The Charlotte Bobcats needed overtime, but they defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 87-86. Talk about a barn burner. Neither team shot particularly well from the field, and there were no standout offensive performers, but that's almost to be expected given Larry Brown's and Scott Skiles's philosophies.
Game thread comments, lowlights, and highlights after the jump.
GAME THREAD COMMENTS
Ft.Mill Bobcat -- Maybe LB thought it would work out like Theo. LB should have figured out by now that Hughes can not help the Bobcats win games. He may be OK insurance in case we have some injuries, but he is a downgrade to every other guard on the roster.
Roger, Roger -- We can bitch and moan all we want about [Chandler] this season, but remember, as a player, it’s been very frustrating for him as well. Good to see he’s finally starting to enjoy himself, and contributing to the team.
BAD
-- I mentioned above that there were no offensive standouts. Insert joke about Larry Hughes's game being offensive. Dude shot 0-7 from the field and had 0 assists. He's there, ostensibly, for his defense, so he shouldn't be shooting so much, but he's also told the TV folks that he's getting more and more comfortable with his new teammates... and once he is comfortable, then he'll shoot more. That's paraphrased from what I remember the TV people saying a game or two ago, but the 7 shots is more than Boris Diaw and Gerald Wallace each took.
-- I'm not sure if this belongs under "Bad", or somewhere else, but I'll stick it here... Stephen Jackson took 28 shots from the field. That's 35% of the team's shots. He also had 6 turnovers, which may not have been bad in and of itself, but definitely indicates the ball was in his hands that much more. I'm not sure it's ideal strategy to allocate the team's shots that heavily to Jack. A part of me wonders if the team really is best-served by having one guy be such a volume shooter while just about everyone else is extra-cautious in their attempts to be efficient from the field. But then another part of me wonders if they actually did spread the shots around, might that negatively affect everyone else because defenses wouldn't be keying on Jack so often?
GOOD
-- In 23 minutes, Tyson Chandler provided the high level of play that we'd hoped we'd get for full games. He's getting to the line, getting rebounds, and playing solid defense. Chandler finished with 7 points on 2-3 from the field, and 6 rebounds.
-- Theo Ratliff has cut down on his shots, it seems. This time out, he only took 4 shots, but also grabbed 9 boards in 27 minutes. Combining that kind of support play with Chandler's makes for an exceptionally valuable center duo.
-- Boris Diaw didn't score well, shooting 3-6 for 6 points, but he pulled down 9 rebounds and blocked 4 shots in his 44 minutes.