GT: Cats vs Pistons Wed Feb 19 7PM EST

[fatlever]

Al interviewed after the game on XM radio, asked about Cody playing well, said he kicked Cody in the butt last night and told him to stop playing so weak. Go Al.

Al might end up passing Wallace as my favorite Bobcat ever

he sure as hell is more entertaining than crash during interviews.

that just reminded me of one of my favorite threads of all time - Crash's diary as he rode in a bus from LA to Charlotte when a collapsed lung. that tread was gold. i need to dig that up.

[fatlever]

Another big assist night, 32 on 42 made field goals.

the ball movement the past few weeks has been stellar. i'm not sure what was the catalyst, but it seemed to start during jefferson's hot streak, continuing when kemba was out. i think finally kemba is off the hook for being the teams primary offensive option, allowing for more of a pass happy offense as everyone is zipping the ball around looking for ways to get the ball to either jefferson, the cutters or AT in the corner. kemba as a #2 option is a nice thing. kemba as a #3 option would be absolutely amazing.

[KembaWalker]

props to the coaching staff really. been great at d all year, now they are figuring out simple ways to get good shots on pretty much every possession when they really want to.

one thing about the Pistons bigs I noticed though is that they are way too damn lazy. maybe I'm wrong eyeball test shows me that our offense chugs a lot more when Al is being fronted. Monroe/Drummond barely tried it. young guys like that should be giving more effort. Garnett has 10x the mileage of those guys and was fronting Al every play. Heat fronted Al every play and it worked well enough. its a matter of effort and they didn't give any

[fatlever]

such a massive difference in our offense from that first preseason game vs the hawks. remember how difficult of a time we had even getting the ball into al's hands, let alone in a spot where he wanted it. kudos for the coaching staff figuring out a ton of clever plays to get the ball to al in his sweet spots.

[HornetJail]

such a massive difference in our offense from that first preseason game vs the hawks. remember how difficult of a time we had even getting the ball into al's hands, let alone in a spot where he wanted it. kudos for the coaching staff figuring out a ton of clever plays to get the ball to al in his sweet spots.

Remember back in December when we saw how talented Al was, but thought he was fairly one-dimensional and everyone was worried that he was a horrible fit with us and that we made a $41M mistake? yeah those days are in the past.

[catch20two]

I think Dumars might get fired tonight or tomorrow after these last 2 games. Lol

[thruthefire]

are people seriously complaining about MKG not playing in garbage time?

No, because he didn't play at all in the 4th.

[fatlever]

are people seriously complaining about MKG not playing in garbage time?

No, because he didn't play at all in the 4th.

why are people complaining that he didnt play in the 4th? he didnt play in the 4th last night either. both games we won. we didnt need a defensive stopper to guard the wings in either game. last night we needed spacing to give jefferson room, so we went with AT and tonight we needed an extra guard so we went with sessions. both were the right decisions by clifford.

[Eoghan]

Al interviewed after the game on XM radio, asked about Cody playing well, said he kicked Cody in the butt last night and told him to stop playing so weak. Go Al.

There go our playoff hopes b/c Al will surely injure his foot from having to kick Cody in the butt before every game.

[thruthefire]

are people seriously complaining about MKG not playing in garbage time?

No, because he didn't play at all in the 4th.

why are people complaining that he didnt play in the 4th? he didnt play in the 4th last night either. both games we won. we didnt need a defensive stopper to guard the wings in either game. last night we needed spacing to give jefferson room, so we went with AT and tonight we needed an extra guard so we went with sessions. both were the right decisions by clifford.

Why did we need an extra guard exactly? Detroit had Bynum-Stuckey-Smith-Jerebko-Drummond early in the fourth, followed by Bynum-Jennings-Singler-Smith-Monroe later.

Anyway, Tolliver played most of the fourth before he subbed out for Hendo.

MKG was +16 through 3 quarters, so it certainly wouldn't have been the wrong decision to give him the same fourth-quarter burn as the other starters. Sure, it didn't affect the outcome of the game, but I'm pretty sure we would have been fine had Hendo and Al not checked back in either with a 15-point lead late in the game.

[fatlever]

not sure MKG is going to see any crunchtime minutes until he gets over his most recent shooting woes. the missed FTs and the dip in outside shooting (who thought that was even possible) combined with ATs blazing form are making it tough to justify playing MKG over AT at the end of games... unless we desperately need MKG to guard a lebron, melo, george type player at the end of a game.

at least MKG hit a jumper tonight (first one i can remember in a few weeks). so thats a start.

[vorbis]

not sure MKG is going to see any crunchtime minutes until he gets over his most recent shooting woes. the missed FTs and the dip in outside shooting (who thought that was even possible) combined with ATs blazing form are making it tough to justify playing MKG over AT at the end of games... unless we desperately need MKG to guard a lebron, melo, george type player at the end of a game.

at least MKG hit a jumper tonight (first one i can remember in a few weeks). so thats a start.

i think a playoff series could be really important for MKG's confidence. seeing the same set of players for 4+ games in a row. i still feel like he can achieve a higher level of competence. maybe the same for biyombo, zeller, kemba. they're all so young (kemba's the oldest at 23). any one of them could really blossom from the experience that a post-season showing (aka non-sweep) could provide.

[Snidely FC]

Josh Smith did have an incredible transition dunk, but that does not erase 14 points on 18 shots with four rebounds. He forced his shot far too often, and let's not talk about his three 3-point attempts, all of which missed.

Seriously, who the hell would trade for this guy? My least favorite player in the league.

[countryboi]

Josh Smith did have an incredible transition dunk, but that does not erase 14 points on 18 shots with four rebounds. He forced his shot far too often, and let's not talk about his three 3-point attempts, all of which missed.

Seriously, who the hell would trade for this guy? My least favorite player in the league.

every time he shot a three all i could thing was he cant help himself. he knows he cant shoot yet he takes bad shot after bad shot.

[catch20two]

Josh Smith did have an incredible transition dunk, but that does not erase 14 points on 18 shots with four rebounds. He forced his shot far too often, and let's not talk about his three 3-point attempts, all of which missed.

Seriously, who the hell would trade for this guy? My least favorite player in the league.

I think Smith is a decent player yet overpaid. The Pistons just isn't helping his case by making him play SF with ill fitting parts. The only team that might trade for him is a team that has a even worst contract on their books like the Knicks whenever Amare's contract is about to expire.

[LamarMatic7]

so I didn't have the time to post anything last night since Latvia had an awesome game against Canada in hockey and of course after the game we got carried away. but I've seen both games and I have to say that I'm proud of the team. it can be really tough to win these back-to-backs against the same team. most of the time teams split these. yet we looked so much better than Detroit who is on our level talent-wise.

it really felt like it was an 8-quarter long game. they were so similar and I liked how our guys put together such a consistent stretch of basketball. it seems like we've found our rotation and everybody is getting the right amount of minutes. the offense has hit its stride and is going smoothly, it isn't a coincidence that we just had that 42-assist game on 45 FGs and that last night Kemba had a career high in assists. the ball moves where it should and we do find good shots out of Al in the post or Kemba in the PnR. it seemed like MKG was the guy we want him to be on offense, he made some really nice cuts and aggressive moves. unfortunately, the free throws didn't fall but what the heck.. McBob always seemed to make the right play and was money with this three or penetrated to find the open man. Al.. damn, this is a big front-line against him. but when he gets it going, pure size can't really stop him. Monroe and Drummond had no idea how to stop him. Biz did what he needs to do in his minutes. Cody even had a good second game. Tolliver is a great role player for us. I could go on and on.

we looked like a real team. good basketball, good emotions.. it was cool to see how happy Tolly was after the win. meanwhile, Detroit was something you don't want to be. They still haven't really figured out how to give out minutes to the three big guys. Jennings got bitchy at the end of both games. Josh Smith was just bad. horrible shots galore (I yelled out "YEEEES!" when he decided to take a three the first game during their run in the fourth quarter. it really ended there) and questionable decisions on defense, his mind just kept drifting and he kept helping out on D in a unnecessary manner, leaving McBob and MKG open.

some more random thoughts:

it seems like Biz blocks Will Bynum every time we play against them.

What's up with Sesh? I totally didn't expect him to throw that down during the first game. He's had many dunks as of late.

I loved to look for Ben Gordon and Charlie V on their respective benches in the battle of who will look the most disinterested. (funny that both guys were brought in by Dumars in the same summer) Charlie won in the end though as even Gordon was happy and celebrated the second win after the final buzzer.

Steve Martin with a mistake for ages. Quincy Jones is on his Mount Rushmore, lol.


/a hungover Lamar over and out!!!

[LamarMatic7]

damn, that post was a mess.

but, yeah, basically what I wanted to say is that we looked like a good basketball team and that every one who gets minutes has a purpose and he fulfilled it during these two games (minus Cody in the first game). Detroit was just the opposite. talking with the refs, bad body language, not the best offensive chemistry.

[mrknowitall215]

MVP: Kemba Walker and Al Jefferson. Walker had a career-high 16 assists compared to 20 for the Detroit Pistons, while Jefferson scored 29 points, had 12 in the third quarter, and frustrated both Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe.

Defining moment: Detroit was down by six at the half, but Charlotte started the third quarter with a 17-3 run. That stretch gave the Bobcats a comfortable lead, one which the Pistons battled valiantly against but could never seriously dent.

LVP: Josh Smith did have an incredible transition dunk, but that does not erase 14 points on 18 shots with four rebounds. He forced his shot far too often, and let's not talk about his three 3-point attempts, all of which missed.

-- Paul McGuire, Red94

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