New Orleans Hornets at Charlotte Bobcats 12/28

[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

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

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.