Print
RSS 
Sign up for E-news
|
QUARTER-BY-QUARTER ANALYSIS
First quarter: The Bobcats, trying to parlay a home victory into some momentum before they start on a four-game road swing, spent most of the quarter locked in a tight game with the Clippers, with much of the scoring producing either a lead change or tie. As they moved into the late minutes of the period, however, they started edging ahead by larger margins. Jason Kapono’s three-pointer with 2:44 remaining put the Bobcats up by four (21-17), and when Brevin Knight followed one minute later with a lane jumper Charlotte was ahead by six. Los Angeles cut it back to three but a Primoz Brezec rebound basket and a Melvin Ely free throw closed the scoring with the Bobcats ahead 28-22. Brezec and Gerald Wallace scored six points apiece and Kapono added five to pace Charlotte. Corey Maggette had nine for the Clippers. Second quarter: Charlotte jumped in front by eight at the outset of the quarter and led by that margin on a couple of occasions. Elton Brand brought the Clippers back with a flurry of baskets near the mid-way point, however. He scored on four consecutive possessions to get Los Angeles within two, 35-33, with 8:03 to play. A Quinton Ross basket at 6:40 tied the game at 35 and the teams continued at that back-and-forth pace for several minutes before the Clippers moved ahead by two on a driving basket by Maggette. Matt Carroll’s three-pointer and a Wallace dunk quickly brought the Bobcats back. But Los Angeles had the last mini-run of the quarter with a Brand dunk and Shaun Livingston drive for a 54-52 at halftime lead. The Clippers took advantage of significantly improved shooting in the period, hitting 12-of-22 (54.5 percent) after a 33.3 percent first quarter for 44.2 overall. Charlotte shot 39.1 percent in the second and 43.9 overall. Brand had 17 and Maggette 15 to give the Clippers a strong 1-2 punch. Wallace, with 11, was Charlotte’s only double-figure scorer. Third quarter: The Bobcats’ turned up the heat offensively, hitting 10-of-20 shots while Los Angeles cooled to 35.0 percent on 7-of-20. That difference helped Charlotte maintain slim margins of up to six points through much of the quarter. The Clippers managed two ties in the early minutes but never took the lead despite another strong performance by Brand (eight points, five rebounds in the period for overall totals of 23 and nine). Charlotte had four players in double figures, led by Wallace with 15. Brevin Knight had 11 assists and four steals through three periods and the Bobcats led, 78-74. Fourth quarter: The Clippers finally caught up and jumped ahead by one point on a Chris Wilcox basket with 7:11 to play. That set off a series of lead changes over the next few possessions and neither team was able to seize control of the game. The Bobcats went up by three by scoring on two consecutive possessions and briefly denying the Clippers with about four minutes left. But Los Angeles immediately cut it back to one and kept the pressure on Charlotte to score each time it had the ball in order to maintain the edge. With 75 seconds remaining the Clippers caught up and moved ahead as Charlotte twice turned the ball over. Brand took a deep pass on the break and dunked the ball for a score following the first turnover and Marko Jaric followed the second Charlotte error with a wing jumper, leaving Los Angeles in front 97-94 with 57.8 seconds to play. The Clippers increased their lead to four, 99-95, on two Maggette free throws with 24 seconds left and were still ahead by three, 102-99, with 12.8 seconds to play. Knight then raced up the court, pulled up on the right wing and hit a three-pointer for a 102-102 tie at 0:07.6. But the Clippers had the decisive play when they got the ball inbounds to Rick Brunson, who raced up the floor, got behind the defense and slipped a pass to Livingston for a layup with one second left for a 104-102 victory. Knight, who scored Charlotte’s last seven points, led the Bobcats with 21 and 13 assists. Maggette hit 9-of-10 free throws in the fourth period and had 34 points overall, while Brand added 27 for the Clippers.
GM & HEAD COACH BERNIE BICKERSTAFF SAYS... (on any other season coaching, with so many tight-finish games) I don’t know if they were like this. But my first year with Seattle the point differential, and we won 29 games, was like one-point-something and a lot of them were lost in the last two minutes. But we knew what it was, it was personnel. And we went back and looked at it and the wrong people had the ball in those situations. That’s not the case here, in these situations. But it does create a problem when you have to go offense-defense (in making repeated substitutions). Especially with the lack of timeouts. (on the final seconds tonight) In the last few seconds you keep everything in front of you, with like three seconds or so on the clock. As we looked at on the film when we went into the locker room, we were fronting a couple guys. This happened to us in Chicago at the end of the quarter. We went in and made a last-seconds shot and Chicago came back down and made a three. You’ve just got to understand time and score in that situation. (Tonight) the basketball game was tied up. So you want to keep everybody in front of you and they caught us in a situation where we were fronting. But to their credit they kept running and (Rick) Brunson broke us down in that situation. (on the earlier stages of the game) If you look at it, what we’re looking at is the last two minutes of the basketball game or the last minute or even the last 50 seconds that were on the clock. But when you really look at the game and you analyze the game and you think about the offensive rebounds that we had that we didn’t put in, that’s really what it gets down to. We all think about the last few minutes of the game but if you do what you’re supposed to do leading up to that point, the score is not that way. And we had a lot of offensive rebounds where we rushed and we didn’t put them in. (on missed opportunities on other plays) There were two things that happened that I have no problem with at all. There was a lob, I think it was in the first half, where Emeka (Okafor) and Gerald (Wallace) went for it (and the ball was lost). There was a lob late in the game where they both went for it. I have no problem with that. They were going for it (but) we just didn’t get those done. The intent was good. (on the frustration of losses) It’s not easy. It’s not easy on the kids in that (locker) room. It’s not easy on us. The only thing that keeps you moving forward is (knowing) that a lot of it’s on us, in terms of what we didn’t get done.
INSIDE THE LOCKER ROOM
GERALD WALLACE (on the defensive mixup on the play) Our transition defense had a breakdown and we gave up a layup. It’s a tough way to lose a game but we can’t worry too long about this game because we have to prepare for Philadelphia tomorrow.
BREVIN KNIGHT (on the mental aspects of the game) This was a tough way to lose a game. We have to do a better job of defending in transition. Tonight it caught up with us and we gave up a game-winning layup. You have to give them a lot of credit: (Rick) Brunson pushed the ball up the floor and found a teammate for an open shot. It’s a tough way to lose but we have to get ready for Philadelphia tomorrow.
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
