Though the Charlotte Bobcats defeated the Los Angeles Clippers 106-98 without much issue, the big story was All Star Gerald Wallace's ankle injury, suffered just before the end of the first half on a Baron Davis flagrant foul. Stephanie Ready reported just after the break that the injury was only a sprain, and not a break, which is good news. But losing their best player for any stretch of time will hamper the Cats' run at a playoff spot.
Game thread comments, lowlights, and highlights after the jump.
GAME THREAD COMMENTS
PoAshton -- 10 7 7 8 7 8 4 8 11 8 2 = 7.27/game. This is our teams blocks per game since Tyrus and Theo have come aboard. For the season the league leader is Chicago with 5.9/game. While a small sample size, the last 11 games have been pretty interesting block-wise.
Ourdaywillcome -- This is the first time Wallace has left a game or missed a game this season where the entire room didn’t spazz out. Our team has grown up to the point we can handle being without our Terminator for a night.
BAD
-- Gerald Wallace's injury will affect everything with this team. Heaven forfend Stephen Graham making his way back into the starting lineup. The best case scenario would be Gerald Henderson getting twenty-some minutes per game as the starting SG with Stephen Jackson moving to SF. Obviously, that's not a playoff-caliber starting lineup, but if Gerald misses games, they may as well get the rook his badly-needed PT.
-- The Cats are lucky the Clips turned it over more than 20 times. Some of that was their doing, of course, but they also gave up 58% shooting from the field and 47% from three (and those were with desperation threes getting launched in the fourth).
GOOD
-- Before leaving, Gerald was 7-8 shooting for 17 points and he pulled down 6 rebounds. I'll be upset if he doesn't finish top ten in MVP voting.
-- Tyson Chandler is back. I picked on him in the game thread photo caption, but when the dude plays, he's capable of contributing in ways specifically good for this team that most other centers in the league wouldn't be able to do.