The Bobcats out-lose the Hornets

By:
Published: April 16, 2012

The two teams combined to shoot 32% from the floor.  In fact, according to Basketball-Reference.com, this game joins only 8 others where one team shot 34% or worse, and their opponent shot 30.3% or worse in the history of the NBA.  So – yeah, one of the worst shooting performances ever.   If you recorded the game to watch it later, my advice is to NOT.

My first take from the boxscore: the scorekeepers in Charlotte don’t know what a turnover is, because holy crap there was more than 24 turnovers in that game.  No one could dribble.  No one could pass.  Other than Gerald Henderson and Vasquez, no one could take a shot closer than 15 feet away from the basket.

The game was a mess of badly run pick and rolls, isolation plays that led to nothing, forays into the paint that got cut off and resulted in no advantage, and generally terrible, terrible offensive play.  Thus, the numbers mentioned above.

Oh, and if you think that means the game was a defensive slugfest, you couldn’t be more mistaken.  It was just sloppy and effortless.  In fact, a week ago Monty said he thought Belinelli was “what this team is”.  Well tonight that was true.  Belinelli didn’t move unless he was on offense – and then only if he thought he might get the ball.  He made lazy passes.  He refused to come meet swing passes on the perimeter, allowing easy steals.  He swiped at players as they drove by him.  He reached out with one hand to coral rebounds without moving towards them, allowing them to be stolen or knocked out of bounds.   And then, of course, he decided to finally hit a few shots in the fourth to kill the tank when it was looking good.  For a few dark moments while watching a terrible terrible game, I hated Marco Belinelli.  Hated him.

I felt a bad for Charlotte too.  Henderson and Kemba Walker walked around during dead balls with embarrassed smiles on their faces.  I kid you not.  They just looked like they couldn’t believe how bad this game was either – and this is usual for them!

Paul Silas, just like he did when he coached the Hornets, was indulging in blatant nepotism, allowing his son Stephen Silas to coach the game – and I’m not sure he was doing the kid any favors.  Stephen spent most of the game with his face frozen in disbelief after every play, followed by delayed clapping that screamed “Come ON get your crap together!” not “Let’s go guys!”

So, in essence, the Hornets drove out the tank tonight, sitting out Gordon, Kaman, Ariza, Jack and Okafor, three without any injuries, played terribly, and still managed to win the game.  I don’t understand. What is going on?

Can anyone explain it to me?

 

21 Comments

Leave a Reply

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.