Bobcats Lose at Home to Dallas Mavericks

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Despite being down by 16-18 points in the third quarter, hot shooting from DJ Augustin late in the game brought the Bobcats back but it wasn’t enough.  Final score 92-101.  Don’t believe the box score, I thought it’d give me insight for writing this post but nope.  Mine eyes, they do deceive me.  I figured the Mavericks must have beaten the Bobcats on offensive rebounds and that was the difference.  Wrong.  Bobcats carried that stat 15-14.  I thought for sure it was overall rebounding by a ton, wrong again.  Closer than I thought, Bobcats 40 Mavs 44.  Turnovers?  Had to be turnovers, Bobcats were second to worst in the league not long ago, must have been turnovers and points off.  The Mavs were exactly double the ‘Cats turnover numbers, 5 to 10 and 7 points to 14 points off.

It was one of those straight up beat-downs, that the underdog sort of makes a game out of, somehow.  Paul Silas liked it.  His postgame comments were positive.  It’s sort of like running into a buzzsaw.  The Mavs, as stated in the preview, had won 7 straight with Dirk Nowitski back in the lineup, and just beat Boston in Boston.  They’re strong and while not insurmountable, a certainly difficult opponent.  Silas mentioned Jason Terry and Nowitski as their “go to guys” and they definitely didn’t disappoint Rick Carlisle.  They combined for 40% of the Mavs’ attempts and 45% of their points.  They weren’t unstoppable, but the Bobcats didn’t find anyone to limit them.  Both players bested their averages.

Just 9 points too much.  When the Bobcats were down, they were not out however.  This is truly promising, where the team would have probably quit on Larry Brown, they’re fighting their way back into games under Paul Silas.  DJ Augustin, actually getting a bit of attention from a national audience, continues to play his game to the Bobcats benefit.  His three point shooting, after I said he should knock that crap off and drive to the hoop, got the Bobcats back in the game late in the fourth quarter.  He’s as solid as I’ve seen.  He doesn’t turn the ball over and frustrate like Raymond Felton did.  I’ll go ahead and say that DJ, in place of Ray-Ray, might just work out.

I didn’t expect a win tonight.  I hoped and believed that they could win but it wasn’t going to be the end of the world losing, yet again (never beat them) to the Mavericks.  I don’t know if it’s a mental block, a match-up issue or the product of a thousand tiny coincidences, but it just hasn’t happened yet and the good thing is, hey, we only see those guys twice a year!

Tyson Chandler likely saw my twitter feed at halftime, where I had called him a joke, not once but twice.  He scored a lonely free throw in the whole of the 2nd half.  I figure someone told Kwame Brown that if you play Tyson a bit on the physical side he folds like a lawn chair.  I just find it odd and somewhat atrocious that a guy who averages 63 games a year (out of a possible 82 for those of you in Gastonia), has his best year ever in a contract year.  And personally, I’m offended that he’s played in almost as many games so far this year as he did in all of his time last year as a Bobcat.  And how many of those games as a Bobcat could have been sort of on the “half-trying” side of things?  I’d be embarrassed if it were that blatant!

The Mavs are good, they’re complete, and you know what sucks?  They’re not even close to healthy.  They have Caron Butler, All-Star talent, on the shelf for the year.  They traded Alexis Ajinca (basically) for Peja Stojakovic who is on the mend and not participating.  These guys are second in a very difficult Western Conference right now.  They are not a team to be taken lightly.

Again, no moral victories but I’m immensely glad that DJ, Gerald and Jack fought back to make a game of it down the stretch.  Going forward, they’ll learn.  Will they learn enough tonight, tomorrow and throughout the day Monday to put up a fight against Boston?  Remains to be seen my friends but I do think it will be much better than those early season beatdowns we’ve endured.  Maybe Ray Allen will trip getting off the plane, knock down KG and Paul Pierce and someone will expose Rondo for the fraud he is?  A guy can hope can’t he?