Bobcats cool off Heat, take season series
Posted by Brett on 03/09/2010Boxscore
Score: 83-78 Charlotte
Charlotte Bobcats record: 31-31
Offensive Efficiency: 93.3
Defensive Efficiency: 85.7
Meritorious Player: Raymond Felton - a big 3 late that gave the Bobcats the lead for the first time since the opening minutes capped off Raymond's solid night. Ray finished with 15 points, 11 assists, 4 rebounds, and just 3 turnovers (yes, just - this was a defensive battle and there were plenty of opportunities for Ray to have lost the ball as the Heat showed hard when he would come off a screen). 4 Bobcats players took more than 10 field goal attempts - Felton was the only one of them to score better than a point per attempt. Tonight, that was enough.
Why was it enough? The cliched title tells it all - the Bobcats slowed the Heat's offense to a crawl in the second half, allowing just 30 points after the break, with 18 in the 3rd and just 12 in the final frame. The jump-shots that were falling early started bouncing off and the Cats held the Heat to just 7 offensive rebounds, while grabbing 36 defensive caroms. For anyone who loves to watch a defensive struggle, this was your game. Had it not been for Jermaine O'Neal's trip to the Fountain of Youth (19 points on 7 of 11 shooting and 3 blocks), the Heat would have proved as inept as the two team's last meeting (when the Heat scored just 65 points). As it was, Jermaine just delayed the inevitable - the Bobcats started slow, with a bit too many careless passes (and illegal screens - there were 7 offensive fouls between the two teams) but the ball movement improved late and a couple of timely fastbreaks sealed it.
Speaking of fastbreaks - D.J. Augustin ran a couple by himself tonight and impressed with his ability to create points - if he did not finish at the rim, he seemed to draw a whistle. He put up 8 straight points for the Cats in the 4th to take it from a 72-63 game to a 72-71 margin. D.J. played just 13 minutes on the night, and only had 2 points outside of that solo-run, but it was a bit more of the player we had expected to see coming into the year, and a seeming continuation of his recent solid play. As tough as Raymond is, he has to sit sometimes and D.J. is making that a little less un-nerving of late.
I mentioned above, but I'll fill in the details here: The Cats did not shoot well. Stephen Jackson went 6 of 17 for 17. Gerald Wallace shot 3 of 11 for just 8 points. Boris Diaw had 11 on 4 of 11. But they all contributed in other ways. Crash had 17 rebounds. Diaw followed up his near triple-double against the Warriors with 8 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 blocks tonight. Stephen Jackson? He only helped hold Dwayne Wade to 27 points and 4 turnovers on 11 of 26 shooting. Oh, and just assists for Wade, following a week where he won Eastern Conference Player of the Week while averaging 33 and 12 assists. So, Jax had a bit of a role in the W - once you look past the offensive contributions.
As of my writing this, the Bobcats are currently in a 3-way tie with Chicago and Miami for the 7th spot in the East...but, Chicago is trailing Utah by 8 in the 4th and the Cats own the tie-breaker on the Heat now. So, no matter what happens in Chicago tonight, the Cats will be no worse than 8th in the morning, and could be sitting at the 7th spot with 20 games to go in the season. That'll do.
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