Bobcats lose to Pacers 104-101

1) How do we recover from 12 – 3 pointers being made? We MUST defend against the 3pt shot. The NBA thrives on it…don’t let every team take them, just because we don’t.

2) I want last year’s Nazr. We get the 10 points from where he missed shots UNDER the basket and we’re discussing a win. Instead we lose by 3.

3) Did Vertigo T win the game for the Pacers? He definitely was prancing around like he did. Just thought I would check. Just refreshes my HATE for UNC.

4) No complaints from the 1 position…from the 5…When do we get to see Kwame? He may not be the answer, but DANG!

5) We look WAY better than we did after game 2 of last season. We should have won tonight, but the LB “slow team” curse struck again. Maybe next game.

6) Our bench looked great. Even Diop came in and did what he was supposed to.

That’s all I got for tonight. No blogging from me again. I start watching the game, and I get so into it…I’d be useless in the blog.

I think he’s awful, I don’t know why he continues to get reasonable minutes.

Thomas is a better off the ball center who needs to get the ball in the low block to be effective. The slash we saw on the last play of the game is not really his style in my opinion.

Our super-duper defense let us down in a big way. It’s weird because we beat them to death on the offensive boards and outgunned them on defensive rebounds as well. Our turnovers, while far from perfect, were a bit of an improvement. It wasn’t on the statline we got beaten, it was because we left the lanes unprotected far too often and didn’t come out to cover the perimeter either. Each time we closed in they kicked it out. Any time we spread the floor, they shot into the lanes. We’re better than that but barely showed it. We’ve only played 2 games, but coughed up over 100 points each time. It’s a cause for concern.

To address points made by others…

It’s going to be interesting to see how much burn our bench gets tomorrow night. Wisconsin is an unpleasant flight for a back-to-back and the starters are going to be showing the fatigue come the second half if we don’t rest them well early.

BJohnston – If you watch the game tomorrow night, don’t focus on Diop’s offensive game. He simply doesn’t have one. I made that mistake at first too. He’s a rarity – the defensive minded center. Watch him at the other end. He alters shots, clogs the lane, boxes out on the boards, and generally makes life hell for the opposing big men in the paint.
He’s not my favorite – amongst active players his one of my least favoriteon the team – but when the Cats are scoring well (as they were most of the game tonight) he’s a better option than Nazr. If we could put Diop and Nazr together skill-wise they would make one pretty decent big.

My early assessment of the Cats thus far is that Thomas and D Brown are bolstering our bench and providing an exciting offensive spark. Henderson still isn’t up to speed, and for that matter neither is Livingston. But they’re both coming off injuries and Henderson in particular seems to improve each game. (I’m counting summer ball and the preseason there.)

Our offense has been a nice surprise. (59 points in LAST season’s opener, if anyone could have possibly forgotten)
What has me worried right now is our defense. The loss of Raymond Felton is impacting us far more on defense than it is on offense. Deej is running the floor adequately enough, but he can’t seem to keep anyone in front of him either in transition, or on sets. He can’t handle a screen or a high pick to save his life. Hopefully that will get better with more time in the starter’s slot. It’s fun to watch him light up the 3-pointers, but we need him to improve on the defensive end ASAP.

This is the NBA and there aren’t more than a couple of teams that you can let stay close to you at home without getting burned in the final minutes. The Cats have never had a strong closing lineup or a go-to guy and any team within 6 of us in the last 4 minutes of the game is likely to get the W more often than not. I truly hate to say this because it’s so early in the season, but we badly need a road win against the Bucks or the fears of becoming this year’s Nets are going to start creeping into the minds of both the fans AND the players. Larry Brown looked 100 year’s old in the after game press conference. Friendship be damned. Michael Jordan is a competitor first and a BFF second. If we aren’t at least at .500 by game 10 I fully expect him to be carrying a pink slip in his pocket with Brown’s name on it.

Bad shots. Turnovers. Just overall a rough game for him. Wanted to see more of UPS late in the game. I feel like he adds an energy that a lot of people pretty much foul because they can’t defend.

All negativity aside. I would like to address something that was amazing last night. I know it was opening night and people are pumped, but there were A LOT of things different about the cable box last night.

The vibe was AWESOME. Chants almost every play. The crowd was WAY into it. Had some guys with a “Bobcats Block Party” that put up "B"s everytime the Cats got a block. They actually had the “Noise meter” during the regular season! I had only seen it brought out for big games. Great to see it against the Pacers of all teams. It really seemed like this city is finally starting to back the Bobcats. The production of the game was more professional than ever. We have better sponsers now as well. When they showed the ads for some of the older sponsers that we’ve had. They looked cheap in comparison to the new ones. The staff was more friendly than normal. Even the shirts they handed out were better quality than I expected(and for an XL it really fit better than I thought it would). I really felt like we were part of something last night. I know it was the home season opener, but if this trend continues it’s going to be a great thing for this city and this team.

80 games to go. I was disheartened to no end, but I have a lot of confidence in this team.

GO BOBCATS!

I was at the game last night and just got around to sifting through the gameday threads. Some high comedy for sure. But I can explain the wave and have to admit, it was hilarious if you saw how it came about.

My seats are in 102 and there was a guy sitting in my section last night that was dressed up like a cop. Think CHiPs with shorts about the same size as the LadyCats. Yeah, it was tough to take but he was prancing around seeking attention and was getting laughed and mocked by everyone around.

Well as the game went on and he became increasingly more …. how shall I say … inebriated, he began proclaiming we were going to get the wave going at the end of the 3rd quarter. Well, it took lots of efforts where it only made it a few sections but he finally pulled it off. I didn’t partake in the wave because, as you guys mentioned, it is extremely gay. But I give this guy a lot of credit. He worked hard to pull it off.

Sorry for the long winded story because this is probably a “had to be there” moment. But it was funny as hell in person.

He can’t guard anyone. Him getting abused on every P&R broke down the entire defense and led to a lot of open shots. Add in the fact he’s shooting 29% through two games and it’s pretty easy to see why this team is 0-2. Obviously I don’t expect him to shoot that poorly, but he’s better off as a bench player at this point.