Shhh, Don't Tell Charlotte Its in the Playoff Race

[stevo]

Shhh, Don't Tell Charlotte Its in the Playoff Race
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Posted By Chris Mottram 11:00 AM


Living in Charlotte, it’s recently come to my attention that the Bobcats have an outside chance of sneaking into the eighth playoff spot in the East. Having not followed the team closely since moving here in ’07, it was my understanding that they generally were not good at basketball. But in the NBA, which is kind enough to allow sub-.500 teams into its postseason, anything is possible.
So, going into last night, the Bobcats were 1.5 games back of the Bulls for that coveted eight-spot. Charlotte was playing in Washington, where the Wizards are still cruelly being forced to play games. As you’d expect, the team with something left to play for had a 20-point lead and was cruising to an essential victory.

And then it all came crumbling down. The Bobcats lost, fell to 2.5 games back of Chicago and then looked for something to blame. The media? Sure, why not:

“You (media) guys keep reminding us about the playoffs, and that could have messed with our heads,” forward Gerald Wallace (21 points) said. “We've never been through this before.”
Well, a couple of you have actually been through this. You know, the guys who came over from Phoenix. One of whom is Boris Diaw, who demonstrated the proper quote to rattle off after this type of loss: “But it's definitely our fault -- we lost this game.”

SportingNews.com - The Sporting Blog

[stevo]

“But it's definitely our fault -- we lost this game.”

I miss Diaw

[Immanuel Kant]

The last 1:44 of the Char-Wash game was hilarious:

Okafor Free Throw 2 of 2 (15 PTS) 1:44
[CHA 87-91]
1:24 McGuire Jump Shot: Missed
1:23 Blatche Rebound (Off:4 Def:3)
1:20 Blatche Turnover:Lost Ball (3 TO) Steal:Augustin (1 ST)
1:18 Young Foul:Shooting (3 PF)
Felton Free Throw 1 of 2 missed 1:18
Team Rebound 1:18
Felton Free Throw 2 of 2 missed 1:18
1:16 Team Rebound
1:16 Team Timeout:Short
1:13 McGuire Turnover:Bad Pass (4 TO) Steal:Felton (3 ST)
Augustin Turnover:Bad Pass (3 TO) 1:09
1:08 James Turnover:Out of Bounds Lost Ball Turnover (2 TO)
Team Timeout:Regular 1:08
Diaw Jump Shot: Missed Block: Young (1 BLK) 0:59
0:57 Young Rebound (Off:0 Def:2)
Diaw Foul:Personal (4 PF) 0:57
0:57
[WAS 92-87] Young Free Throw 1 of 2 (22 PTS)
0:57
[WAS 93-87] Young Free Throw 2 of 2 (23 PTS)
0:46 McGuire Foul:Shooting (5 PF)
Augustin Free Throw 1 of 2 (14 PTS) 0:46
[CHA 88-93]
Okafor Substitution replaced by Bell 0:46
Augustin Free Throw 2 of 2 (15 PTS) 0:46
[CHA 89-93]
0:46 Team Timeout:Regular
0:43 Young Turnover:Bad Pass (1 TO) Steal:Augustin (2 ST)
Felton Running Jump Shot: Made (14 PTS)
Assist: Augustin (3 AST) 0:36
[CHA 91-93]
0:29 James Turnover:Bad Pass (3 TO) Steal:Augustin (3 ST)
Wallace Layup Shot: Missed 0:14
0:13 Jamison Rebound (Off:2 Def:6)
Felton Foul:Personal (3 PF) 0:13
0:13 Jamison Free Throw 1 of 2 missed
0:13 Team Rebound
Bell Substitution replaced by Okafor 0:13
0:13
[WAS 94-91] Jamison Free Throw 2 of 2 (26 PTS)
Team Timeout:Short 0:13
Okafor Substitution replaced by Bell 0:13
Wallace Layup Shot: Made (21 PTS)
Assist: Bell (1 AST) 0:06
[CHA 93-94]
0:06 McGuire Foul:Shooting (6 PF)
Augustin Substitution replaced by Okafor 0:06
0:06 McGuire Substitution replaced by Crittenton
Wallace Free Throw 1 of 1 missed 0:06
Okafor Rebound (Off:2 Def:3) 0:05
Okafor Layup Shot: Missed 0:00
Diaw Rebound (Off:3 Def:6) 0:00
Diaw Layup Shot: Missed 0:00
Okafor Rebound (Off:3 Def:3) 0:00
Okafor Foul:Personal (3 PF) 0:00
0:00
[WAS 95-93] Jamison Free Throw 1 of 2 (27 PTS)
Okafor Turnover:Poss Lost Ball Turnover (2 TO) Steal:Jamison (1 ST) 0:00
0:00 Jamison Free Throw 2 of 2 missed
Okafor Rebound (Off:3 Def:4) 0:00


Turnovers .......and of course the last 5 seconds when Char could not drop the ball in the hole (3 chances)......I of course had Char +1.5 to close out a three team teaser....

[stevo]

I of course had Char +1.5 to close out a three team teaser....


Ouch I.K.

[stevo]

Charlotte putting a whooping on Philly FH at home.

I hope they somehow make playoffs after we gave em Bell and Diaw.

[stevo]

Bobcats’ Brown Working Overtime in Pursuing Playoffs
By HOWARD BECK
PHILADELPHIA — Three buses rumbled into the Wachovia Center loading dock Friday afternoon, about 25 minutes apart, each carrying a distinct Charlotte Bobcats contingent. It is standard N.B.A. practice: rookies, journeymen and assistant coaches arrive early, the veterans and the head coach a little later.

The Bobcats followed protocol, with one notable deviation. Among the early-bus passengers who needed extra work — Dontell Jefferson, Cartier Martin and Sean May — was one Hall of Fame coach who came to monitor every dribble. Larry Brown’s shift began around 4:15 p.m., when the rookies hit the court.

“What head coach does that?” marveled Dave Hanners, a longtime assistant under Brown. “But he wants to watch them and coach them.”

Hours later, Brown directed his energy toward the veterans, goading the Bobcats to a 100-95 victory over the 76ers and keeping Charlotte’s playoff hopes alive.

If ever there were a time for Brown to stop and gloat and distribute “I told you so’s” to a skeptical public, this might be it. It is late March, and the Bobcats — a team with no All-Stars, no playoff appearances and no winning tradition — are still in the postseason hunt.

After winning Friday and again Saturday against the Knicks, the Bobcats were just two and a half games behind Detroit and Chicago for the eighth and final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference. It is a testament to Brown’s enduring influence, tangible proof that he did not lose his coaching mojo during one comically bad season in New York three years ago.

But Brown, who was hired to transform the Bobcats last summer, is too immersed in the details to take in the bigger picture.

“I don’t look at it like that,” he said before the game Friday.

Brown fretted about Charlotte’s recent 3-5 slide, including a brutal loss to Washington. He worried about the April schedule, which has the Bobcats playing six of their final eight games on the road. And, of course, there are all these young players who needed tutoring.

There seemed to be no room in Brown’s whirring mind to contemplate satisfaction or vindication. “You’re a coach, you’re supposed to do a job,” he said. “Every team you ever coach, you hope that they win a championship or compete for a championship. The thing that I’m excited about is the players are getting better, and it’s been a phenomenal experience, a real positive one, being around this group.”

It would be hard to find a coach and a franchise that needed each other as much as Brown and the Bobcats did. Brown’s reputation took a beating during a disastrous 23-win season with the Knicks in 2005-6. He needed another chance. The Bobcats have never had a winning season since their birth in 2004. They needed someone to make them relevant.

Everyone looks good at the moment. After beating Philadelphia, the Bobcats (32-40) needed just two victories in their final 10 games to break the franchise record. They will need some luck, and a losing streak by Chicago or Detroit, to make the playoffs.

But Charlotte is unmistakably on the rise, and Brown’s imprint is clear. The Bobcats play smarter and harder now, they defend and they share the ball — all traits of a classic Brown team.

“He’s made us better,” said point guard Raymond Felton, who has known only misery since being drafted by Charlotte in 2005. “We’re in the playoff hunt, something we haven’t been in since I’ve been in the league. So that’s progress.”

Their most dramatic progress has been, predictably, on defense. Going into Saturday’s games, the Bobcats ranked seventh in the league in points allowed per game (94.7) and ninth in opponents’ field-goal percentage (.455) — both vast improvements over last season. The dedication to defense has helped offset their standing as the 29th-ranked scoring team (93.6).

“It’s a total reflection on him,” forward Gerald Wallace said of Brown. “Because our main principle is defense first.”

The Larry Brown improvement program, as practiced in his eight prior N.B.A. coaching stops, calls for two steps: teaching and purging. He develops the players who are amenable and gets rid of the rest. Brown has used a league-high 23 players this season. Only five Bobcats remain from last season, and just three of them — Felton, Wallace and Emeka Okafor — are in the rotation.

Everyone else was imported this season to meet Brown’s demands for more defense (Raja Bell), playmaking and intelligence (Boris Diaw), shot blocking (DeSagana Diop) and veteran leadership (Bell, Diaw and Juwan Howard).

Those who know Brown well say that the veterans are key, because Brown often wears out younger players with his long practices and perfectionist ways.

Brown is particularly hard on his point guards, but he has forged a surprisingly solid relationship with Felton, who said he is having “my best year so far.” Felton recalled the advice given to him by Chauncey Billups, who blossomed into an All-Star under Brown in Detroit.

“One of the things that he always told me: Just listen to the message, don’t listen to how he’s saying it,” Felton said.

In New York, the message was lost amid internal warfare. Brown spent the year feuding with point guard Stephon Marbury and the team president, Isiah Thomas.

“I knew that was an aberration,” said Hanners, who was with Brown in New York, Detroit and Philadelphia. “He just didn’t have a free hand. Every time he tried to do something, somebody undermined it.”

A fierce defender of Brown’s, Hanners added, “I knew that if he went somewhere and was allowed to coach and nobody interfered, he’d be fine.”

Thomas was fired as the Knicks’ president last April. Marbury was banished by the franchise in December and waived in February. The Knicks, although improving under Coach Mike D’Antoni, are out of the playoff race. On top of all that, eight N.B.A. head coaches have been fired this season.

There is a moral somewhere in all of this, but Brown is not looking for it.

“We have a lot of work to do,” he said.

Bobcats’ Larry Brown Working Overtime in Pursuing Playoffs - NYTimes.com

[Uncle B]

Originally Posted by stevo

“But it's definitely our fault -- we lost this game.”

I miss Diaw

I'd imagine he misses Pho quite a bit too...