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QUARTER-BY-QUARTER ANALYSIS
First quarter: The Bobcats, trying to complete their season series against Atlanta with a 3-1 edge, opened with strong offense and even stronger defense and rebounding. Getting balanced scoring, they hit six of their first 10 shots, limited the Hawks to 43.0 percent accuracy and dominated the boards 8-1. That effort helped Charlotte run ahead by 13, 21-8, with 6:11 to play. The Hawks followed with a modest spurt of 6-0 and cut the gap to seven. But the Bobcats got right back on track, finishing the quarter with an 11-4 run for a period-ending 32-18 lead. They outshot the Hawks 60.0 percent to 34.8 and beat them on the boards 14-7. Melvin Ely had eight points, Gerald Wallace six and Keith Bogans five to lead Charlotte. Atlanta had four players with highs of four points apiece. Second quarter: Malik Allen and Matt Carroll came off the bench to give the Bobcats a major lift in the early minutes. Allen scored three consecutive baskets and contributed a steal and Carroll followed with back-to-back scores, one of them a three-pointer. That fueled an 11-3 Charlotte push for a 22-point lead of 43-21 with 8:44 remaining. The Hawks tried to answer and briefly got the margin down to 16. But the Bobcats took it back to the 20-point level in a hurry, then late in the period ran the lead to 25 on a Cory Alexander three-pointer (58-33 with 3:02 left). Charlotte’s advantage reached a high of 27 on two Ely free throws in the closing seconds. The halftime score: Bobcats 65, Hawks 40. Tyrone Lue’s 11 led Atlanta. Ely had 12 points and five rebounds for the Bobcats, Wallace added 10 points and Okafor scored nine with a team-high six rebounds. Third quarter: The script never changed. Even in the opening stages of the quarter, when the Bobcats encountered their only sustained scoring drought, the Hawks were unable to get any closer than 21. Bogans halted the dry spell with a three-pointer with 7:49 to play and Charlotte set sail again, this time on an 11-3 run. That put the Bobcats’ advantage at 30, 79-49, with 5:32 remaining. They maintained that margin to the end of the period, which closed with Charlotte ahead 89-59. At that point the Bobcats were shooting 56.4 percent, the Hawks only 38.9 percent. Charlotte had five players in double figures going into the final quarter, led by Ely with 16 points (and seven rebounds). Fourth quarter: The Hawks made another try at a comeback, getting a driving layup by Josh Childress, a three-pointer by Tony Delk and a baseline jumper by Tom Gugliotta to get back within 23, 89-66, with 10:27 to play. Later, with 7:29 remaining, they got a pair of Josh Smith free throws to trail by 21 and, at 6:42, a Donta Smith free throw that made it a 20-point game. But the hole had been too deep. The Bobcats returned to some of their starters to the floor, including point guard Brevin Knight, who had played limited minutes because of early foul trouble. They again picked up the pace and closed it out with a 105-84 victory. The 21-point margin was the Bobcats’ biggest of the season, eclipsing an 18-point win over Minnesota on Jan. 5. Okafor topped the Charlotte scoring with 17 and the rebounding with 11, and Ely had a career-high five blocks to go with 16 points and nine rebounds.
GM & HEAD COACH BERNIE BICKERSTAFF SAYS... (on ‘winning’ the race with Atlanta for the most chances in the NBA draft lottery) I don’t know what happened with the ping-pong balls with us and Atlanta. But you know, you just can’t be hypocritical. You’ve got to go out and play. And with these guys it really doesn’t matter with how many guys you have. We’ve got 10 guys and they just go out and play. (on the drop in the level of play in the third quarter) At the beginning of the third quarter what we wanted to do was, we said, ‘Let’s go out and try to take their hearts.’ I don’t know but Josh (Childress) got loose for a dunk, we did something stupid on the other end and we just didn’t want to give them momentum on it. I was real concerned to know – we had not been in a situation like that before – whether we could handle it. (on what he and Hawks coach Mike Woodson are going through) There’s no doubt about it. Definitely (we are) kindred spirits. The one thing that he has going for him is the same thing we have going for us. You know, those young kids, they play hard. And it will pay off next year and down the road because of the opportunity they are getting to play. (on the Bobcats playing hard in the final four games) I don’t have any concern about that because that’s the way they play. If they don’t have the effort it’s probably just one of those occasions. But that’s one thing I don’t worry about is the effort in terms of how they’re going to perform because they’ve been very, very consistent as a basketball team. Some nights you just don’t have it. So that’s one worry I just don’t have. I refuse to even think about it. (on the possibility of two expansion-team players – Emeka Okafor and Primoz Brezec – winning post-season league awards) I think it’s good for the two guys. But the one thing I don’t want to overlook is that there have been some other performances on this basketball team. Whatever little success that we have had, the other 13 guys, the ones who haven’t been injured, have laid it on the line. Emeka has done his job. He’s been terrific. Primoz has been terrific. He hits the wall a couple of games but he comes back. That’s just that mentality that he has. With those two guys we can start talking about a core group of guys that we can start building around. And the way that Gerald has had his moments also, I’m comfortable that we’ll come out of this with a core group. For next season we’ve got to find a way to get better. It’s that simple. What we’ve done, we’re thinking, is that we have laid the foundation in that this is the way we approach the game. The guys that we have can sell it when others come in, ‘Hey, this is the way we do it here in terms of effort.’ I’d like for (Okafor and Brezec to win the rookie and comeback player of the year awards). I think it’s deserved. But in life we don’t always get what we’ve earned so we just move on. What I do in those situations is use it as an incentive. (on the possibility of adding another player for the final games, in light of a season-ending injury to Bernard Robinson) No. We’ve got what left, four? We’re going to play them. Malik (Allen) will get a chance to play. Gerald (Wallace) can play some (power forward). We’re just going to go with it.
INSIDE THE LOCKER ROOM
GERALD WALLACE (On winning final games) It’s very important. We all don’t want to go out on a bad note. We don’t want to be one of those teams that get blown out by 30 or 40. We still have our pride. I think coming out and competing every night shows how much pride we have. (On postseason awards) As far as team accomplishments we don’t have anything to work towards except getting to 20 wins. I think it would be really great if Emeka (Okafor) and some of those guys could get in and get their recognition.”
MELVIN ELY (On his preparation as a starter) I do the same thing everyday. I’m one of those people who have a routine. I do the same things when I wake up, go to shootaround and everything. It’s nothing in my preparation. It’s probably just a confidence level. Everybody plays basketball to be a starter and it’s no different in the NBA. Anytime I get a chance to start I want to prove to everybody that I’m supposed to be out there. (On finishing the season strong) We want to finish out the season strong. For me, I have the lucky opportunity to start the next couple of game with Primoz (Brezec) out and end my season well and get ready for next season. Every game counts. The more wins you have the more we can make people look bad after they said we’d only win nine games. That’s a big motivation for us.
EMEKA OKAFOR (On winning final games) We’re still motivated. You can tell by our body language that we hadn’t given up and you can tell by how hard we play. We’re still trying to win games. Going back to the Memphis game, we were down with not that much time. We kept on playing hard and almost came back. That shows you the character of this team. We play as a team. We’re not going to give up. (On Rookie of the Year Award) Every rookie wants it. There’s only so much I can do. I go out there and play. You make it seem like Ben (Gordon) and I are on the phone every night talking about it. It’s not like that. If he gets it, I’m happy for him. If I get, he’ll be happy for me. Whatever the voters decide. Of course, I’m competitive so if I don’t get it I’ll be disappointed but I’ll come back focused for next season.
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