Sunday, January 13, 2008

Herculean Bobcats Efforts


You're so pretty when you're angry. (Photo by Chuck Burton, AP.)

Brethren: The Bobcats don't have a healthy point guard on the roster (Ray Ray, McInnis (aka me), and DAnderson are all injured), and yet this team has taken the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Detroit Piston to double OT and OT, respectively, since their win over the Celtics on Wednesday.

That takes cajones. And since it's past time for "moral victories" to be accepted by this team, I like that head coach Sam Vincent is taking the latest loss (103-100 to Detroit at home) personally.

Here's how the game went down: The 'Cats dressed only 8, with rookie Jared Dudley and sharp-shooter-who-hasn't-done-that-so-far-this-year Matt Carroll as the starting backcourt. Despite the seemingly-outrageous obstacles, the Bobcats took the Pistons to OT. Here's where it gets tricky. Down one, J-Rich takes a fall-away jumper that looks like it's going to fall short. Seeing this, Mek tips the ball to the other side of the rim, and Nazr tips it in for the win!

Or wait, the refs, in their infinite wisdom, decide that Mek was goaltending, and the Bobcats turn the ball over to Pistons. Two made free throws later, another Bobcat loss.

Like I said, Sam Vincent is pissed. He wants the same treatment the Heat got against the Hawks in their loss from back in December. I'm with him. Video evidence, plus general musings, desde:

Brethren (cont'd): Well, ESPN won't let you embed their videos, and I can't get the file I downloaded from NBA.com to upload to YouTube, so here's the link to the video at the WWL. Visit them, watch the video, then come back.

Back? Yea, it definitely was a legal tip.

So even if David Stern continues his hate on the Bobcats and we don't get the same treatment as the Miami Heat, I like that Vincent is standing up for this team. Getting no respect from the officials was one of the staples of the first three years under good ole' Bernie Bickerstaff, and it seems to still be an issue under Sam Vincent.

That said, maybe if we had shot better than 65.6% from the free throw line, the game wouldn't have gone to OT. Just a thought.

Keep fightin, Cats. Bring on the Nuggets!

No comments: