Charlotte Bobcats at Washington Wizards 2/23

[ohara831]

The Knicks and the Sonics will pass us. I am not sure of the Grizzlies, but I would not be shocked. I don't want them to tank intentionally, but if the Knicks and Sonics both pass us, we have a pretty good shot at DeAndre Jordan.

Hey, at least they tried hard. I did not see any quit in them. They just seem a little lost without Gerald there.

[ziggy]

Offseason can't get here fast enough.

I didn't get to watch this one. Is the NBA.com boxscore really correct? Did we really start
PG-McInnis
SG-Ray
Richardson
Duds
Okafor
?

That sir would be correct. Sam Vincent determined that that it would be best to counter their 6-9 / 6-11 / 7-0 front court with our front court of 6-6 / 6-7 / 6-10. What the hell he was trying to accomplish with that small lineup... I simply must not be intelligent enough to grasp.

[Keetch]

Come on Ziggy...the genious of Vincent's plan is to put JRich on Blatche. Soooo it gives up a little something in the middle; but no way Blatche can cover JRich outside! Mismatch!

It worked a little in the 1st quarter, but for some obscure reason JRich didn't get ball in the 4th Q.

Flawed logic.

[Keetch]

My cynically favorite moment of the game:

At 8:59 in the 4th Quarter we're down by 8, and Sam subs in Okafor for Derek Anderson...giving us...you ready!? A lineup of:

Felton
JRich
Dudley
Nazr
Okafor!

That was the 1st time all night we did not have 3 guards on the court; and yup me I'm pretty excited!

Wait a couple minutes though...at 6:20 we're down by 8 and wait for it....here it comes....the finger is pointing down the bench...its getting up...its pulling off it warmups....its...

JEFF MCINNIS!! for Jared Dudley.

Game over.

[ziggy]

My cynically favorite moment of the game:

At 8:59 in the 4th Quarter we're down by 8, and Sam subs in Okafor for Derek Anderson...giving us...you ready!? A lineup of:

Felton
JRich
Dudley
Nazr
Okafor!

Keetch, I remember thinking to myself at that point that this is the type of sane lineup that we've been looking for all season. but alas his Jeff McInnis fixation wouldn't allow it to last very long.

please mj.... please bob... we here at bobcatsplanet don't ask for much, but just this one time, (we promise that we'll never ask for anything again ) please end Hammy's unstoppable reign of terror and mayhem on our peaceful fun loving basketball community. In the name of James Naismith please oh please fine ham biscuit.

[TheBeagle]

I think, like most games against mediocre teams, we have a decent shot so long as we rebound, play defense, have a spirited effort, and don't let "Head Coach" drag us down. If the Wiz can lose to a team that just brough up 2 D-leaguers in order to meet the minimum requirement of 8 suited players, I think we have a 40/60 shot at winning.

Rebound? No. Defense? No. Spirited effort? Not too bad, actually. Not bad at all. Letting "Head Coach" drag us down? Of course.

I watched about 65% of the game, and it seemed to be JRich, Mek, Jared, and Raymond were playing hard, most notably JRich who carried us as much as he could, until he got the big freeze in the 4th quarter. Who the hell is making the calls on offense? Why is Matt only getting 10 minutes when it looks like his game is on? Why did Jeff get 30 minutes? Nazr couldn't hit a bull in the butt with a bass, yet he seemed to be the offensive focus at times. Oh well, at least Jared got 25 minutes, Jermareo got some PT, and we're closer to getting a new coach and a better lotto pick

[spectre]

Yep, that was the only stretch that I remember where we had 2 bigs on the court as well. Near the end of the game the WAS announcers showed that we'd been outscored in the paint 56 to 28, we got outrebounded by 10 and allowed them 22 offensive boards.

Isn't small ball wonderful? Amazing that this is the ONLY way we have a chance isn't it?

I'm surprised no one's commented about the end of the 3rd quarter fiasco. About midway thru the 3rd we're down by 2. Vincent subs in Nazr for Mek, the midget for Felton and Davidson for Duds, DA for JSwish and Hammer for McInnis, which leaves us with:

Boykins/Hammer/DA/Davidson/Nazr.

This lineup plays the rest of the 3rd (about 5-6 minutes) which has us down 6, then within 2 minutes of the 4th where we're down 13 before Vincent decides to reinsert the starters. That group lost us 11 points.

[spectre]

From the NBA site:

"The Bobcats allowed the Wizards too many second opportunities at the basket. Washington won the rebounding battle 46-36 and was dominant on the offensive glass posting a 22-10 advantage over Charlotte in that category. With all those offensive rebounds, the Wizards outscored the Bobcats 38-13 in second chance points . Perhaps the most telling stat is the number of field goals attempted. The Wizards attempted 94 field goals while the Bobcats attempted 74.
“It’s an issue,” said Vincent as he talked about the Bobcats struggles on the boards. “When we have Emeka (Okafor) in there, he tries his best to do a good job on the boards. With the smaller guys, we just can’t get the rebounds and it gives them too many second chance opportunities. Rebounding was a problem for us today.” "

I would say that Vincent needs to get a clue...but I seriously doubt if he knows what a "clue" is.

Small ball rules baby!!!

[dnbman]

From the NBA site:

"The Bobcats allowed the Wizards too many second opportunities at the basket. Washington won the rebounding battle 46-36 and was dominant on the offensive glass posting a 22-10 advantage over Charlotte in that category. With all those offensive rebounds, the Wizards outscored the Bobcats 38-13 in second chance points . Perhaps the most telling stat is the number of field goals attempted. The Wizards attempted 94 field goals while the Bobcats attempted 74.
“It’s an issue,” said Vincent as he talked about the Bobcats struggles on the boards. “When we have Emeka (Okafor) in there, he tries his best to do a good job on the boards. With the smaller guys, we just can’t get the rebounds and it gives them too many second chance opportunities. Rebounding was a problem for us today.” "

I would say that Vincent needs to get a clue...but I seriously doubt if he knows what a "clue" is.

Small ball rules baby!!!

Inspired by the works of scientific luminaries such as Stephen Hawkins, Brian Greene, and Albert Einstein, Sam Vincent begins to chronicle his insights on the Bobcat's progress, attempting to make parallels between his coaching and their play:

On scoring:
"My scorers score. When I don't have my scorers in, we don't score as much. Conversely, when I play our players that score, we tend to score more. Should I put the players in that score? Such a decision seems to extreme. I must test this hypothesis with more controls."

On the effect of height on the game:
"It would appear that taller players can rebound better. When we play shorter players, we do not rebound as well."

On timeouts:
"Timeouts should be used to stop the clock and talk over a play. I'm not sure what the implications are in terms of what should be talked about in the huddle. However, we can conclusively say that timeouts are used to stop the time."

For more nuggets of basketball wisdom, check out Sam Vincent's books "A Brief History of Height: An Application of Height Theory to the Phenomenon of Rebounding" and "Naismith and the Ham Biscuit: Creating Mismatches on the Hardwood."

Sam Vincent is also available for speaking engagements.

[ziggy]

For more nuggets of basketball wisdom, check out Sam Vincent's books "A Brief History of Height: An Application of Height Theory to the Phenomenon of Rebounding" and "Naismith and the Ham Biscuit: Creating Mismatches on the Hardwood."

I feel like we've been forced to read that book 3 times a week for the last 4 months