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[11-4] [5-9]




| November 27th, 2009 | 7:00 PM - ET | Time Warner Cable Arena | Charlotte, NC |

ESPN wrote:The Charlotte Bobcats haven't had any problems with their defense this season, but their offense has been another story -- at least until recently.

Facing LeBron James and a Cleveland Cavaliers team that expects to get Shaquille O'Neal back Friday night, Charlotte could be challenged on both ends of the court.

The Bobcats (5-9) have the second-best scoring defense in the league, giving up 88.9 points per game. However, they are averaging 87.5 -- second-fewest.

Charlotte has shown signs of improvement offensively since the acquisition of Stephen Jackson, averaging 96.6 points in five games since the trade while scoring 100-plus in the last two, blowing out Indiana and Toronto by double-digit margins.

The Bobcats may have trouble extending their winning streak and their run of impressive offensive displays against the Cavaliers (11-4), though. Charlotte has dropped seven straight to Cleveland, averaging 78.3 points in the last four.

The Cavaliers come into Friday having held opponents to 91.3 points during a three-game winning streak. They gave up more than 100 in each of the previous four games.

They'll likely have O'Neal back patrolling the paint after he missed six games with a strained left shoulder. O'Neal participated in shootaround Friday morning and coach Mike Brown said he "will probably play" unless he has a setback.

Cleveland beat Detroit 98-88 on Wednesday, limiting the Pistons to 39.2 percent shooting. James, averaging 34.2 points in the last five games, finished with 34 points to go along with eight rebounds and seven assists. He scored 12 of his points in the first quarter, and Cleveland had an 18-point halftime lead.

Detroit pulled within five points with 1:13 remaining, but James made two free throws and Detroit turned the ball over on the next possession.

"LeBron closes games for us by attacking the basket, and that's what he did," Brown said. "They were physical with him and he didn't get all the calls, but he kept attacking."

James suffered his lowest-scoring game of the season against the Bobcats on Oct. 31, finishing with 14 points, seven rebounds and nine assists while shooting 5 of 11 in the 90-79 victory. It's the only time this season he's been held to fewer than 20 points, although his performance was dominating enough by Charlotte's standards.

"LeBron got 14, but he could have had 50, the way he played," Bobcats coach Larry Brown said. "He's so unselfish."

James is averaging 26.1 points in his career against Charlotte. The Cavaliers are 16-3 all-time against the Bobcats, and they've won their last two trips to Charlotte.

They may be in for a tougher time Friday night if the Bobcats' offense continues to look as good as it did against the Pacers and Raptors.

Charlotte is coming off a 116-81 victory over Toronto on Wednesday -- the fourth time it has scored 100 points this season. Gerald Wallace scored 31 points and grabbed 13 rebounds while Jackson added 23 points and six assists as the Bobcats posted the largest margin of victory in franchise history.

Jackson, who was averaging 17.8 points since the trade from Golden State, scored 15 in the first half to help Charlotte take a 52-41 lead at the break.

"We read and we play off each other," Wallace said of being paired with Jackson. "How he goes is how I go and how I go is how he goes. We pick up for each other."

Wallace came into Wednesday shooting 37.7 percent, but he connected on 10 of his 20 field-goal attempts against the Raptors. He's shooting 47.2 percent since Jackson's arrival.

Hope you guys had a great Thanksgiving, and have a good Black Friday.

Glad to see Shaq back and ready to go again. Bobcats have played much better since making the trade for SJax. Time for another road W. Lets go Cavs!

Home cookin' calls for Charlotte early.

LeBron has turned into a TO machine.

3 TO's, 0 assists. Unbelievable.

I thought we could lose tonight but boy it'll look ugly..

Yuck, we are down 15 to the Bobcats at halftime.

I'm so glad Shaq is back. Delonte should just go ahead and do something good for the team and take shaq out during practice.

Cavs looked like crap all game. Bobcats play like they play but no defense by the Cavs.

im embarrassed

LeBron was 10-19, had 25 and played like complete garbage..

Bobcats are scrappy, but we should be playing high level basketball and shouldn't be losing games to these teams.. Just like the Bulls at home or the Wiz..

Terrible.

M Brown had a big hand in this defeat. The game is 5-7 points and we get 4 or 5 stops in a row, and we dont close the gap. DRIVE THE FREAKING BALL. 3 pointer....miss, 3 pointer.....miss, turnover, turnover........WTF. Nice coaching job. We have the best player in the league in taking the ball to the hole and we settle for jump shots again and again. Whatever, its just one game, but I would much rather have a game 7 at home than on the road.
I dont think Brown realizes that each game has an effect on that. Winning this game makes it much easier to rest our main guys in May if we have a lead on the rest of the competition.

That wasn't Browns fault, that was the players that kept jacking up shots or rather getting turnovers instead of getting to the rim.

don't worry about it... the magic got blown out by OKC a little while ago... this keeps happening to us, you and boston... wtf is going on?

it all starts with captian coast for me...when he wants to exert the effort on the defensive end, the rest of the team will follow. until that happens, the cavs are going to keep having games like this

christian72589 wrote:don't worry about it... the magic got blown out by OKC a little while ago... this keeps happening to us, you and boston... wtf is going on?

Yeh not an excuse but everyone seems to be struggling this season...We have lost 5 games already and are only 1 game behind the 3 way tie at the top of East of Boston, Orlando, and Atlanta so these games are happening to everyone.

TheOUTLAW wrote:That wasn't Browns fault, that was the players that kept jacking up shots or rather getting turnovers instead of getting to the rim.

With all due respect Outty, he can call a freaking timeout and break a clipboard or something. I am tired of him sitting on his hands mouth agape looking like he just took a heavy dose of thorazine. The only thing missing is the drool coming out of his mouth.
And the captain coast reference was dead on GB, I really dont see the same Lebron out there game in and game out that I have seen in the past. The frustrating thing is that I would have thought that losing to ORL last year would have motivated our star further, but his ego seems bigger that ever rather than being humbled by it.