Bobcats Drop One to Bucks 93-88

I’m not gonna hate, cuz if it wasn’t for Jax MONSTER scoring performance we wouldn’t have been as close near the end of this game as we were. But after just giving the Bucks the ball, THEN giving up the clear path foul…I mean, that was game!

On a better note though, Anybody mad cause we traded Flip for TT!?!?! I’ve always liked this kid, and he is showing us what he is capable of. Do I think hes production will go down a little with the return of (Gulp) Tyson Chandler, eh, maybe, but if Chandler continues to suck and TT continues this, hopefully we’ll see just as much of TT as we do now! He brings some extra frount court attitude and power we so desperately needed! Theres really no other way to put, hes a BadAss!

Speaking of which, I’ve got a few line up ideas I’d like to see at some point! I think we all agree that it would be nice if Wallace could sit down an extra minute or 2 a night. So, I had this idea (Of course, it is dependent on the lineup the other team has on the court as well):

pg: Ray/D.J.
sg: Jax/Dare we say Henderson???
sf: Diaw
pf: Thomas
C: Tyson/Nazr/Rat.

My point being, I think Diaw is a soft 4 who could play a little 3. I don’t ever really want to see Diaw at Center…for any reason…ever! lol. I would even be willing to try something like:

pg: D.J.
sg: Ray
sf: Jax
pf: Diaw
C: Thomas

This way Wallace could play myabe 47 minutes agame instead of 48! lol.

Props to Nazr for trying to play these past two games. It’s obvious he’s still hurting and not 100%, but it’s good to see his effort and dedication.

The same can’t be said for a particular individual on the team. Not that I’m pointing figures at anyone…

of the rest of the team to help out Stephen Jackson and Tyrus Thomas. Raymond looked rough last night. We abandoned driving to the basket(where they foul us every freakin time) at the end of the game, and that was frustrating. The biggest thing is that once again we just couldn’t hit the big shot. With like 1:12 left Boris Diaw has a wide open 3 to tie the game. He bricks it.

and then cauterize the wound while dousing it in alcohol.

Our drive and slash guys are neutralized by big centers unless they are really slow. GW, Ray, & crew don’t do well against Howard, Bogut, and Lopez. We do better when the other team doesn’t have a true center or has an old Shaq.

Thank you for noting Augustin’s trips to the FT line. If he’s found some aggressiveness that can get him to the paint and draw fouls, that will help draw defenders off of him so he can get better looks from the field and avoid more of these kinds of oh-fer nights.

Mohammed might be “young,” age-wise, but he’s also been in the league forever. Even at his athletic peak, he wasn’t exactly a physical specimen, never able to maintain much more than 20-25 MPG without suffering a decline in performance. To have expected him to suddenly change that at 32 seems a bit ridiculous, yoga and pilates fanatic or not.

Stephen Graham is exactly what happens when a team like the Bobcats relies on FA signings to fill in the gaps rather than draft picks. You have to scrape the bottom of the barrel for summer-league tryout types, and they end up getting 10+ MPG. Sure would be nice to have a guy like Henderson—or even Jared Dudley—in there instead. Even if their performance was mildly inferior (though I don’t much see how it could be), you’d at least know they were a young player who was getting better. Graham is at his NBA performance peak. He is who he is. But because he’s a vet, Brown just plain believes he’s trustworthy and can hack it in our rotation. It makes me sick.

As to my own thoughts on this game:

• My concerns about our lack of bulk to defend Shaq on Friday came through last night against Bogut. Much as everyone bitched about Okafor’s inability to defend him, Diaw and Thomas aren’t going to be able to do that job either. This also showed in Mbah a Moute’s performance (6-7 for 12 points.)
• John Salmons is going to help this team a lot. To have come off the bench for 19-7 in his second game is pretty damned impressive (even on 14 shots.) It’ll also help if they can have a guard with a true playmaking mindset.
• I’m a little terrified if this is going to be our regular minute distribution in games that “matter,” because there are going to be a lot of them over the rest of the season. Three guys with 42+ minutes, two with 31, and only one more over 12. Duke basketball has been run into the ground by the time the tournament rolls around the last few seasons because they play their bench so little. I’m afraid that this kind of workload with our top players will have them run down and ineffective, or worse, injured come the end of April. Might be worth noting, though, that Milwaukee’s minute distribution was pretty similar, and they’ll be one of the few teams with a chance to knock us out of the top eight.
• Interesting to see a game where we take a reasonable number of threes (12) and convert them at a solid rate (50%.) I’d be far more comfortable with this team and its future prospects if Wallace and Felton were combining for five three’s or less on a regular basis.
• Ratliff is, at this point in his career, a black hole of suck. He’s certainly capable of being more useful on a game-to-game basis than an empty roster spot, and is probably worth the $500K or so we’ll pay him over the rest of the year. However, an NBA player whose total contributions in 12 minutes of game time is two points, a turnover, and three fouls is not somebody you’d prefer to see the court at all, “defensive prowess” or not.
• Sad to see Jerry Stackhouse look so old. I mean, I guess he is, but my fondest memories are of he and Grant Hill forming a nasty duo in their one year together as Pistons.
• Finally, I think we’ve got to get Gerald more shots. He’s one of our most efficient scorers in terms of TS% (second on the team behind Mohammed), so for him to only get 10 shots (well behind Jackson and merely tied with the far more inefficient Felton and the still-unaware-of-the-playbook Thomas.)