The Charlotte Bobcats shouldn't be struggling against also-rans like the Washington Wizards. That might even be generous to the Wiz; they're more like never-weres, even with Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison in the fold. Despite floundering for three and a half quarters, the Cats beat the Wizards in overtime tonight, 95-86. It was Washington's 12th straight loss. Charlotte is now 36-34. The victory set a new franchise record for wins in a season.
Washington's bench seemed to surprise Charlotte. It seemed like everyone who came in made a solid contribution, which they needed after Andray Blatche played less than eight minutes before dropping out, probably due to injury. James Singleton did yeoman's work, Alonzo Gee beat the buzzer at the end of a period with a three, and Fabricio Oberto did Oberto things. Again, I ask you, how does a rotation with these fellows make a run at a playoff team?
It was hardly confidence-inspiring, but a win is a win. Let's blow Minnesota out of the building tomorrow, m'kay?
Game thread comment, lowlights, and highlights after the jump.
GAME THREAD COMMENT
Ourdaywillcome -- If we win, it'll be because Washington simply out-sucked us. (DA: Truer words could not be said.)
BAD
-- Gerald Wallace, my man. I love you, but you have no business taking 17 shots (5-17 from the field) unless you're totally unstoppable and going for 40 points. A lot of Crash's value is tied up in defense, rebounding, and his relatively new scoring mentality of only taking high-percentage shots. Fewer shots is generally better for Gerald. He offset a lot of that (as you'll see in the Good section), but as we've seen with Jax over the months, that's a ton of possessions going the other way. If Gerald is merely himself on offense, this game wouldn't have been close.
-- 22-34 from the free throw line is pretty bad. I'll give you lessons on the Rick Barry style. I'm about 70% that way in game situations. And my services are free.
-- Are we really going from Stephen Graham to Larry Hughes when Gerald Henderson and Derrick Brown are on hand? Hughes's best-case scenario is that he does as well, in sum, as Raja Bell did for us. But I'd argue that using Henderson and Brown in those minutes would provide the same upside right now with the added benefit of giving those guys valuable experience. Based on the past few years, we're in for more 1-5 nights from Hughes than should be acceptable. He was okay in 30 games with Chicago last year, but other than that stint, he hasn't been rotation-worthy since 2006.
GOOD
-- Wallace counteracted a good amount of his terrible shooting night by pulling down 19 rebounds. Crash is The Man.
-- Theo Ratliff shot 5-6 from the field for 10 points in 22 minutes, and grabbed 7 rebounds. It's hard to miss when you're doing a standing dunk. Don't take jumpers, Theo, and all will be well.
-- The Bobcats played a horrifically bad offensive game (again), scoring only 11 points in the second quarter. But they locked down on defense to barely preserve the win. The Wiz turned it over 18 times (to the Cats' 14), scoring only scored 17 points in the fourth quarter and 4 in overtime.