Wednesday, January 28, 2009

If only Bobcats could play Lakers every night....

The Charlotte Bobcats and Boris Diaw beat the Los Angeles Lakers 117-110 in double overtime Tuesday, giving the team a dominating five wins in their past six games against L.A.


This has to be one of the most amazing stats in the NBA: The Charlotte Bobcats have now beaten the L.A. Lakers in five of their past six games. Here's Rick Bonnell's game story from the most recent Charlotte win -- the Bobcats' 117-110 victory that ended too late to make most of today's newspapers.

While Charlotte invariably seems to get creamed by LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Bobcats beat the NBA's other huge superstar -- Kobe Bryant -- time and again. I know many Bobcat fans still consider Charlotte's triple-overtime win over Kobe a couple of years back the singular highlight of the franchise. I was there, and it's the best I've ever seen a Bobcat crowd.

It's just a shame this current Charlotte team didn't start any better this season -- the results looked like Sam Vincent II there for a bit. But now Larry Brown and Michael Jordan have remade the squad. If the season re-started today and everyone was 0-0, I have no doubt Charlotte would finish in the Eastern Conference's top 8 and make the playoffs. (Although would anyone be there to see it? See today's Observer business story).

The best move the team has made: That trade of Jason Richardson for Boris Diaw and Raja Bell. Diaw, in particular, has been huge for this squad. Couple Diaw and Bell with a decent core, and the Bobcats have a pretty good starting group. I'm far from sold on their bench, and Adam Morrison still seems lost too often, but it's nice to see the Bobcats start to come around. They're very much a longshot to make the playoffs this season. It's not impossible, but it's improbable.

But by 2010, you can pencil them in for it.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

whatever......the bobcats played their best game of the year and barely won in double overtime.....and since the bobcats have no shot at making the finals this really doesn't matter to the lakeshow.....

biggidee said...

my biggest concern next time we play LA is kobe digging an elbow into adam as he soars in for one of his rim rattlers

Brandon R. said...

It's a shame that Ryan is nutty as momma's chex mix. If you don't think Kobe is a intense competitive being and any other professional athlete for that matter......If my friend beats me 5 out 6 games in a game of foosball I'm not loosing for "lack of trying" anymore. Keep your excuses.

Scott, good calling out Charlotte to wake up and start supporting the team.

Ginger Lover said...

I love going to the Cats games. Winning or losing, I will be there for them. GO BOBCATS!!!!

Unknown said...

well brandon.....

since your bobcats won't make the playoffs and will never whiff the finals this doesn't affect the lakers.

never said we didn't try. never gave any excuses, you beat us fair and square, but simply put the bobcats are irrelevant and will have no impact whatsoever on the lakers playoff hopes or championship aspirations.