Comments on: Preview & Chat: The Charlotte Bobcats

By: Darius

Darius — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:41:18 +0000

Last night was just a bad game for Kobe to foul out. Besides Bynum, Kobe was the only player that had any sort of consistent offense going. When he fouled out, all we needed was one basket or even one trip to the foul line to seal the game and we could not get it. And the fact is that even though Bynum has come on lately, we are not accustomed to featuring him on offense. So while he may have been our best option down the stretch, we are not used to force feeding him (like we are Gasol) and I don’t think we were conscientious enough of him on offense or intent on getting him the ball. By the time we really went to him on the block for buckets, it was too late. We were already down by 5 (or 7?) and even though he got a 3pt. play, it was of non consequence.

We can make excuses about the game or come up with faulty reasoning about it, but the fact is we lost. It happens. I was mad last night and really frustrated when watching Boris Diaw due his Bernard King impression, but it happens. These guys get paid money to play this game too. Some can claim that this loss is indicative of something greater, but I don’t agree with that in the slightest. If you really believe that, were you on these boards saying the same thing on Deceber 26th? How about last Tuesday morning when Lebron had just left with a loss? The fact still remains we’ve lost 9 times. NINE(!) in 45 games. If anything can be taken away from a game like this it’s that we lose once (or twice) every 5-10 games and this was the loss. Now let’s go on the road and win some games. I have a feeling that we’ll be ready.

By: emh101

emh101 — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:32:21 +0000

The Boo Birds really come out after a loss.

I am very encouraged by the recent play of Bynum. He seems to be very active on both ends of the court. I do not know what switch was flipped for him to be showing this kind of energy, but we should get them to glue it to the on position.

And I wonder if Bynum’s improved play is having an effect on Gasol.

By: Kurt

Kurt — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:32:00 +0000

New post up.

By: wickedskillz

wickedskillz — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:11:03 +0000

Bynum was going for the steal. I think he expected gwallace to take another dribble before jumping for the lay-in

By: Ian

Ian — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:56:56 +0000

Hey Kurt,

The reason that I complained about the Lakers winning close games was that they are essentially toss ups. I think someone pointed out that the Lakers are 6-4 in games decided by 5 points or less. Isn’t this why people like Hollinger are constantly reminding us that point differential is a better predictor of future success than the actual record of a team? If you win a bunch of close games eventually you will regress back to the mean. Kobe appears to be a huge advantage in these cases but he has lost some games with his last second shots too. Even if he were to shoot an insanely good 50% on buzzer beating threes, that translates to a .500 record.

By: The Dude Abides

The Dude Abides — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:45:48 +0000

Ugh. I have no idea why Phil took out Drew with two minutes left in OT and a 5-pt lead. At the very least, after Kobe fouled out with 40 seconds left and a 3-pt lead, why not bring back Drew to guard the paint so Pau and his 75-inch wingspan can guard Diaw at the 3-pt line? Drew was dominant down low at both ends, especially in OT. That bad personnel decision cost us a win, and perhaps will cost us Drew for a game because of Wallace’s injury. I’m sorry, but putting Luke Walton in for a crucial defensive possession instead of Andrew Bynum is coaching malpractice. Or is this another of Phil’s “big picture” in-game decisions?

By: Mimsy

Mimsy — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:08:09 +0000

The foul on Wallace is one of those things where our reactions depend a lot on the consequences. If the guy hadn’t been injured no one would even be thinking about suspensions, or even calling it a flagrant. Bynum is a big guy with long strong arms. When he has momentum, and you have momentum in a different direction, colliding with him is going to hurt and is likely to know people over.

I hope Wallace gets better, bruised ribs and collapsed lung both sounds very painful. But suspension? Save that for players who intentionally injure others.

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:30:02 +0000

As a Bobcats fan, the homerism on this blog is ridiculous. The foul by Bynum was extremely excessive and the sign of a budding DIRTY PLAYER. I sure hope the NBA suspends Bynum to teach him a lesson that thuggery is NOT part of basketball and anyways why is Bynum so timid against someone his own size – say a Kendrink Perkins??

By: 3ThreeIII

3ThreeIII — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:31:08 +0000

So, with time winding down in the first OT, and up by 3 points against the Bobcats, why are we not fouling as they bring it up?

We shoot free throws better, and it burns up that precious time.

Another one of those simple things that you rarely see coaches do. Is there some kind of code, or am I missing something here?

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 11:24:27 +0000

How people use one game to immediately say, “OMG, this isn’t a championship team!” is astounding. It’s one game. We were outhustled, and we deserved to lose. If we had ended up beating them, it would have been because the Bobcats choked at the line. We’re bound to lose close games down the stretch during the season; there will inevitably be games like this in which we’re outworked.

On a more positive note, Bynum is showing major improvement. I think I’m agreeing with the correlation between posts here analyzing players and their play perking up. Fish hitting that clutch three to send us to OT was indicative enough. Posts on Sasha, Vlad, Ariza, and Walton are probably warranted