Wed April 1st GT: Charlotte Vs Boston 7:30pm

[Walt Cronkite]

Well, when the offense isn't spreading the floor or getting any movement, that's who's going to end up trying to take shots because nobody else is able to create out in space like that. Let's not forget he had 12 assists too. He's controlling the ball for us most of the time, which is a good thing.

When it comes down to it, we played to not lose. Just like Philadelphia, except we ended up winning that one. When we get 12pt leads on good teams, you can't just run the shot clock down and keep giving them baskets. You gotta keep running things like you have been to wear the other team down. We haven't learned how to do that yet, but really it should be LB not going ultra conservative. We look like early season Bobcats instead of March Bobcats.

Okafor sets a pick on Allen after he picks for Felton (because he probably knows there's no damn way he'll get the ball back...) Which frees Diaw WIDE OPEN. Really, go look. I'm not fibbing. Boris couldn't have possibly been more open. But Felts has to take the shot...

[Rich4114]

I'm not arguing this, you're probably right. But did Felton see or know he was open? It's not like he never passes the ball to guys in better position to score. If he made the shot we wouldn't be having this conversation right now. Hell, if we didn't let Ray Allen drop 60 OT pts on us we wouldn't be having this conversation right now.

[thruthefire]

Well, when the offense isn't spreading the floor or getting any movement, that's who's going to end up trying to take shots because nobody else is able to create out in space like that. Let's not forget he had 12 assists too. He's controlling the ball for us most of the time, which is a good thing.

When it comes down to it, we played to not lose. Just like Philadelphia, except we ended up winning that one. When we get 12pt leads on good teams, you can't just run the shot clock down and keep giving them baskets. You gotta keep running things like you have been to wear the other team down. We haven't learned how to do that yet, but really it should be LB not going ultra conservative. We look like early season Bobcats instead of March Bobcats.

Okafor sets a pick on Allen after he picks for Felton (because he probably knows there's no damn way he'll get the ball back...) Which frees Diaw WIDE OPEN. Really, go look. I'm not fibbing. Boris couldn't have possibly been more open. But Felts has to take the shot...

Well, Diaw has shown he can't hit a point blank layup in the past.

[RichBoy923]

Something isn't right when as a team you take 102 shots and they take 26 ft's to our 7. Something just isn't right.

What is he implying? That the refs were bad?

[Walt Cronkite]

Well, Diaw has shown he can't hit a point blank layup in the past.

Oh the ironing...

[BigSlam]

Something isn't right when as a team you take 102 shots and they take 26 ft's to our 7. Something just isn't right.

What is he implying? That the refs were bad?

I think so. He seemed pretty p*ssed and pretty much stormed off.

[Rich4114]

We're clearly all just arguing about stupid crap because we're pissed off about this loss.... we had this damn game. We would've been .5 games behind 7th and 8th.

[Marc3287]

Something isn't right when as a team you take 102 shots and they take 26 ft's to our 7. Something just isn't right.

What is he implying? That the refs were bad?

I think so. He seemed pretty p*ssed and pretty much stormed off.

Yeah, he's hit on this before so I am pretty sure he was giving a brown frown to the refs in this one. Not a lot you can say really. I guess that's the nature of the NBA playing the champs in their house. We're just going to have to work on earning that respect from the refs I guess.

[Rich4114]

I always think Dick Bavetta calls a pretty good game. But that other guy out there... what a prick. Wallace got body slammed to the floor... no call.... Pierce goes up for a shot and Bell brushes his jersey, 3 pt foul.

[Walt Cronkite]

Well we lost what, 41 games now? They're all Felton's fault.

Record When Felton Leads Us In Shots (Opponent-Result/Felton's points-fga/Player w/next closest fga's points-fga)

Boston-L/14 on 20/Wallace-20 on 18
NYK- W/6 on 17/Okafor-13 on 13
Indiana- L/ 9 on 13/ Diaw 15 on 11/ Radman 8 on 11
Houston-L/ 12 on 19/ Bell 16 on 18
SAS- L/15 on 17/ Bell 16 on 11
*ATL- W/ 17 on 13/ Bell 11 on 13/ Wallace 21 on 13/ Okafor 17 on 12
GSW- W/26 on 16/Okafor 15 on 13
PHX- L/ 14 on 15/Bell 23 on 14
HOU- L/13 on 13/ Okafor and Diaw both got 13 on 12 shots
ORL- L/16 on 18/ Diaw 15 on 14
ORL- L/22 on 21/Diaw 14 on 15
WAS- W/15 on 16/ Diaw 14 on 15/Radman 21 on 14/DJ 24 on 12
LAC- W/ 15 on 16/ Okafor 19 on 14
ATL- L/15 on 17/Bell 17 on 11/ Okafor 15 on 11

Just the past two months.. more to come

edit: continued..
DET- W/23 on 15/ Wallace 18 on 14
*BOS- W/25 on 17/ Wallace 23 on 17/Okafor 13 on 12
NYK- L/ 12 on 17/Wallace 21 on 15
*NJ- L/13 on 17/Wallace 32 on 17/Okafor 16 on 11
GSW- L/ 14 on 19/Wallace 26 on 15
CHI- W/21 on 17/ DJ 29 on 16
DET- L/17 on 17/Wallace 22 on 14
CLE- L/15 on 12/JRich and Mek 9 on 9
*IND- W/31 on 21/Jrich 21 on 21/DJ 17 on 17
*PHI- W/23 on 11/ DJ 25 on 11/Morrison 10 on 8/ Okafor 8 on 8
MIL- L/14 on 16/DJ 12 on 13/Okafor 16 on 13
*ORL- L/14 on 14/ Wallace 19 on 14/Ammo 14 on 10
*UTA- W/23 on 13/Wallace 22 on 13/Shannon Brown 6 on 9

[Jackson 5ive]

What a tough loss, dang we were so close!!

[fatlever]

diaw has a giant vagina. he was making me sick out there. for gods sakes, grow a pair, take the god damn ball to the basket like a man, draw a foul and quit passing out of the post all the time. diaw really pissed me off tonight.

oh yeah, those officials were CRAP

[Walt Cronkite]

Record When Felton Leads Us In Shots (Opponent-Result/Felton's points-fga/Player w/next closest fga's points-fga)

So... 11 wins (5 of which he tied a second player for highest fga) and 16 losses (only two of which he shared the highest fga mark with someone else)

23-25 record when Felton doesn't lead the way in FGA...

[Bassman]

The Cat's had control of this game but couldn't put enough distance between the teams to bury Boston. Once the Celtics made their charge, it forced us to execute half court offense and "manage" a win. That's where this team continues to struggle, both offensively and defensively. Still a well played game for the most part. When Boston took a lead in the 3rd, and we went on our run to go up by 10 that was sweet.

Diaw is a fine player, but he's not a true PF. Don't expect him to bang inside. He's too small and too European. He played pretty well and hit the big shot to give us a lead. Gotta hand it to Boston, hitting big shots time and again.

Mek was OK, but he just doesn't will himself into being a force on the block offensively. His limitations hurt us in close games.

Crash did his part, but he did fail us defensively down the stretch. The matchup with Allen was not good.

Felton does what he does, and he executed well at times. Late game, no one was moving away from the ball. Everyone was frozen waiting for Ray to do something. I was yelling...RUN A PLAY...MOVE!!!

Bell...he was the worst player on the court among the starters. Couldn't hit a shot to save his life. I agree DJ needed to see some court in the OT's...maybe go small with DJ and Felts on Rondo and Allen. But DJ is not ready for prime time defensively (may never be). This shows how badly we need a big-time player at the 2.

Still a chance to get to the playoffs. We could have dropped both these games. The key is to not let down. Gotta focus on winning every other game down the stretch, especially against the Bulls and Pistons.

[BigSlam]

So usually I’m not one to complain about refs. My belief is, and always has been, to worry about the things you can control (like executing plays, hitting your FT’s, rebounding, playing D etc) and deal with the ones you can’t (like officiating).

I watched the game back last night after it was done (glutton for punishment I guess?) and I have to say – Wow.

I am perfectly fine with everyone of the fouls Pierce drew out of the Bobcats. He’s a savvy player and he’s such a threat that he gets defenders to jump in the air on up fakes and makes them foul him. I think that’s just very clever by him and stupid by us.

BUT

DJ got victimized driving to the basket on 3 occasions – and I mean had the snot knocked out of him – with no call.

Call illegal screens on EO50 – I was ok with that, but if you are going to call them that way, call them the other. I didn’t see Davis set one legal screen all night. He was moving when he set them, leaning into them, throwing his arm out – pretty much everything EO50 was doing but was being called for.

We need to box out and protect the drop zone of the ball when rebounding – there is no doubt about that, but the reason Perkins got so many easy boards is because he pushes out time and time again. And not just a little, two hands firmly in the back and shoving out.

Pierce was constantly grabbing at arms and pulling people away from the ball. It’s one thing to box out or get position, it’s another to wrap your arms around someone’s waste in the key and literally move them to the side.

Don’t get me wrong, the Celts got a rough deal a couple of times (I don’t think Rondo travelled for example) and at the end of the day the loss is on us (Diaw was horrible, Felton was horrible, we didn't start rebounding until after the half etc), but when the game is called as poorly as it was, it’s an uphill battle before it begins.

Also, 7 ft's to 26 ft's? Really? It's not like we were 6-10 down and we were sending them to the line a dozen times over the final 40 seconds. There were no intentional fouls at all. How the hell can there be that much of a difference in ft's?

End rant!

[dmutombo321]

Yeah, the officiating was terrible. However, despite all the bad calls and inconsistency, it still came down to Charlotte having an 8 point lead with 2 minutes left in the game. And they blew it.

Much like the Washington game, Charlotte ultimately has only themselves to blame.

When the pressure is applied at the end of games, you can almost always count on this team folding like a piece of cheap, retractable lawn furniture.

As Bass noted, until Charlotte gets an all-star caliber piece to plug into their lineup, this trend will continue. I've said it before: when Charlotte's offense stagnates -and every teams' sets do from time-time- we have nobody capable of single handedly getting us much needed buckets.

You could see the disparity last night. When Boston needed buckets down the stretch, they handed the ball to pierce and allen and they delivered. We have no such player, And felton is usually tasked with the responsibility. And to be fair to him, while he doesnt come close to fitting the bill, hes really the best option available, all things considered.

We have to be near the top of the league when it comes to shot clock violations. Maybe one of the stat gurus can check on this. The other night, we had three shot clock violations in one ten minute span. And that really doesnt even tell the whole story. There are inumerable other times where they manage to get a shot off near the end of the clock but it is so low percentage, it rarely has any chance of going in. Teams with Danny Grangers, Joe Johnsons, Brandon Roys, etc always have a figurative panic button to press in the last 5-6 seconds of a stale possession and the cumulative benefit of this helps their teams win games that they otherwise wouldnt.

[thruthefire]

I'm getting sick and tired of Wallace waiting around in the clutchtime for Felton to do something. He's our best player, all-be-it by the smallest of margins, so he needs to get to work in those situations.

Augustin needs to get more playing time -- Bell is playing too many minutes.

Okafor needs to log 40+ minutes every game from here on out. Gana Diop is to Larry Brown what Jeff McInnis was to Sam Vincent. Guys getting heavy minutes for no reason at all.