Bobcat Got The Tongue?

Late Saturday night found angry owner of the Charlotte Bobcats Michael Jordan charging into the locker room for a postgame tongue-lashing of his lackluster team. "I didn't say anything. Michael had a lot to say”, said Bobcats coach Larry Brown. Jordan had planned to address the team’s season form on Monday, but addressed the team after witnessing the team's poor night.

It was definitely not pretty but it was consecutive win number ten for the Celtics and it was in a 93-62 blowout victory over the Charlotte Bobcats. The Celts gave a good old-fashioned beating who were locked in with their team trademark defense. “Defensively, we were just talkative”, said Kevin Garnett. “The communication was loud, it was constant.” 

What is more impressive is that this team is winning with a multitude of injuries which has forced them into giving the 3rd string centre, Turkish rookie, Semih Erden significant playing time. 

“They’ll talk a lot about him in Turkey tonight,” Allen said. “He deserves the credit because he played well for us.” 

Although looking shaky in the low post on defence, you have got to give Semih his props as he continues to play hard despite requiring surgery on his severely injured shoulder. Semih recorded ten points and seven rebounds along with four blocks. He had the highest plus/minus of +34.

This wasn’t a game note worthy for its offense as the Bobcats and Celtics struggled in the first half with shooting percentages of 39% and 38% respectively. Pierce and Allen struggled in the first half with Pierce shooting 1/6 and finished 1-9. Allen finished 4-11 but scored 16 points with 6-6 in free throws.   

Doc has always preached defense particularly on offensive nights like this and it was the inspired play of Garnett along with the bench mobsters, Marquis Daniels and Glen “Growing Boy” Davis that lead to the lopsided victory. 

“That’s all we talked about this morning,” Rivers said. “We made a point about it (team defense). We’ve talked about our slippage over the last three or four games”.

Garnett recorded his 18th double-double of the season with 13 points and 11 rebounds in just 23 minutes.

“Second half, I thought we blew the game wide open with just out defense,” Garnett said. “I thought it lead to some easy baskets and some flow. The rest is history”.

Doc has placed Davis as the leader of the second unit in giving much needed continuity between the starters and the bench. He is picking up the pieces and his energy is astounding in setting screens, rebounding, taking charges (he leads the league at 27) passing as well as shooting. He recorded 16 points and 7 rebounds.

Marquis scored 10 points, shooting 2-3 3pts with 6 rebounds as well keeping his hands active in gaining 3 steals. “(We’re) just coming out, taking care of business and playing good Celtics basketball”, Marquis said.

Marquis and Davis triggered an 8-0 run at the end of the first quarter. Davis scored 9 points in the second quarter to hold the lead. The starters pushed the lead out to 17 in the third quarter on the back of Garnett’s strong play. 

For the Bobcats, saying it was a miserable night is an understatement. The lone highlight was Nazr Mohammed’s strong low post play of 14 points, 2 steals and 2 blocks as well as disrupting many more plays that weren’t recorded in the statistics.

However, when your 2 all stars score 21 points on 8-27 shooting and are as lifeless as a dead gold fish, what chance do you have, if any, of beating a contending team?

Hopefully Jordan’s talk is as inspiring as his game.