The Bobcats came home after a tough loss in Boston and matched the New Orleans Hornets shot for shot all night, but let the game slip away in the final minutes to lose, 88-81. Neither team played particularly poor offense, but they both played solid defense and slowed the game to a crawl.
Kwame Brown had, perhaps, his best game with Charlotte, scoring 12 points and pulling down 14 rebounds in only 30 minutes of action. For New Orleans, David West scored 26 points and grabbed 8 rebounds.
Game thread comment, lowlights, and highlights after the jump.
GAME THREAD COMMENT
Supercam -- MJ only owns 1 professional sports franchise. Might as well drive a Honda, too.
BAD
-- Gerald Wallace rarely finds himself in the Bad column because his defense is there 90% of the time, and it usually redeems his poor offensive games. While he did a good enough job defending Trevor Ariza and other wings, he shot only 5-13 for 15 points, and got only 3 rebounds. Part of that might be because Kwame was getting so many boards, but Gerald's value comes from doing big man things from a wing position, and if he's not doing that stuff, turning it over 3 times and getting blocked 4(!) times, he's very normal.
-- Tyrus Thomas played okay, with 8 points on 6 attempts, and 4 rebounds, in 19 minutes. But he had 3 turnovers, too, and with 2 1/2 minutes to go in the game, he recklessly swung his elbow at Emeka Okafor's chin, and got himself ejected.
-- Boris Diaw couldn't handle West on defense, and when Boris had the ball, he was only able to score 9 points on 11 attempts, all those points coming in the second half. Though it helped that he got 9 rebounds, his inability to slow down West hurt a lot.
GOOD
-- As noted above, Kwame Brown had an excellent game. At times, he was the best player on the floor, completely eliminating Emeka Okafor from the Hornets' offense, and then both flummoxing NOLA's team defense and cleaning up others' misses on the offensive end. He finished the game with 12 points on 6 attempts, and 14 rebounds, 5 offensive.
-- Stephen Jackson had a solid all-around game, scoring 15 points on 15 attempts, but also dishing 6 assists and grabbing 8 rebounds.