New Orleans Hornets at Charlotte Bobcats 12/28

[ziggy]

The way that CP3 is playing, he absolutely scares the crap out of me for Friday night's game. Ray is going to have to step up, He usually plays well in this matchup, but Chris has raised his level of play way up this year.

It always feels good to get a win against the Hornets and scumbag traitor owner George Shinn. Lets hope that tomorrow night that we can make it happen.

[Muttley]

I know what you mean Ziggy. It's gonna be a task for Felts. I just hope we don't try sticking Jeff on him. I'll be at the game. Let's come away with the win. Go Cats!

[davcbow]

We will find out what Felts has got for sure against the (CP3) Hornets. I's like to see this be the break out game for Felt's and the Bobcats, but we are going the have to play defence!!!. It does'nt matter how many points we score if we cant stop them from out scoring us.
Defence!..Defence!..Defence!....No better than we play offence, all we need to do is play good defence and we will win half of our games add better offence to that and we will win 60% of our games....:g:

[spectre]

Speaking of defense, what about the matchup in the paint?

Emeka Okafor vs. Tyson Chandler

13.8 ppg vs. 11.5 ppg
10.6 rpg vs. 11.9 rpg
1.8 blocks vs. 1.2 blocks
52% Fg vs. 60% FG

They also have a PF in West who can stretch the offense...and as we know from the past couple of games those guys always seem to eat our lunch.

[Dead_Real]

^
That's going to be great seeing those to defensive beast going at each other.

Paul had a crazy stat line the other night something like 40 points, 9ast, 5 boards, and 5 steals. Hopefully Felts comes out and plays with a chip on his shoulder playing against CP3 as Zig said earlier I heard he looked terrible against the Wizards.

[ohara831]

This is one of those games where I just feel a loss coming no matter how much I try to picture us winning. I hate the matchups. We just do not line up well with the Hornet's strengths. Home against the Hornets, and then on the road at Orlando for another of the back to backs with which we struggle so mightily. Ouch, I see 10 - 18 by late Saturday night. I wish I had a better feeling, but I dont.

OK. Game over. We got whipped again. I was wrong on one of the match ups. What a great game between Nazr and Tyson. 17 and 17 for Chandler and 15 and 14 for Nazr. J-Rich was OK, and that is about all the good for us I can say. Okafor was 10 and 13, but it was meaningless. Crash was off, and Ray just flat out showed he is not up to par with CP3 by a mile! 17 pts and 11 assts compared to 4 pts 4 assts and 3 TOs. Pathetic.

[TheLegend]

The only weakness that we have so far is our defence and free throws if we just work hard on that we would have a much better team.

OFF TOPIC: When are we getting our new jersey

[Mustachio]

welcome michael.

I feel good about this game. Felton really does step his game up against Paul. its easily a great matchup with the two quickest players in the game right now.

To be honest i think Paul is overrated a little bit. Sure he gets numbers and has the flash... and he is no doubt a great basketball player. But that doesnt equal wins. i feel like if we really wanted to, we could unleash Crash, Rich or Felton and label them "the guy".... and they would rack up points and assist like Paul can. The Hornets are starting out strong and look pretty good... but believe me they arent going anywhere. That will be a one trick pony show for the length of Pauls contract for sure.

That whole concept of Paul being the Hornets.. "guy" I I think part of this teams problem is that there is no identity... as a team nor as individuals. Hopefully we start to click as the season continues and we find an identity that works.

Go Bobcats.

Go to hell George Shinn... you are the scummiest person alive and you look sticky to the touch. I hope you die. Go Bobcats.

[Mustachio]

PS i will be in game chat tonight if anyone wants to knee jerk react to every play with me.

Felton sucks.
Felton rules.
Nope he sucks.
Paul is overrated.
Paul is really good.

thats about how it will go tonight. come join.. its fun.

[Dead_Real]

Nice dunk by Richardson glad he didn't settle for the J even though he was wide open.

[ohara831]

welcome michael.

I feel good about this game. Felton really does step his game up against Paul. its easily a great matchup with the two quickest players in the game right now.

To be honest i think Paul is overrated a little bit. Sure he gets numbers and has the flash... and he is no doubt a great basketball player. But that doesnt equal wins. i feel like if we really wanted to, we could unleash Crash, Rich or Felton and label them "the guy".... and they would rack up points and assist like Paul can. The Hornets are starting out strong and look pretty good... but believe me they arent going anywhere. That will be a one trick pony show for the length of Pauls contract for sure.

That whole concept of Paul being the Hornets.. "guy" I I think part of this teams problem is that there is no identity... as a team nor as individuals. Hopefully we start to click as the season continues and we find an identity that works.

Go Bobcats.

Go to hell George Shinn... you are the scummiest person alive and you look sticky to the touch. I hope you die. Go Bobcats.
__________________________________________________ ___

I agree with "Welcome Michael". Mustachio, how can you say Paul is over rated? You want wins. They are 18 - 10 in the West! The big boy league. Paul is everything he is touted to be.

[ohara831]

This is one of those games where I just feel a loss coming no matter how much I try to picture us winning. I hate the matchups. We just do not line up well with the Hornet's strengths. Home against the Hornets, and then on the road at Orlando for another of the back to backs with which we struggle so mightily. Ouch, I see 10 - 18 by late Saturday night. I wish I had a better feeling, but I dont.

OK. Game over. We got whipped again. I was wrong on one of the match ups. What a great game between Nazr and Tyson. 17 and 17 for Chandler and 15 and 14 for Nazr. J-Rich was OK, and that is about all the good for us I can say. Okafor was 10 and 13, but it was meaningless. Crash was off, and Ray just flat out showed he is not up to par with CP3 by a mile! 17 pts and 11 assts compared to 4 pts 4 assts and 3 TOs. Pathetic.
__________________________________________________

Yep! I just had to say it again. I am surely and sorely disappointed with our team. At least they did not lay down and quit in the 4th. They tried, but were just out played.

[ziggy]

That was painful to watch... I don't know what was worse, seeing Tyson Chandler get about 27 straight dunks on us or having to watch friggin Bobby Jackson repeatedly nail threes on us.

... and to make matters worse, we have to deal with Dwight Howard tomorrow night.

[Edrow]

That's an easy question Zig. Watching Chandler have 8,000 UNCONTESTED dunks on us made me want to vomit. That and the crowd's constant "UConn Huskies" chant.

Oh, and by the way, I'm gonna go ahead and say it: Matt Carroll better get his head out of his ass and start playing basketball. Same with Felton. What's going on with these two the past couple of games? Inexcusable. It's Christmas time for pete sake. I don't think Jesus would approve of this...at all.

-Edrow

[ALong13]

Didn't get to see any of it, but by the boxscore it looked pretty bad, JRich & Nazr had a good game, Wallace was so-so, but what was up with Raymond Felton & Matt Carroll, where are they? Obviously not in Charlotte tonight...

[Keetch]

WOW

Pathetic.

There is no excuse for the lack of defensive effort displayed by the Bobcats through the first 43 minutes of this game. No excuse.

Pathetic.

During the post-game show, Vincent should just apologize "I am sorry but I have no idea what I'm doing; these kids...sheesh...*shaking head*....they just....*shrugging*...hell I don't know"...*arms up lips pursed* and then just resign in humiliation.

Pathetic.

[dvdbumpus]

That's an easy question Zig. Watching Chandler have 8,000 UNCONTESTED dunks on us made me want to vomit. That and the crowd's constant "UConn Huskies" chant.



-Edrow



Ok, so as a Uconn huskies fan, why were they chanting it? Wtf? Only Okafor and Hilton Armstrong came from Uconn...... It makes no sense!

[Keetch]

Sorry Dnbman; you've had to endure 2 pretty bad outings; and apologies to the fine 2 folks who used my tickets tonite; I'm so sorry I caused you to waste your evening; I honestly thought I was making you all a nice gift; but I've been fooled.

[Keetch]

Bumpus: UCONN plays Wake (football) Saturday afternoon in the Meineke Bowl. There have been a lot of UCONN peeps at the last 2 games.

[dvdbumpus]

Bumpus: UCONN plays Wake (football) Saturday afternoon in the Meineke Bowl. There have been a lot of UCONN peeps at the last 2 games.


Ok thanks. To clarify, I'm a uconn huskies b-ball fan. Hence why I was so clueless about their football team :afro:

[Muttley]

That's an easy question Zig. Watching Chandler have 8,000 UNCONTESTED dunks on us made me want to vomit. That and the crowd's constant "UConn Huskies" chant.

Oh, and by the way, I'm gonna go ahead and say it: Matt Carroll better get his head out of his ass and start playing basketball. Same with Felton. What's going on with these two the past couple of games? Inexcusable. It's Christmas time for pete sake. I don't think Jesus would approve of this...at all.

-Edrow


Just wanted to make sure everyone read this because it pretty much sums it up, with just two things to add:

1. It was also annoying that the Wake Forest folks kept yelling crap too.
2. In addition to not playing a lick of defense, we also neglected to play offense in the first half. At all. I hope Matt Carroll comes back from Vacation soon.




Didn't get to see any of it, but by the boxscore it looked pretty bad, JRich & Nazr had a good game, Wallace was so-so, but what was up with Raymond Felton & Matt Carroll, where are they? Obviously not in Charlotte tonight...



No, don't let the box score fool you, and let no one off the hook. Nobody played well tonight. We couldn't even hit lay-ups.

[Muttley]

Oh, and Jeff McInnis needs to take his ball and go home. (If he can keep a handle on it.)

[dnbman]

Sorry Dnbman; you've had to endure 2 pretty bad outings; and apologies to the fine 2 folks who used my tickets tonite; I'm so sorry I caused you to waste your evening; I honestly thought I was making you all a nice gift; but I've been fooled.


It's all good. We still had a good time.

The best part of the evening:

My wife, who doesn't watch sports in the slightest, starts clicking off VALID criticisms of the Bobcats. The best part: she still doesn't even understand all of the rules, the positions, or what we're supposed to be doing on the offensive end. It was pretty amazing.

Yeah... tonight was terrible, uninspired basketball. The rotations are still killing me. My wife said they were distracting. I'm not sure what she meant, but I agree.

[TheBeagle]

Yeah. Tonight was pretty shitty all the way around. The play, the dreadfully flat Sprite, the weather, the fact that they stuck me and my handicapped cousin up on the upper level handicapped section 210 instead of our usual first level 107 seats, which had like 12 available spots, and the people that were sitting there weren't even in wheelchairs or anything!!! Pardon my language, but FUCK THAT!! Our guy in guest services wasn't there tonight, and those ladies that were there instead fucked us over good :ranting:

Onto the game:

The best part of the night was GW's massive block of CP3!! That was awesome, and I got to give some of tie-dye nation, who were sitting near us chanting CP3 over and over during the night, hell!! Well, that and the ladycats. At least they bring their A game each and every game. Shit, wish they were on the court for 48 minutes with the players only coming on for the timeouts :wink:

This poor team just hasn't a clue, and what makes it sad is that some of the players really do want to win, and don't know why they can't get clicking; GW, JRich, Nazr, even poor Raymond Felton, for example. Reading the postgame comments over on bobcats.com confirms this. Still, it's encouraging that there are plenty of Bobcats fans who attend the games, considering the product that takes the court, and they really want to see this team win (I mean, damn, it actually got pretty loud when we closed to within 11 at around 4:30 left!), but I don't know how much more patience the organization can expect when it appears that the team is going nowhere quickly with no real end in sight :-\

[Muttley]

they stuck me and my handicapped cousin up on the upper level handicapped section 210 instead of our usual first level 107 seats, which had like 12 available spots

Damn Beags, that sounds like the rotting cherry on top of the shitty-ass ice cream sundae that was the actual "basketball" game that went on tonight. Really, I'm sorry to hear that. I agree with you, though, that it did seem (AT TIMES) that a lot of the guys wanted to win and were trying to win, but just couldn't get it done.

[Fromage]

gotta tell y'all -this is getting pretty disheartening.

[Edrow]

Yes, it's true, nerdy Wake nation was there last night too. Blah. On a positive note though, the Uconn fans behind me were super nice, and they were pulling for the home team, so it was all good.

More importantly though, it proves that bowl games really can be good for the local economy, as the arena was packed full of bowl game revelers last night.

I agree, the block on Chris Paul was sheer brilliance. You guys are right, it really does seem like some of those guys want to win, it just becomes a trainwreck when they try to.

I wish I knew what the problem was so I could bitch about it, but I have no idea.

-Edrow

P.S.- My section won free Bojangles biscuits! I'm a happy breakfast eater this morning!

[Keetch]

Except for JRich and maybe Felton; I don't see anyone really playing hard on Defense. I know Wallace has a way of moving around and cutting off passing lanes, and is good for one or two spectacular blocks, but otherwise he's often way out of position; at least until the last 5 minutes of the game when he seems to wake up.

I'm not a coach and definitely not a defensive authority by any means, but last night I just kept rewinding the DVR to try to see how the Hornets kept getting wide open looks and/or to the basket.

What I saw were Bobcats out of position; literally not even close to the man they were guarding; standing flat footed while out-of-position; not "rotating" as they say...; the bigs especially routinely leave their man to help the perimeter (which even at that they're always too late to really be any help), leaving the paint wide open for Wallace or JRich to wave at Chandler/West hell anybody or to foul. They often were beaten up court even when there was no reason for it.

Yes the Hornets were excellant at setting screens; but that only made the process more brutal. Felton was hustling, but was normally the first guy picked off; he's probably pretty bruised right now. And while Felton was being hammered, some other Bobcat like Nazr or Okafor would be on the way to help only to get blown by...all night.

Rebounding...ugh... The backboard camera had a really fun way of showing 3 Bobcats with hands up, but elbows down standing behind one Hornet getting the rebound or put-back. Just awful.

Okay if the guys really want to win; and I'm sure they do..why aren't they playing harder? I'm worried that the coaching they are getting is confusing and they're just shutting down out there. The pain-faces on the players are becoming numb-ride-this-out faces and that worries me.

I also see little from Vincent on the sideline other than pursed lips and rolling eyes; which might be sending the message "not my fault; this isn't my team" instead of getting into the players and motivating them with a little grilling. Too often he stands at the scorers table with his arms crossed, then when something bad happens he turns his back to the court and slumps into his chair. Wrong message. Jeez....I don't know.

I hope Sam can get this together, but its getting worrisome.

[spectre]

Have you noticed our screens are getting worse rather than better? We've also gotten away from rushing the guy with the ball on the picks too. During the WAS game their commentators said that we really did well defending the screens (really, they did!) and I thought to myself that finally we are showing improvement. The last 2 games tho it's back to like we started...guard gets picked and the big is just getting in his way or trailing the guy with the ball.

They've obviously lost confidence.

My biggest disappointment continues to be Emeka. He STILL doesn't try to get good position (notice V's comment about the guards not being comfortable throwing it to him), and I guess the idea that it's "everyone else's fault" he's not getting the ball has kind of been proved wrong considering Nazr seems to have no problem getting shots?

On top of that now he's become passive defensively...the one thing that was making him borderline elite. I think we should move the focus back to that and let Nazr handle the post scoring.

[Keetch]

I was curious about putting Emeka at PF alongside Mohammed and hopeful it would work out; but really I think Okafor is as pure a Center as they come. So putting him at PF is just not a good fit on offense or defense. He's kind of lost.

In any event; if we have 2 bigs out of Okafor, Mohammed and Hollins on the floor; damn straight one of them better stay in the paint and not let any more of this silly stuff go on.

I like Mohammed, he seems tough and smart and he gives us a power player that was desperately needed; but what we really could have used more than a Center was a defensive-minded Power Forward.

...and Hollins looked totally silly playing last night. Amazing how raw that guy can be after all this time. I really think if we'd play him more consistently though that he'd do much better. That's too much to ask probably and hah could be totally wrong. Maybe he just doesn't get it.

[dnbman]

Keetch, Vincent's eye rolling caught my eyes too. I wasn't sure what to make of it.

As for Hollins, I've always thought he was fools' gold. He's never had good basketball skills at any point in his career. I just don't think he's any more than a tall guy who can jump out there. What makes Hollins' playing time frustrating is we have a talented big on the bench who could definitely be a contributor in Davidson. I'd rather see Jermareo have some awkward moments along side some nice shooting than watch Hollins continue to tease us out there.

[Fromage]

Keetch - well said. we're falling apart out there, and he just looks away.

anyone notice van gundy when orlando left carroll wide open for that 3? he threw a fucking fit. not saying that's what we need, but it really caught my eye having noticed how removed vincent acts.

also, the body language among the players - often borderlines hostile if you look closely. crash & mek in particular look a bit pissy. something just isn't right with our team.