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I know being eliminated sux something aweful, but I know you guys are going to have major Bobcat Fever where it's summer and we want some BC basketball. We have 3 more games left so let's watch them and enjoy them.

Good work SM15 and well said.

Good playoff run guys.

Your team is young with a lot of talent and I expect next season they will be in the playoffs.

As for this game, the Bulls have something to play for; holding on to 7th and a slight chance of moving to 6th. The Bobcats could come out deflated because of how they finished the season or they could come out fighting.

The Bulls could come out playing hard knowing the stakes or they could come out complacent and satisfied.

I'm hoping for the former but wouldn't be surprised with the latter.

What I want to see is two teams playing like it is the playoffs and hopefully a Bulls win.

Good luck in this game Bobcats fans and the best of luck next season.

I imagine the Bobcats will play well tonight. We always seem to perform well in meaningless games.

True that, and Felton will probably only put up 5 attempts and 10 dimes and we win by 19.

BigSlam wrote:Good work SM15 and well said.

thx

LET"S DO THIS!!!

Our season is officially in the hole so screw the jinx.

I hope that Crash gets a triple double tonight.

That's right. I said it.

Crash. Triple double. Tonight.

I'm tempted to watch this on WGN.

Wow, get eliminated from Playoff contention, and no conversation. Oh well, they played a pretty solid game on the road vs a team with everything to play for. Cant be too disappointed.

They led by 5 with about 5 minutes left in the 4th and they lost this one again. Oh well...

I actually watched the whole game live on the Chicago feed. For some reason it was on at the outlaws?

Any way, just wanted to sit back and watch it rather than post and watch it. Wanted to give them game my 100% attention. Will do the same against the Magic too.

Will say this after watching the game:

I totally understand because he works so hard all year but it looks like Crash has clocked off.

I don't know why some people think that Felts is such a great defender.

If we are going to be a serious team we have to get better from the line.

I really wanted to see McMay tonight.

Boris has all the post up moves in the world, so why doesn't he use them? Of his 20 or so shots tonight I think that he put up about 3 from posting up/backing down.

Radman looks spooked.

TMNT "looks" a little like Dwayne Wade. Note I said "looks like and not "plays like".

We need to get some smart guys on this team. Too many non-thinkers who don't have poise and suffer from D.I.H.L.S (deer in head lights syndrome) IMO.

BigSlam wrote:I don't know why some people think that Felts is such a great defender.

He's a good defender on the drive, the post up (if the player's main objective is to "beat" his guy and get to the rim) and in general staying in front of his man. When the player can just shoot over him Felton's height comes into play and he's not so good.

That's what Gordon was doing all night; he even hit a contested 3 falling backwards!

The exact same thing was happening to DJ vs. Rose; I think he hit around 6 or 7 midrange jumpers in the 1st half.

When we can't stop dribble penetration...which has pretty much been all the time since Raja got hurt...everyone is trying to help. That's geting the other team a bunch of wide open looks, and a good jump shooting team will take advantage.

Always in a vacuum over here.

BTW, Gordon isn't as bad a defender as conventional wisdom says he is.

spectre_ wrote:He's a good defender on the drive, the post up (if the player's main objective is to "beat" his guy and get to the rim) and in general staying in front of his man. When the player can just shoot over him Felton's height comes into play and he's not so good.

Isn't Ben Gordon something like 6'2"? Can't see Felton's height being a set back there.

Of course, if he is going to sag off him and then just stroll out to him hands down when he does get the ball then he isn't doing himself any favors. We all lambaste Crash for doing the exact same thing. Felts is worse than Crash when it comes to giving his man too much space and not closing out quick enough.

And I mean, know your opponent. It's Ben freaking Gordan. Shooting J's is what he does. Why make it easy for him?

spectre_ wrote:When we can't stop dribble penetration...which has pretty much been all the time since Raja got hurt...everyone is trying to help. That's geting the other team a bunch of wide open looks, and a good jump shooting team will take advantage.

Gordon averages over 20 ppg and most is from the outside. Most bigger guards...and that includes Raja...have a hard time stopping him from gettting his shot off. Felton is at 6'-0" and Gordon is probably around 6'-2". If they have roughly the same athleticism AND players are having to sag off their guy to help with the penetration (LOL, and just "stroll" out to him!) then he's going to get his shot off.

And let's not forget we're asking an average/below average sized PG to cover a SG, which normally tends to not favor said PG.

Maybe if Rose didn't just own our defense (esp. in the 1st half) guys could have just focused on their own cover instead of trying to stop the drive. Why are you ignoring that? If I'm not mistaken you called DJ an "above average defender" just the other day...but your focus on bad defense is solely on Felton?

Again, they don't play in a vacuum. There is more to what's going on than just covering your own man.

It was a Catch 22 for me, I got to watch the game on tv for once as it was on WGN, but had to hear their announcers say things such as:

"Coach needs to tell Jefferson you're trying real hard but you're killing us."

"Radmanovic needs to shave that Castro beard."

Needless to say this got old very fast.

Wallace is far, far worse at closing out than Felton is. Wallace gives space to opponents just for the hell of it. I don't see Felton doing that.

And I agree with Spectre. When Will freakin' Bynum abused DJ, we heard nothing from people on this board.

I've stayed away from it for most of this season since some of the worst Felton Fanatics have been MIA this season, but...

...bench Felton for the final 6 minutes of the 4th quarter. Please. I wanted to retain him, but time and time again, he tries to take over in clutch time, and it's no surprise that he (and we) usually fail. He's made one game-winning shots in over three seasons, even though he's almost always the one that takes our shots in the final minutes of the 4th quarter.

If we can trade him, we should. He hurts our team too much by his 4th quarter failures. It's unbelievable how this team, both its coach and his teammates, allow him to keep trying to be superman in the 4th. It's ridiculous. 9 times out of 10 it hurts us, and we still keep going to him. He needs to be benched when it matters most, or he needs to go.

If we keep letting Felton be our go-to guy in the most important moments of the game, we will continue to disappoint. You would think 3+ seasons of watching the results would make this obvious to all.

spectre_ wrote:Maybe if Rose didn't just own our defense (esp. in the 1st half) guys could have just focused on their own cover instead of trying to stop the drive. Why are you ignoring that? If I'm not mistaken you called DJ an "above average defender" just the other day...but your focus on bad defense is solely on Felton?

Didn't want to ignore it, just didn't see the sense in making this a Felts Vs DJ thing but if calling out DJ is the only way to justify Felts D (or lack there of), then so be it.

I recorded the game and if I get a chance tonight I'll watch it again to see how Rose got his points and how Gordon got his points. I'm pretty sure I remember Rose scoring over everyone last night - DJ, Felts, Boris and Crash all fell victim to him when he was so hot in the 1st half.

Even the Bulls commentators questioned Felts D on Gordon. They were the ones who used "strolled" and they also pointed out Felton going out to guard Gordon with his arms down not even making an effort to alter the shot.

If I don't get a chance tonight, I'll watch the game later in the week and post what I see.

i missed most of the games last week, but i did see the bulls game cause it was on wgn (no bobcats at the beach in nc). i'm ready to see what this team can do w/out felton taking every shot in the 4th quarter. as long as felton as here, this is going to continue... at least until we get a clear cut #1 option on offense.

I don't blame it all on Felton, I mean in the 4th quarter you need either a big you can dump the ball down to and he can score on the block or pass out of a double team or a player that can create his own shot.

We don't have a Big like that and the only guy we have that can create his own shot is Felton. I mean Wallace can sometimes but he's a slasher and not good enough midrange. Felton is really the only guy we have that can break his man down and get off a decent shot. I guess thats why he takes them and why no one else gets mad that he takes them.