Bobcats Fall to Hawks 103-89

so LB probably wont give him any more playing time than what he’s getting right now. DJ’s a sixth man at best.

The Hawks were handling us pretty well even prior to Raymond’s injury. We made 2 serious runs at the Hawks – first to close the first half, and the second at the midpoint of the fourth quarter. If Raymond could have made a real difference anywhere it would have been during that second run. After some terribly awkward finishes at the beginning of the season, Raymond Felton has developed into someone who plays his most dangerous minutes at the close of a game. His distribution remains crisp, but he also displays a fearlessness in the lanes and isn’t afraid to charge the basket against the biggest and baddest in the league. Early in the season this was his dead zone. He’d charge in and simply get swallowed up. But since about mid-November, Raymond has started dropping in a lot of points that way. It gives defenders fits because they never know if he’s going to dish or drive with the ball. Once we got the lead down to single digits, a healthy Felton would have kicked into SuperRay mode and it might have been enough to sustain the momentum instead of having it peter out with 4 minutes to go.

We’ll never know if that’s really what would have happened (obviously) but that last stretch in the closing minutes was when I really noticed his absence. Jax and Crash may be the main threats and momentum players for the team, but IMO it’s Felton that truly orchestrates our runs when we’re behind and our newfound ability to close teams out in the 4th quarter.

I hope DJ can get his game together. Felton is far better than DJ is EVERY category this year.

Felton’s offensive value has risen because he’s doing a lot less, not shooting nearly as much as he did in previous years. He’s succeeding at greater rates because he’s only taking the best shots available to him. Augustin is a better scorer, but not nearly the defensive player Felton is, and it’s an open question if he can facilitate the offense the way Felton has this year. So, as noted in the post, to maximize what they do on offense, the burdens and responsibilities should shift a bit, with the ball going even more through Jackson and, especially, Diaw, and, as also noted in the post, I doubt he can match Felton’s overall production he’s given us this year.

Derrick Brown’s getting a lot more mins now so there really isn’t much excuse left for Henderson not getting “enough” playing time.

This isn’t directed specifically at you drapht, but you commented on a couple of hot-button issues I wanted to address.

Your first 2 paragraphs though, need to be looked at. If you admittedly didn’t know Flip had distributed the ball that well, isn’t it just as likely that DJ was productive in ways you didn’t notice either? From my view, DJ was a scoring cypher, but when Felton first left the game I thought Augustin did an excellent job at both ends of the court to close out the half. He was a defensive presence, and handled the offensive coordination duties just fine. It was in the second half that his overall game declined. He looked fairly lost and, apart from one VERY nice driving layup in the 4th, looked almost as rusty as Henderson.

You’re dead right about the rookies. Brown is getting some extra time right now because LB knows he has to try to nurse Wallace along for a few games to give his ankle something resembling rest. Although his game isn’t NBA starter quality just yet, Brown has taken the minutes he’s been given and played well enough that Larry seems to be using him more regularly and with more confidence each game. This is not only resulting in longer shifts right now, but it’s going to pay dividends later in the year. As Derrick’s skills develop he’s going to transition from “okay, it’s safe to use him here and there” to “we need Derrick’s presence on the court.” In other words, I think he’s going to grow into someone we can’t afford to sit.

OTOH I’m willing to chalk up some of Henderson’s play to bench rust, but if WE have watched enough games to understand the basics of the team offensive and defensive set plays, Gerald has watched even more – and from a better seat. GH doesn’t just look rusty, he looks utterly lost. He acts more confused than a blind man trying to read a stucco wall. I don’t see any chance at all that the dude is going to be of any use to us whatsoever this season. If he’s wise, he’ll play some summer ball and come back next season ready to prove himself. He HAS talent. But right now he’s not looking underused, he’s looking outclassed.

The better team won tonight. We were able to make it competitive. Any time you climb back from 20+ on the home court of a decent team it says a lot about just how good a team you have. The Bobcats were good enough to fight back after digging themselves a very deep hole. We almost got close enough to steal a win. But make no mistake. It would have been just that – a theft.

Remember David’s “good Felton/bad Felton” comments from the early part of the season? Well, what we got tonight, after weeks of “good Cats” was a return of the “bad Cats.” Too many turnovers, points left on the charity stripe, and Diaw doing his Invisible Man impersonation all added up to what we looked like in October. The only missing “bad Cats” factor was Chandler’s quick pair of fouls in the first quarter and that was only because he’s injured.

Yes, I watched the game. There’s a much larger issue you’re bringing up that I’d rather not go into detail about now, but, basically, whenever you watch a game, you won’t see everything, which is why we keep stats in the first place.

As for Henderson’s playing time, this is a chicken-egg discussion. Do you think he’d look less lost if, you know, he had been getting more playing time all along, or do you just think he is who he is? I’d guess he’d be a better player, with his legs more under him, if he’d been playing more from the start.

I say we need starting PF. Diaw has a great skill set, but he is way too inconsistent. It’s annoying.

but not by much.

An injury to any member of our Gang of Three that takes one of them out for more than a couple of games is a major disaster. If Chandler fails to return for the rest of the season it’s going to hurt and there will be several games in the L column that would be W’s had Chandler been there. But if Jackson or Wallace are out for an extended period we’ll lost frequently enough that we might just get our draft pick after all.

Felton falls somewhere in the middle. Without Ray during the second half of the season, we’re going to be unable to compete against any of the stronger teams in the league. Some here may think I’M overstating things a bit, but I see at least a 10 game difference in our number of wins with Ray on the court than with him in civies on the sideline.