With feline ferocity
I am forced to conclude that no one, except maybe Michael Jordan, is quite used to the idea of the Charlotte Bobcats as a playoff team. The Thunder piled up a lead of 19 points in the second quarter, but the ‘Cats ran off 11 straight to finish the first half, and were up by eight with just under two minutes left; it didn’t much matter after that, because the Thunder couldn’t buy a bucket in the next minute and a half, and Charlotte suffered not at all by missing half the free throws they earned in those 90 seconds. The final was 100-92, which means that starting from the beginning of that late-second-quarter run, the ‘Cats outscored OKC to the tune of 68-41.
I did figure that Charlotte would present some defensive obstacles, and they delivered: they blocked 12 shots, five of them Kevin Durant’s. (KD got 26 points, but he had to take 26 shots to get 18 of them; not one of his treys dropped.) All the starters — Gerald Wallace was missing — contributed substantially to the offense, the Two Stephens (Jackson and Graham) dropping 20 and 19 points respectively. What’s more, Tyrus Thomas had 11 points and nine boards off the bench, and the ‘Cats made five of seven treys.
The usual Thunder suspects produced the usual numbers, with Russell Westbrook at 15 points/10 assists and Jeff Green at 17 points. Nick Collison added 15 off the bench. The Bobcats, however, demonstrated a dazzling knack for drawing fouls; they put up 32 free throws, so it perhaps didn’t matter so much that they missed eleven of them.
You never want to start a road trip with a loss, but this one wasn’t entirely unpredictable: the ‘Cats are pretty impregnable at home, and they’ve knocked off several of the Big Boys, including some the Thunder haven’t. Michael Jordan, I assume, is pleased.
Dick Stanley »
18 March 2010 · 1:57 am
The Bobcats is a wimpy name. A name change is in order.