Monday, March 31, 2014

Bobcats face huge game vs Washington and other sports notes



In terms of playoff seeding, the Bobcats face a huge home game Monday night against Washington.

Simply put, if the Bobcats do not win this one, they will be out of the running in my opinion for the No.6 seed and the likely matchup with Toronto in the playoffs' first round that comes with it. As our Rick Bonnell noted in this excellent Sunday package about the Bobcats' possible first-round playoff opponents, Charlotte is 3-0 against Toronto this season and 1-9 against the other three teams it might face (Indiana, Miami and Chicago).

Here is how the Eastern Conference standings look at the relevant spots as of Monday morning:

6. Washington (38-35)

7. Charlotte (35-38)

8. Atlanta (31-41)

Charlotte plays Washington twice in the season's final 16 days, starting tonight. It would have to beat the Wizards twice to make up that three-game gap and also win the head-to-head tiebreaker. Anything less and you can basically pencil Washington in to slot No.6 and the Bobcats at No.7, where they will likely face Miami (the Heat is 4-0 against Charlotte this season).

As for a couple of other links you may find interesting:

-- Our Joseph Person had a nice series of stories Sunday on the Panthers' strengths, weaknesses and needs in Sunday's newspaper. Click here to see it.

-- On Sunday, I wrote about 20 of my most memorable days after 20 years on the job at The Observer. The time a few fans put up banners in the Panthers' stadium advocating me getting fired in 1997 (picture above)? Yeah, that made the list.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do we have the tiebreaker vs the Knicks in that disastrous scenario?

Scott Fowler said...

Yes -- for the moment. Knicks and Bobcats split the season series, two wins each. But the next tiebreaker is record against Eastern Conference, and Bobcats (22-21 right now) are slightly ahead of Knicks (21-24) in that scenario. Of course, if Charlotte loses enough to get down to Knicks' level, that could change.

Go Horncats said...

I think the 7th seed may end up playing Indiana instead of Miami, given the two teams' recent trajectory. But either way, getting to the #6 seed and a matchup with Toronto is the way to go.

Mike in Wilmington said...

"Fowler = No Creditabilty"

Look at their spelling! Must have really gotten to you, huh?



Guess the sign really had no credibility...

Anonymous said...

I think the HornCats have a better chance against the Pacers than the Heat. If they lost just a little, might not be a bad thing to get the eighth seed.