‘Cats in the Bag
Photo. Bootsy HollerCharlotte wasn’t just hanging with the Celtics last night despite not having Gerald Wallace (calf) in the lineup; they actually had the game in their pocket with a few seconds to go before blowing it. Down the stretch, the Bobcats offense was entirely predicated on penetration and pull-ups from J-Rich (25 pts), Ray Felton and Jeff McInnis. Emeka Okafor (being guarded by KG) was a decoy at best, and Jared Dudley was merely the fifth guy on the court as far as offense. In the final seconds, Boston was down two and needed a stop when the ‘Cats went to the same play they’d been running all night: Felton over-dribbling and trying to make a play that really wasn’t there, which led to a Garnett steal. (Boston called timeout at that point, and on the bench you could see Big Baby pantomiming his jumper like he was about to get in.) The ‘Cats got the ball back, still up by two, but Eddie House got a hand on Richardson’s inbounds pass, Paul Pierce fired the loose ball over to Ray Allen, and Ray stepped into a game-winning three at the buzzer … The Warriors also seemed to have their game against Philly in the bag, but didn’t score over the last four minutes in the forth and had to go to overtime. The Sixers had a shot to win it in regulation, running an iso for Andre Iguodala, who missed a pull-up J despite having Willie Green wide open in the corner. It wouldn’t be his last curious decision of the night. In overtime, down by one in the final seconds, Iguodala had it up top. He started to drive and then threw a weird-looking inaccurate alley oop to Sam Dalembert. Of course Sam couldn’t do anything with it, but luckily the Sixers got it back and Iguodala hit a tough runner to give them the lead. But on the next play, Baron Davis drove and spotted Kelenna Azubuike in the corner for the game-winning trey … The Warriors broadcast showed the players going back to the locker room through the tunnel after the W, and Pat O’Bryant (who never took off his warmups) looked less than enthused. He’s probably spent this whole East Coast road trip watching some of the bigs other teams are trotting out and wondering why he can’t find any burn … LeBron added the Raptors to the list of teams he’s single-handedly gutted recently, giving them 37 points, 12 boards and 12 dimes in a Cavs win. Damon Jones and Boobie Gibson stepped up and cashed in the open looks ‘Bron was getting them, and whenever Toronto got close down the stretch, LeBron would get a bucket to keep Cleveland ahead. Chris Bosh scored 41 in the loss and was automatic at the stripe (15-for-17), but would it be nit-picky to get on him for only grabbing four rebounds? In addition to LeBron and Big Z (15 rebs) outperforming CB4 in that respect, Bosh also grabbed fewer rebunds than Anthony Parker, Andrea Bargnani, Jamario Moon and Sasha Pavlovic … And while LeBron is knocking on Oscar Robertson averages, Sebastian Telfair played 12 minutes off the bench Saturday for the 1-10 Timberwolves. Remember when those two were almost on the same level (at least in terms of hype) in high school? It wasn’t that long ago … Numbers-wise, Shaq vs. Dwight was close. Diesel put up 20 points and 6 boards, while Dwight had 17 and 13. Orlando got the win, although Dwight was oddly uninvolved in the offense in a game where they put up 120 points … Flipped over to Nuggets/Rockets in the second half when Houston was already up by 20 — but it seemed every time we looked up, T-Mac or Yao was hitting an open man who was then bricking a three. So how did they build that lead in the first place? The Rockets’ announcers kept praising Shane Battier for his aggressiveness on offense, but he wasn’t making shots; triples and layups kept finding the rim … Is this what the Bulls have been reduced to: Being the team you want to see on your schedule when you’re going through a slump? The Knicks beat Chicago yesterday, snapping their losing streak and holding the Bulls to under 80 points again. This team (not the Knicks) is just a mess right now, but who do you blame? We gotta call out management. They did win a lot of games last year without that true low-post scorer everyone’s been screaming for, but how could a team with enough young talent and big contracts not make something happen for Garnett, Pau Gasol, Jermaine O’Neal or Zach Randolph when all of those guys could have been had this summer? … Maybe Texas is going to be better this year without Kevin Durant. Yesterday they torched Tennessee, who some people had as a darkhorse Final Four pick, getting 20-plus points from four guys: A.J. Abrams, D.J. Augustin, Connor Atchley and Justin Mason … Tired of hearing about this year’s star-laden freshman class? Sorry, we’ve got another one. Kentucky forward Patrick Patterson (a teammate of O.J. Mayo‘s at Huntington H.S. last year) put up 21 point, 7 boards, 5 assists, 5 steals and 2 blocks against Texas Southern yesterday. Senior Joe Crawford is the go-to guy on the Wildcats, but Patterson is their most important interior presence … We’re out like sweating the Bulls …
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November 25th, 2007 at 6:00 am
Str8baller says:
First
November 25th, 2007 at 7:39 am
Captain America says:
The in-bound pass by the ‘Cats was an errand one. There was someone open in the corner. Were they out of time outs?
November 25th, 2007 at 7:46 am
chillbug says:
nit-picky !! Not the first time for Dimecover boy Bosh.
The last two games avg 15.5 reb. The kid is trying (14 pts in the 4th)
November 25th, 2007 at 7:46 am
kobeef says:
It’s looking less and less likely that the bulls are going to turn this around. That team is heartless right now.
Didn’ see the game but was Dwight shut down by shaq? Dwight’s stats were confusing. I thought he would have a statement game against the heat. Somehow he was a non factor (for him) and they still won by 20..weird game
November 25th, 2007 at 9:45 am
Big Freeze says:
I think the Bulls will turn it around and make the playoffs this year in the weak East, but if that doesnt happen will it be Skiles’ last year?
Joakim Noah was correct when he said the team is out of sync, but he was punished for his comments. There is just no effort, no heart from the Bulls, but can you blame them? Almost everyone from their team has been mentioned in trade talks, so why would they continue to bust their ass when most likely they’re gonna get shipped off in a few weeks?
Lebron and co. killed another team last night, so where is that idiot Skip Bayless? If you don’t know what I’m talking about, he is the ESPN analyst who claimed that the Cavs would be better without Lebron. What a hater. I’m out like Noah’s P.T.
November 25th, 2007 at 10:34 am
jo says:
Please, make the comments’ count start with number “2″, because all those morons, who post “first” everytime are just disgusting to watch.
November 25th, 2007 at 10:46 am
mike says:
Dime, the raptors did get killed as far as rebounding goes, especially before Big Z fouled out, but it isn’t very intelligent of you guys to point out that those other raptors had more rebounds than bosh did, because the only reason they got more rebounds than bosh was because bosh was boxing out the cavs bigs, letting the likes of anthony parker get more rebounds. Also, Jamario Moon is a phenominal rebounder, he will average atleast 5+ boards from the SF spot if he keeps the same minutes and he was playing in the CBA last year, he should get more love in smack, great story. Not complaining or anything like that, i love dime and smack, but just had to point those few things out. Peace…
November 25th, 2007 at 11:41 am
G says:
As bad as Igoudala’s decision making was, 3 things were worse:
1. The sixers defensive rebounding was pathetic. Both teams were going small all night, but man the sixers were just getting destroyed on the glass in the second half.
2. The sixers offense is the ugliest thing ever. There is really no elaboration needed. Its just plain ugly.
3. There were way too many no calls down the stretch. I know the sixers dont have that superstar that commands fouls but still. Guys were getting straight mugged without calls.
November 25th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Dave says:
Jesus delivers.
November 25th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
mike says:
I just mentioned Jamario Moon this morning and what does he do this afternoon? 15 pts 9 rbs 6 blocks 3 steals. Just remember, this guy has never seen an NBA training camp before and has basically played in every league you possibly play in. Because the raps are a bit short on athleticism, this guy will be needed all season, so expect gerald wallace type numbers from this guy. Also, expect to see him in the dunk contest and in the rookie-sophmore game. We here in toronto are going nuts over this guy, you all should’ve seen him pull a dr. j today, this guy is crazy.
November 25th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
DOC says:
Bosh dont got no excuse hes just soft and he says it hiself all the time when he says he gotta stop being passive which is a nice word for a pussy
November 25th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
thamilan says:
I was talking about Jamario Moon back in the first game of the season. Dude has hops and can block the best of them. So far he has blocked Lebron, Luol Deng(atleast twice), Carlos Boozer, jermaine o’neal..that’s the only stars i can think of.
Bosh’s rebounding was low because as mentioned earlier, he boxes out players so his teammates can get ‘em. If you actually watched the game instead of the box score, you would know that. Be smart before talkin smack…bitches.
November 25th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
thamilan says:
By the way Calderon as a starter, as only turnover in the past 3 games…now that’s an all star.
November 25th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
2 Easy says:
I cant believe dude called Bosh a pussy. Dude got his head buss open played through it wit a big ass band aid on his eye ran to the locker real quick came back and as soon as he came on the floor buried a jumper. Dude only had 4 boards cause the Cavs were hittin so many ddamn shots there were little boards to be had and on top of the fact many of them were long boards too. I feel bad for the sixers. That game was pretty ok, Monta was KILLIN em and then Baron woke up and started murkin em. For some reason they lost track of Bierdrins and he startin eatin boards which hurt them too but the game ended on a questionable call
November 25th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
B says:
Fifteenth!!!
November 26th, 2007 at 12:38 am
MoxInTheWest says:
I Bet KB24 is glad he isn’t on the Bulls! That team is quitting on Scotty boy. Like someone said earlier, just playing with no heart at all. God, some of these posts are difficult to read without my hooKed on pHonix trAnslation boOk!!!!
I’m not saying you have to always use correct grammar like we are in school, but fuck, some resemblance of English would be nice.
November 26th, 2007 at 1:08 am
Lucky Lester says:
B… Jo… Amen!
November 26th, 2007 at 1:23 am
cameron says:
kobeef, about Dwight’s game:
Shaq largely scored when Foyle was on him (including a nasty dunk in the 4th that threw Foyle into the expensive seats — Dwight couldn’t stop laughing at him in the next timeout). Dwight only took 7 shots think and it didn’t really have to to with Shaq. Dwight got plenty of run, but I seriously don’t think he took a shot in the second half. The offense just didn’t go through him last night. Think about it — Orlando has a team built to exploit mismatches. Most nights, that’s with Dwight. But the few times it’s not, Van Gundy’s offense just finds the guy who does cause problems. Last night it was Hedo. Scary thought — Miami brought their A game. Wade, Shaq and Ricky Davis all had huge nights and none of Orlando’s stars did. Yet Orlando won by 21. There couldn’t be two teams heading in more opposite directions right now …