into the meat of the 2nd half, the Bobcats made two mistakes that ultimately cost them the game. As their legs ran out of energy, they first abandoned their inside game. Any efforts at penetration were quickly given up and dumped to the perimeter. Felton continued to be forced into desperation shots and we wound up rimming our shots due to increasing fatigue.

There are two ways to deal with the back-to-back issue that is clearly visible on our schedule. Option 1; Coach Brown runs his starters to death in practice until they’re in the best shape of their lives. Option 2; Coach Brown uses his bench a whole lot more than he has been. Tonight, with the Bulls on a steamrolling run that our players were simply too tired to deal with, Coach Brown still wouldn’t utilize his rookies. A full third of the team wound up with less than 10 minutes court time BETWEEN THEM. This is getting to the point of absurdity.

Okay, I get it. Our bench isn’t the best in the league. But we have rookies that will improve with court time. We aren’t in the midst of a playoff drive. That happens several months from now. But we have more than 20 of these back-to-backs to handle this season and if we work our bench now, the rookies will be peaking when we DO make our run and are still dealing with back-to-back games. We have ten of them in the crucial Feb-Apr season windup. Six of our last 8 games are home/away back-to-backs. If Coach Brown starts planning for this nightmare now, we’ll be better able to handle it then.

If you aren’t going to use the fricking rookies then we might as well trade away our draft picks completely and bail on the entire rookie process. Either that, or find a coach that WILL develop our players. I was, and still am, a big advocate of Larry Brown and his overall approach to coaching. But this is something that has to be addressed immediately. On this night, when we let a game go when we had every opportunity to take it to the bank, Coach Brown was as much to blame for costing us the win as the men on the court.

Strong teams find ways to win on the road. Strong teams don’t blow it when they have the chance to steal a game in someone else’s house. Strong teams have coaches that adapt when the other team makes a run. Coach Brown has one strike in that his bench options are limited. But by refusing to utilize what he DOES have, he gets strike two and three by refusing to even take a swing.

This needs to be fixed and fixed now while we have the time. Tuesday we play one of the toughest teams in the conference. If the game is over fairly early, then let our rookies onto the court to take their lumps and start learning this league. It’s better to get schooled by the best with on the job training than it is to try and learn the NBA game by running around with teammates in a practice shirt.