Category: Charlotte Bobcats

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Charlotte Bobcats

Around the Rim: Bobcats bounce Boston


1. J-Rich cashes in
The Boston Celtics are making a run at history and the Charlotte Bobcats with a 1-11 road record were supposed to be another notch on the belt of the Leprechauns. Well, what was supposed to be an easy win for Boston turned into a 12-point loss, 95-83, at the hands of one of the conference’s worst teams. Guess that is why they actually play the game. Jason Richardson blew up for 34 points and nine rebounds, sticking the dagger in the Cs hearts and twisting it several times during Boston’s attempts to make a comeback. “The Boston Three Party” was a man short on Wednesday as Ray Allen rode the pine with a pinched nerve in his neck, leaving Kevin Garnett (24 pts) and Paul Pierce (13 pts) with all the heavy lifting. So far, Charlotte practically has the Celtics number in their back pocket, winning in Boston and coming one last-second shot away from winning at home. Game three comes in late February in Beantown.

2. Portland’s prosperity

Brandon Roy fell to the court in the second quarter with an apparent knee injury, followed by Steve Blake’s calf clutching on the hardwood in the second half. But the good times kept on rolling as both players’ injuries turned out to be minor and the Trail Blazers picked up their 17th win in 18 games, downing Golden State 109-91. However, the biggest reason to celebrate in Portland wasn’t the victory or the victories or even the successful injury scare. Nope, the real reason for the Blazers smiles is because for the first time since 2001, Portland is atop their division. The Blaze currently owns a ½ game lead over Denver in the Northwest Division, but holding the position won’t be easy with a seven-game, East coast road trip on tap.

3. Suns win a track meet against Pacers
Indiana and Phoenix played five extra minutes and scored a whopping 251 combined points. Unfortunately for the Pacers, Phoenix ended with a majority of the points scored – 129 to be exact. Without Grant Hill who will miss some time (2-3 weeks) after undergoing an appendectomy, the Suns received a lift from Raja Bell (27 pts, 9 reb) and Leandro Barbosa. The Brazilian Blur finished with 27 points off the bench to compliment the double-doubles from starters Shawn Marion (23 pts, 12 reb) and Amare Stoudemire (25 pts, 11 reb). Led by Danny Granger and Shawne Williams who each scored 22 points, six players reached double-digits offensively for Indiana, but it just wasn’t enough against the short-handed Suns. In addition to Hill’s absence, Steve Nash departed from the game early due to a stomach flu, playing just 24 minutes.

Wednesday’s Player of the Day: Yao Ming @ New York 42 min, 36 pts (FG: 14-21, FT: 8-9), 11 reb, 3 ast, 2 blk

Thursday’s Game to Watch: Detroit (26-9) @ San Antonio (23-10)
It wasn’t that long ago when these two teams were hooking up to see who would be the NBA champions. Now, both clubs are just playing to get off the schnide. The Pistons own the East’s second best record, but are losers of their previous two games against Boston and Dallas. In order to avoid their first three-game slide of the season, the Bad Boys must win in San Antonio against a Spurs team bitter about another road loss. The Spurs are a league-best 17-2 at home and know they have to take care of business in San Antonio considering their sorry 6-8 road record.

Buzzer Beater: Good news in Clipper land. Looks like Shaun Livingston could be returning to the other L.A. team’s lineup at some point this year.

The medical team feels he’s going to make a full recovery,” team president Andy Roeser said at halftime of Wednesday night’s game against the Orlando Magic. “There’s a pretty good chance he’ll be on the court before the end of the season.

“The most significant thing is whether he makes a full recovery. It’s significant that we think he can make a full recovery.

Pretty amazing stuff considering it looked like Livingston was going to be made into glue after turning stomachs in late February of 2007.

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Charlotte Bobcats

Around the Rim: Don’t call it a comeback


1. Master of the obvious
Michael Jordan took the court yesterday, practicing with his Charlotte Bobcats in an attempt to motivate them toward a better record; hopefully, a much better record. The Cats have lost 10 of their last 12 games, earning them an 8-14 overall record. While his game might be a bit rusty from the recent years spent as a front office fat-cat, M.J.’s ability to evaluate talent and overall understanding of the game has never been more on point.

I also told them yesterday that on this team we have no All-Stars — none,” Jordan said.

What’s next? Are you going to tell them that water is wet?

2. Lakers bully the Bulls

How bad are the Bulls? Turns out they’re so bad Kobe Bryant can shoot seven-of-19 from the field and the Lakers still roll to easy 12-point victory in Chicago. As Charles Barkley would say, Michael Jordan must be rolling over in his grave. Bryant finished with just 18 points on his poor shooting performance, but thanks to Sasha Vujacic’s team-high 19 points, Lamar Odom’s 17-point, 16-rebound explosion and Andrew Bynum’s double-double (12 pts, 10 reb), the Lakers won 103-91. Luol Deng showed up for Chicago, but that was about it. Ben Gordon had eight points, Ben Wallace grabbed five rebounds and the team committed a total of 18 turnovers as they fell to 8-14 overall, tying them with Charlotte for the conference’s second worst record.

3. Captain KAAAAAAAMAAAAAAAAANNNN!!!!
Not surprisingly, the Clippers lost again last night, falling to the Raptors 80-77. The Clippers fell into some success for a couple of years there, but after getting ravaged by injuries they are back where they feel most comfortable, the NBA’s cellar. But you can’t blame Chris Kaman for the Clips recent struggles. Kaman grabbed his 20th double-double in 24 games this season on Tuesday, finishing with 12 points and 16 rebounds against Toronto. The seven-footer only managed to amass 16 double-dips last season. With fat averages of 18.3 points, 14.0 rebounds and 2.71 blocks per game, Kaman is well on his way to All-Star weekend even if the Clippers are headed nowhere fast.

Tuesday’s Player of the Day: John Salmons @ New Jersey 43 min, 31 pts (FG: 13-18, 3FG: 2-3, FT: 3-5), 4 reb, 7 ast, 3 stl

Wednesday’s Game to Watch: Phoenix (18-7) @ Dallas (17-9)
The old drinking buddies are together again! Meeting for the first time this season, Steve Nash returns to Big D for a clash against his former squad in Phoenix’s only trip to Dallas this year. The Suns are coming off a big win in San Antonio on Monday and will now try to defeat both Texas rivals on the same road trip for the first time since 1998. But it won’t be easy as Dallas is currently cruising, winning their last three (vs. NO, @ HOU, vs. ORL) and five of their previous six games. Josh Howard, not Dirk Nowitzki, has been making things roll for the Mavericks, averaging a team-high 21.8 points per game while pulling down a career-high 7.1 rebounds (2nd on the team).

Buzzer Beater: Don’t ask us why, but we try to keep up with Gilbert Arena’s blog entries. What stood out to us this week was Gilbo’s rather interesting Christmas gift selection.

We used to have a team gift exchange and they started getting mad at the gifts I was giving out. I gave Larry Hughes a bobblehead of me one year. I’ve also given out highlight tapes of myself. I give big, signed pictures of myself so they can look at me over the summer. You know, big ones that they can put on the wall or put it in the family room. That’s the kind of funny gifts I do. I don’t want to go out there and spend no money.

Of course, just a handful of paragraphs prior, the penny pinching Arenas mentioned how he went from making $4.2 million in Golden State to $65 million in Washington.

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Charlotte Bobcats

Joakim Noah will officially be the ugliest guy in a NBA uniform this year


The NBA suffered a major blow when top overall selection Greg Oden went down for the year. Well, the injury bug struck again, but this time it went straight for one of the most pedestrian No. 3 picks in history. Yup, if you’re a fan goofy hair, bad moustaches and ridiculous Larry Bird comparisons then you might want to sit down for this.

Adam Morrison is probably going to be out for the year after an MRI showed that he has a torn ligament in his left knee suffered during a preseason game against the Lakers on Saturday.

Our medical staff has had a chance to review the MRI, and they’re saying right now they believe there is some sort of tear,” coach Sam Vincent said Sunday, about an hour before the Bobcats took on Phoenix in the second day of the annual Staples Center shootout.

“Until they get in there and do whatever they do, who knows? But they are saying there’s a good chance he will be out for the year. So I’m not counting on him playing,” Vincent added.

“I talked to him before the coaches and players meeting this morning when he had just gotten back from taking the MRI, and he pretty much knew the results,” Vincent said. “He’s obviously down.

And we all know about how emotional Adam gets about things. Don’t you remember his self-deprecating ad that ended with “More people should cry. And when I get to the NBA, more people will cry”?

Sorry to disappoint you big guy, but the only person crying after you hit the pros is Michael Jordan.

AKA: Charlotte’s Manager of Basketball Operations

AKA: The guy who wasted the Wizards first pick on Kwame Brown

AKA: The numbskull that made Morrison his pet project in Charlotte.

Links:

[AZCentral.com]: Bobcats’ Morrison likely done for season

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Charlotte Bobcats

Tip: Do not bust any caps near the White House


Former Charlotte Bobcat (and Maryland Terrapin) Lonny Baxter was arrested with another man around 2:30 in the morning. A witness flagged down a secret service agent to report shots fired and seeing a white SUV in the area. The officer then pulled over Lonny Baxter and saw spent shells in the vehicle. Baxter and his passenger were arrested and charged with carrying a pistol without a license and having an unregistered firearm and unregistered ammunition.

The press is playing this up like it’s some kind of threat against the White House. The shots were fired five blocks away from the White House. If Baxter had that good of an aim, he wouldn’t have been a career 4 ppg NBA player.

Links:
[Reuters]: Ex-NBA player Baxter arrested near White House