BOBCATS: Bobcats Breakdown - Indiana

QUARTER-BY-QUARTER ANALYSIS
First quarter: The short-handed Bobcats, playing with only nine healthy players, fell behind quickly for the second consecutive night. Indiana scored 13 of the game's first 15 points as Charlotte connected on just one of six field goal attempts and committed three turnovers in the opening four minutes. The Bobcats fought back and cut the Pacers' lead to three at 20-17 on Melvin Ely's jump hook with 1:18 remaining, but Indiana scored the final six points of the quarter and held a 26-17 advantage after one. Jermaine O'Neal and Stephen Jackson combined for 17 of the Pacers' 26 first-quarter points.

Second quarter: The teams traded baskets for the first seven minutes of the quarter and Charlotte trailed 40-30 with 5:00 remaining when Indiana went on a 12-0 run that featured two turnaround jumpers by O'Neal and a Reggie Miller three-pointer. The run gave the Pacers their biggest lead of the game at 22 points. The Bobcats managed two late free throws by Primoz Brezec and a Steve Smith layup to cut the margin to 18 (54-36) at the break. Charlotte shot just 34 percent from the field in the first half.

Third quarter: After dominating the first half, Indiana maintained a 61-43 lead early in the third quarter when the Bobcats put together a 16-4 run capped by a Jason Hart three-pointer to cut the margin to 65-59. Ely scored six of his team-high 20 points in the stretch. Fred Jones halted the run with a driving layup and then Stephen Jackson drained a three-pointer as the Pacers quickly pushed their lead back to double-digits. Indiana held a 72-62 lead after three periods.

Fourth quarter: Fred Jones took over the game early in the fourth quarter -- hitting two layups and a three-pointer as the Pacers opened up an 86-71 lead with 8:16 remaining. With the game looking like it was out of reach, the Bobcats reeled off eight consecutive points capped by back-to-back Jason Kapono jumpers to close to within 86-79. Jermaine O'Neal held off the Bobcats run temporarily with a pair of baskets in the post, but Charlotte continued to rally and eventually pulled to within five at 92-87 with just 11 seconds remaining. There wasn't enough time in the end for the Bobcats as O'Neal closed out his 29-point effort with a dunk for the game's final points. Ely added a career-high 17 rebounds to his 20-point total. Brezec also recorded a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds against his former team.

GM & HEAD COACH BERNIE BICKERSTAFF SAYS...
(on what he said to the team at halftime) All we asked them to do is be comfortable with their effort tonight. Take two extra steps in everything you do. Those two extra steps will lead to us getting more lay-ups and more loose balls. They energized themselves in the second half. Nothing surprises me about this team when it comes to competing. Being shorthanded, the effort was great. That’s a special group, I love this group.

(on Melvin Ely) Melvin has really stepped up. There is room for him to continue to play a lot of minutes, even when Emeka returns.

INSIDE THE LOCKER ROOM

PRIMOZ BREZEC
(on their comeback) I think we did a great job defensively in the second half. We made a good run. But you can’t play for only 24 minutes and expect to win.

(on coming back to Indiana) I’m not buying that, playing only on emotion when I come back here. I play hard all 82 games and not just when I come back and play the Pacers.

MELVIN ELY
(on receiving playing time) We have a great player in Emeka Okafor. He was playing great before he got hurt, so I never had the opportunity to go out on the court and show anything. My coaches always told me to stay patient and that they would find me some opportunities and if I got one, to be ready. Now I’ve got one, so I want to show them that they can trust me. I just want to go to and play hard and compete every night. As long as I get rave reviews from my coaching staff, I’m happy. However, I’m not happy with some of the easy shots that I missed tonight. I feel that if I had made those, we would have had a better chance to win the game.

(on facing Jermaine O’Neal) I enjoy playing against Jermaine every time. I am happy to play him whenever I can. I feel that it is a great accomplishment in itself for me to play him close to even, kind of like tonight, because that’s how much respect I have for him.”

February 9, 2005