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Tyrus Thomas, PF 20 MIN | 3-5 FG | 0-0 FT | 6 REB | 0 AST | 6 PTS | +2
This is basically what we’ve come to expect from Thomas this season. It wasn’t a performance that makes you want to throw the remote through your television, but it wasn’t a very promising outing either. Aside from a (very) short period in the third quarter when he had a nice put back dunk followed by a sweet contested turnaround jumper, he was stagnant on offense. He looked ok on defense, but ok isn’t what the Bobcats are paying Thomas to be. |
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Gerald Henderson, G 35 MIN | 6-12 FG | 2-2 FT | 1 REB | 2 AST | 15 PTS | -11
Hendo had a solid game, and did an OK job guarding Williams in the second half. It would’ve been nice to see him grab a few more rebounds, though. |
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Byron Mullens, C 21 MIN | 1-5 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 2 PTS | 0
That stat line just isn’t going to cut it for 7 Feet of Smooth. He had a chance to show out against a smaller Nets’ front court, but he whiffed at the opportunity. |
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D.J. Augustin, PG 8 MIN | 0-0 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 2 AST | 0 PTS | -6
Augustin injured his big toe early on, and from there, it was all down hill for the ‘Cats. The C here is more of a “no answer.” |
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Kemba Walker, PG 32 MIN | 5-13 FG | 5-7 FT | 6 REB | 4 AST | 16 PTS | -8
Walker can’t really be faulted for his missed shots. He made the right decision all night and his shots just weren’t falling. I hate to beat a dead horse, but he needs to get better on defense. Those six rebounds were nice, though, and show just how tough this rookie is. |
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Eduardo Najera, PF 18 MIN | 2-3 FG | 0-0 FT | 4 REB | 0 AST | 6 PTS | -3
He didn’t really stand out too much, except on the last foul of the game when he hugged Anthony Morrow for about ten seconds. |
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Matt Carroll, SG 18 MIN | 3-11 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 2 AST | 6 PTS | -3
For a guy who’s supposed to be a shooter, 3-11 and 0-3 is pretty embarrassing. He also embarrassed the Nets by scoring four of his six points on driving layups. |
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Boris Diaw, PF 19 MIN | 2-3 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 4 AST | 4 PTS | -19
I’m just about done believing that Diaw is going to turn things around. He passes out of scoring situations way too much, he’s a defensive liability and he just looks lost on the court right now. |
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Derrick Brown, F 30 MIN | 5-11 FG | 0-2 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 11 PTS | +1
Brown was very active all game. His two steals are evidence of that, and even though he’s not known for being a scorer, he did have a few nice moves on his way to 11 points tonight. |
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Cory Higgins, G 20 MIN | 5-10 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 1 AST | 10 PTS | -3
He got torched on defense and wasn’t very effective on offense. I kind-of sort-of thought he was trying to hurt the rim when he was taking threes. |
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Bismack Biyombo, C 18 MIN | 5-6 FG | 1-4 FT | 7 REB | 1 AST | 11 PTS | 0
Can we get a #freebismack trend going? All the guy does is play hard, play defense, and play smart offense. Silas HAS to give him more playing time going forward. On a team this bad, there’s no reason not to play him. An A+ might be a little much, but he was the only light on a pretty dim night of Bobcats basketball. |
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Four Things We Saw
- Bad basketball: The Nets are really bad. Like, tear out your hair, kick a hole in the wall (if you’re a fan) bad. The Bobcats are worse. No one plays as poorly in the first quarter as the Nets do, and Charlotte still managed to fall behind 28-21 after one frame. If it wasn’t for Charlotte’s reserves, the Bobcats would’ve gotten blown out in this game. Which brings me to:
- Energy on Reserve: At least there are a few players on the Bobcats’ roster that don’t like getting pushed around. Too bad those players aren’t in the starting lineup. For the second game in a row, the ‘Cats deep bench players outplayed the starters. They fought hard, chased the Nets around and generally looked like they wanted to be out there.
- Take the Reins: Spencer Percy said it best after the game when he tweeted “QCsportscrave: Augustin out at least for next two games. Well Kemba, the show is yours.” The team didn’t look that much better (or worse) tonight with Walker running it than when Augustin was the team’s lone starting point guard. Still, Charlotte’s youngsters might respond to Walker’s gung-ho, attack-first mentality.
- Diaw’s Scalp: The man shaved his hair off. Hopefully he didn’t think it would make him play better.
Kemba and Bismack are the future, they need a lot more PT. Kemba will naturally be getting it with Augustin injured, but Bismack needs more time also, this is the next Kobe-Shaq combo, they’ve gotta be out on the court, not riding the bench! I really like how Hendo has stepped his game up, he’s exceeded my expectations, sadly the opposite is true of Thomas. Something has to be done to either coach him up or ship him out, because he just isn’t getting it done. Mullens was an extreme disappointment tonight also, he can do better and he needs to. Of course in the case of both Mullens and Thomas, they’re young enough that they could still improve, Coach Silas has his hands full with so many young guys, but that’s his speciality, coaching up the youngsters into real Superstars. Hopefully he can do it again.
[...] Meetings: 1/22/2012 – 97-87 New Jersey – Recap – [...]