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Bobcats Can't Keep Pace, Lose 99-94

Stephen Jackson was frustrated all night. His shots weren't falling, and it seemed as if he felt the referees weren't helping him out either. Jax gathered a technical foul late in the second quarter, but that failed to spark the team, and the Bobcats simply couldn't overcome the hole they'd dug, even with a frantic fourth quarter comeback, losing to the Indiana Pacers 99-94.

Troy Murphy had a huge game for the Pacers, double-double machine that he is, and several supporting players stepped up in limited minutes, including Roy Hibbert, Dahntay Jones, and A.J. Price, who each shot over 66% from the field.

Game thread comments, lowlights, and highlights after the jump.

Star-divide

GAME THREAD COMMENTS

Ourdaywillcome -- There’s no energy. They’re playing listless. If the Pacers actually come out of their coma for a minute or two they’ll be a problem unless we step it up.

Stevarino -- You know it's getting bad when Dell Curry is doing impressions of Charles Barkley.

BAD

-- Stephen Jackson scored 20 points on 8-22 shooting. For the first three and a half quarters, he couldn't do much right, but he made up a lot of ground in the fourth quarter. He was solid otherwise, with 9 rebounds and 7 assists, but all those misses early in the game represent a lot of lost possessions that were a major part of putting the Cats down.

-- D.J. Augustin exemplified an extreme of the efficiency aesthetic on offense tonight -- a bad extreme. At a certain point, doing little of note in a game means that you're not directly to blame for any negative play. But at a point similar to one, doing little of note is indicative of basketball nihilism, which is, in a sense, even worse than attempting and failing, because playing four on five is always a losing proposition. Augustin shot 0-1 in 19 minutes, with 1 assist. Really? Come on. That's deferring responsibility for the offense, not creating it.

-- For his part, Raymond Felton shot 3-9 from the field for 7 points and had dished only 3 assists until the furious fourth quarter flurry. Gotta find that balance, again, between trying to be a pure creator and trying to be a one-man offense, where he's facilitating the offense.

-- I'm grateful that Gerald Henderson is getting valuable playing time, Larry. Please don't forget that Derrick Brown was pretty damn impressive earlier this year.

-- The free throw shooting was poor, at 25-36, 69%.

GOOD

-- Stephen Graham scored a career-high 19 points on 8-10 shooting. The man is on a two-game tear! That said, Henderson and Brown still deserve the PT going to him.

-- Boris Diaw has been quietly doing solid work in recent weeks, combining quality with quantity and a greater willingness to do dirty work down low. Tonight, he scored 20 points on 7-10 shooting.

0 recs  |  Comment 25 comments |

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Still taking a jab at Stephen Graham on his career night?

Could Henderson and Brown have done better and pulled out a victory?
Henderson got 10 minutes and didn’t do much.

by Ft.Mill Bobcat on Mar 16, 2010 9:42 PM EDT reply actions  

I don't think that's what Ft.Mill is saying fella

I agree with you Aisander, Gerald Henderson is the BEST player ever!!!!!!

See how dumb that sounds?

by and1droid on Mar 16, 2010 10:31 PM EDT up reply actions  

Graham doesn't deserve the backhanded compliments

On this night he deserved every minute that he received. Let’s give genuine credit where it is due.

"I could never be a thug, they don't dress this well." - Malice

by Julius Coxswain on Mar 16, 2010 9:48 PM EDT up reply actions  

Let's not kid ourselves here

The Pacers have one of the worst defenses in the league, nobody else on the ‘Cats was getting much done, and Graham just had one of those nights where his shots were falling. Even after this performance, he still is what he is. I’ll give him credit for what he did in tonight’s game but it doesn’t change my overall view of him.

by Stevarino on Mar 16, 2010 9:53 PM EDT up reply actions  

I don't think it should

But lets give the man some credit. If you bash him on his bad nights you should show him some love when he holds it down. He exceeded all expectations tonight and he deserves to be commended.

"I could never be a thug, they don't dress this well." - Malice

by Julius Coxswain on Mar 16, 2010 9:58 PM EDT up reply actions  

FTFY.

If you bash him on his bad nights you should show him some love when he holds it down pulls a barely average game out of his ass.

Advance apologies if the contents of this sports-based post offended you. I'm just aiming to educate the masses. My law professor says they're asses.

Panthers '010: Save the Richardson family coffers! We'll take the winning if we stumble into it.

by MichaelProcton on Mar 17, 2010 6:16 AM EDT up reply actions  

i agree

i mean, until i see Hendo drop 19, lets just live with Graham.

--(insert quote, lyric, or joke here)

by StudMuffin15 on Mar 16, 2010 10:24 PM EDT up reply actions  

When's the last time he got that kind of minutes running with the starters?

Advance apologies if the contents of this sports-based post offended you. I'm just aiming to educate the masses. My law professor says they're asses.

Panthers '010: Save the Richardson family coffers! We'll take the winning if we stumble into it.

by MichaelProcton on Mar 17, 2010 6:17 AM EDT up reply actions  

It's sad that a player is in his fifth season and has a career night with 19 points.

This is Graham’s fifth season in the league, he has been released from teams twice, waived by a team once, and has played on two 10-day contracts. Everyone in the league knows what Stephen Graham is. Why is he getting minutes ahead of a lottery pick that has the potential to be a solid NBA player? More than likely, Graham will be gone after this season and we’ll still have Brown and Henderson, but with very limited development, due to the fact that they’ve been reduced to playing only in garbage time or when a stopgap is needed. It makes no sense to stunt the growth of rookies in order to achieve immediate success when its not even clear that Graham is a better option than Henderson.

But, congratulations to Graham for his career night of 19 points against a terrible Pacers defense. If Henderson could start and play 32 minutes he could luck up and get 19, maybe even 20! Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while.

Ugh, I’m just not in a good mood tonight. I’m not really directing this at anybody in particular or trying to start agruments with anyone, I think it’s just frustration coming out. One thing I’m afraid of is that LB’s man-crush on Graham will intensify and he’ll feel like he has to play him more just because he’s had a couple of nice games. Especially with Hughes joining the team soon, I can see Henderson and Brown being stuck to bench for the rest of the year and basically having to start from scratch next year.

by Stevarino on Mar 16, 2010 10:56 PM EDT up reply actions   1 recs

Ditto on all counts.

Blogging at Ridiculous Upside, where my terrible writing meets people's eyes.

by Aisander D on Mar 17, 2010 2:10 AM EDT up reply actions  

There are players that have been around for longer than that that haven't come close to a 19 point game.

And everybody is talking about how terrible the Pacers defense is and all of that, but they beat us.

by Charlotte Bobcat on Mar 17, 2010 8:47 AM EDT up reply actions  

Seriously!

He almost kept us in a game against a shitty lotto team! Go Stevie!

Advance apologies if the contents of this sports-based post offended you. I'm just aiming to educate the masses. My law professor says they're asses.

Panthers '010: Save the Richardson family coffers! We'll take the winning if we stumble into it.

by MichaelProcton on Mar 17, 2010 6:15 AM EDT up reply actions  

Lol, I told you.

The hate on ROF for Stephen Graham is highly unwarranted. He’s a decent option to have out there as your 9th or 10th player off the bench.

by Charlotte Bobcat on Mar 17, 2010 8:45 AM EDT up reply actions  

We cut it to 3 and had the ball with nearly 20 seconds left

but Boris had an extra pass that he wanted to make. Unfortunately it was to the Pacers.

by Ft.Mill Bobcat on Mar 16, 2010 9:44 PM EDT reply actions  

I think

most of the Stephen Graham hate is a unwarranted. I mean, I don’t like the guy. I never have and I doubt I ever will, but I recognize when he contributes to our team (or vice versa, naturally) and last night he provided chipped in.

Like most of you guys, I seriously doubt he will be with us next year, and honestly, I am rather surprised he’s managed to stay on the team this late in the season.

by Roger, Roger on Mar 17, 2010 9:46 AM EDT reply actions  

Maybe fair but not bad

I didn’t see the one man offense mentality from Ray last night. He made some nice plays during the run. I thought they all could have played with more urgency before the final 5 mins. 5 boards, 6 assists, 1 steal, 2 turns, and 7 points. He took 9 shots, I don’t know where the one man offense came in. Also, shots have to be made to get assists.

by etothet on Mar 17, 2010 10:17 AM EDT reply actions  

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