The Bobcats put up a spirited fight against the Boston Celtics on the road, but got blown away in the fourth quarter by a series of threes from Ray Allen, eventually losing, 99-94. Shaquille O`Neal and Allen led the way for Boston, scoring 23 and 19, respectively, while the Cats got solid production from Gerald Wallace and Boris Diaw, especially in the second half. On the flip side, Stephen Jackson giveth some games, and in this game he taketh.
Game thread comment, lowlights, and highlights after the jump.
GAME THREAD COMMENT
Newsinz -- Hack-a-Shaq isn't just a strategy. It's a way of life.
BAD
-- Swagger is part of what makes Jax who he is. But the downside of his brand of swag is the occasional occasional 5-17 shooting night. He ended up with only 13 points after all those shots, and combined with his subpar defensive work, he was probably the biggest reason the Cats lost.
GOOD
-- The Cats got to the line for 34 free throw attempts (to 25 for the Celtics). They were able to stay on the fringes of competition thanks to the free throw disparity, because the Celtics shot far better from the field, most notably on threes.
-- Wallace scored 20 points on 12 attempts, and pulled down 6 rebounds. He's not the force of nature he was last season, but he seems to be the guy he was the few previous years, which is still a crazy-fun dude to watch and worthy of appreciation.
-- D.J. Augustin only shot 5-11 from the field, but two of those makes were threes, and he made all his free throws (7-7), ending up with 19 points and 6 assists.
-- Diaw was invisible early on, but apparently someone dented his Segway, and he got fired up in the second half. By the end of the game, he was the Cats' leading rebounder, with 8, and shot 4-7 for 11 points. (Side rant: Segways are ridiculously gluttonous. They are to bicycling as Escalades are to Matrices. Any non-handicapped person who uses a Segway does it to draw attention to himself as the type of person who can afford a luxury form of transportation like a Segway. For regular folks, whatever. If you want to spend your money that way, go for it. What grinds my gears is when the Charlotte police department pays $5,600 per Segway when a $500 bicycle would do the exact same thing.)