Bobcats Take Down Bucks 94-84

We were sitting beside some Bucks fans. Hilarity ensued. They stormed off in the 3rd quarter. Jennings and Luke had too many points. The PGs need to step their defensive game up. Graham and Diop provided some quality minutes. I didn’t see Diop play against OKC, but he seemed pretty motivated tonight. He still lacks hand eye coordination at times, but he seemed more into the game mentally.

To be honest, with the heart that Diop played with I was ticked that he didn’t get any playing time in the second half. D Brown played well and didn’t see almost any minutes in the second. What was the deal with Jack tonight? He seemed REALLY slow and uninterested. Pickin up 3 fouls in less than a minute including a technical. If his back is bothering him THAT much then he needs to sit out for a game or two and rest. It seemed like he did more to hurt the team than help. It feels like when we get in a tight spot we DON’T rely on our best player. When the Bucks made their run and we looked like we might crap the bed, the ball was never even close to Gerald. No one passed it to him. Unreal. I hate to admit it, but Stevie Graham played pretty well tonight too. Made a few heads up plays and looked decent. Would have rather seen more playing time for GHenderson though. Good game, fun one to go to.

Fun game. We stood for the whole fourth quarter (no one sitting behind us), got on the big screen, pushed the surrounding fans to the brink of anger (to the point they told us we should get out more). Great game to go to. Some thoughts:

• Gerald was the bomb.com per usual
• The campaign for Graham to get less time took a mighty blow today. But I refuse to let Bonnell win. Unless Graham does play this well consistently; then I’ll accept defeat.
• Diop and Nazr played well, or defensively at least.
• More Derrick Brown please!
• Jax! So many turnovers…

The Bucks announers were a laugh riot! The color man made the most inane commentary that it made me grateful for Steve and Del. Toward the end of the game when the Cats got called for their 2nd illegal defense the Bucks color man said, “See, this is where these kinds of things really hurt you. If this game were close it would really mean something!” At which point the regular announcer said, “well, this isn’t what anyone would call close.” The color guy, not content with the free bailout his partner just gave him replied with, “yeah but can you imagine losing a game because of something like that? I mean, that’s why these things are so important!” This guy gets paid? I mean – with real money?
Unreal.

As for the game itself there were so many surprises I found myself scouring the sidelines for Rod Serling.
1. Graham actually played some quality minutes and single-handedly stopped a run by the Bucks, scoring the first 7 Bobcats points in the 4th. (I believe it was the first 7, but it may have just been the first 5.)
2. Flip Murray actually showed up!
3. DJ played fairly well although his early 3-pointer got him a bit overconfident from long range and he couldn’t resist pumping them up in futility for the rest of the night. Still, his steady return to form continues.
4. Diop may not have saved the day, but he plugged the middle nicely when Nazr got in some early foul trouble. He even put away a couple of reverse layups!

This was all MORE than welcome because Jax was a hot mess tonight. He turned the ball over 4 times in the first quarter alone and then discovered that if you piss off a ref you WILL lose the fight. This is something he should have figured out a long time ago! He blessed out a ref for a foul call, earned himself a T and then just wouldn’t shut up. The next 2 times the ball came within 10 feet of him, the ref treated him with another toot on the whistle.

The Bucks climbed steadily back into things during a cold Bobcats 3rd quarter and then 2 things happened. As I said, Graham held them off and then Brown sent in Felton. Raymond didn’t take over the scoring or dominate in any manner that would show up on the stat sheet. What he DID do was have a very obvious calming effect at both ends of the court and the Cats settled down to coast in for the win. I’m grudgingly becoming a believer in Felton’s abilities and beginning to think he may just be a late bloomer. But his maturity in his last shift on the court really did have a positive impact on the rest of the team.

shoots 6-17 and has a +22 eff? Anyone explain?

blocks in that game were huge. That and the fact the Bucks shot HORRIBLY in the first half. It was ugly to an insane level. We should have been up 30. Also, Boris Diaw had a driving layup, but his drive to the basket must have been the slowest I’ve ever seen. I mean…Shaq has more speed than that. I swear though, the substitutions on our side of the ball…EVERY GAME leave me scratching my head. The fact that Diop scored in the paint. Was able to CATCH the ball. Even when he did lose it. He collected it and passed it off. Unlike Tyson Chandler who would have kicked it out of bounds or let it fly off the floor by itself and hit him in the face.

Downright insulting that this game wasn’t on local TV, but alas, as Bobcats fans we can only complain so much about our horrible TV deal…we’re just beating a dead horse. It sucks, yes it does.

Anyway, was at the game. Plenty of empty seats but a decent crowd nonetheless. I was happy to see Diop play well. The crowd gave him a good cheer when he hit his first free throw…course the second one shortly after was a typical air ball of his lol.

Wallace was at it again, and DJ played ok too. Would have liked to seen more points from Nazr, but he played good defense. More Derrick Brown would have been nice, and as much as I hate to say it, Graham had a competent game. Does that mean I like the guy? No way.

Acie Law got a good cheer when he was put in during the end for garbage minutes, but I couldn’t tell if it was more a mockery cheer or a support cheer.

And of course, it was the typical Cable Box atmosphere. It’s rather surreal going to Bobcats games because a game is filled with so many random periods of complete silence, with the announcer just yelling enthusiastically and the crowd not responding.

anyway, good win for us.

How did that happen?