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Bobcats hand Lakers 2nd straight loss, 98-83
By Mike Cranston
March 5, 2010
Charlotte, NC — The final seconds ticked down and Michael Jordan slowly rose from his seat. He waited until the final buzzer and then briefly clapped.
Jordan showed little emotion after the Charlotte Bobcats won their first game in three tries since he agreed to buy the team. And why not? Beating the Los Angeles Lakers has become routine for this franchise.
Really.
No matter the personnel, coach or even the impending owner, the Bobcats own the defending champions. The combination of Stephen Jackson (21 points) and Gerald Wallace (17 points, 10 rebounds) overcame 26 points from Kobe Bryant on Friday night in Charlotte’s 98-83 victory.
“I really don’t know,” Wallace replied when asked to explain Charlotte’s seven wins in the past nine meetings. “You can say that about them and you can say that about Cleveland.”
Indeed, the Bobcats are 3-1 against the NBA-best Cavaliers this season. Oh, and they’ve lost twice to the six-win New Jersey Nets. It’s why they’re still a game behind Miami for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
“Those top teams bring out the best and they bring out big crowds,” Wallace said. “Come to a New Jersey game and we probably have 500 people.”
Getting more fans in the stands is one of Jordan’s top priorities when he’s expected to take over as owner by the end of the month. It wasn’t a problem Friday, when the sold-out crowd watched the Lakers show little energy a night after a wild overtime loss at Miami.
“We just looked flat,” Bryant said.
Bryant, who was 9 for 21 from the field, got little help. The Lakers shot 36 percent, committed 20 turnovers and matched their number of road losses (12) from last season.
There were plenty of culprits. Pau Gasol shot 5 for 14, Andrew Bynum 3 for 9 and Ron Artest 1 for 9. Hardly the way to go into Sunday’s finals rematch in Orlando.
“I’ll probably say something,” Bryant said when asked if he planned to speak with his teammates.
A reporter followed up with how the tone of that talk will be and Bryant replied: “What do you think?”
Charlotte had won six of seven in the series before Los Angeles’ 99-97 home win last month. But Wallace didn’t play in that one because of a sore hamstring, and he was the difference in the game-clinching run this time.
Wallace, who was 0 for 6 from the field in the first half, got hot to start the third quarter. He drained two straight 3-pointers—the second a 30-footer to beat the shot clock—and added a layup as the Bobcats built a 61-44 lead.
Gasol had two turnovers and two shots blocked in the surge in another suspect game a night after coach Phil Jackson left him on the bench for the start of overtime.
“Well, he missed a dunk. I don’t know if we were up (five) in the first quarter and everything kind of fell under after that,” Jackson said. “I mean, nothing seemed to go right after that.”
It allowed Jordan’s first win as owner-to-be to come against his former coach in Chicago.
With the man who is selling the team to Jordan, Bob Johnson, sitting on the other side of the court, Jordan got to see one of his biggest mistakes in his role making personnel decisions, too. Lakers reserve Adam Morrison, the No. 3 pick in the 2006 draft, didn’t take a shot in 4 minutes, most of which came after the game had been decided.
Entering with nine losses in 13 games, Bobcats coach Larry Brown tweaked his rotation. Tyson Chandler (six points, four rebounds) returned from injury and little-used rookie Gerald Henderson (six points, two rebounds) played well.
Henderson guarded Bryant late in the first half, and while once Bryant threw the ball off the backboard and dunked it, Henderson held his own. He didn’t go for the All-Star’s three pump fakes before Bryant turned it over, leading to Tyrus Thomas’ layup that gave Charlotte a 49-43 halftime lead.
It was just last week that Henderson beat Jordan in two games of H-O-R-S-E.
“Maybe that was a blessing in disguise,” Henderson said, smiling. “It was just fun to be out there. I haven’t had that much fun really since college.”
Meanwhile, the Lakers ensured that there would still be two teams they have losing records against: Boston (120-152) and Charlotte (5-7).
“I think everybody’s angry, but we’re not angry at the right things,” Bynum said. “We might be angry with each other. So that’s not always that great.”
NOTES: Bobcats Cs Nazr Mohammed (back) and DeSagana Diop (knee) remained sidelined. … Jackson was asked about his former player Jordan as an owner. “I hope it’s a success for him,” he said. He was then asked if he would like to one day own a team. “God forbid,” he replied. … Jackson said Gasol has been “weak and sickly” of late, both with his game and his physical condition. Jackson indicated he needs to limit Gasol’s minutes.
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Barnes scores 14 in first as Magic beat Nets again
By Tom Canavan
March 5, 2010
East Rutherford, NJ — With a month to go in the season, Stan Van Gundy isn’t very happy with the way the Orlando Magic play with the lead.
Instead of putting teams away, the Magic have been letting them hang around. It didn’t hurt against the woeful New Jersey Nets on Friday night. The playoffs might be different.
“All year, losing the lead is how we play,” Van Gundy said after the Magic defeated the Nets 97-87 for their fourth straight win. “Give us a lead and we will play poorly at both ends of the floor. I have absolutely no idea how to fix it.”
Matt Barnes scored 14 of his 16 points in the first quarter to stake the Magic to a double-digit lead, but Orlando never could put together a run to make the game a laugher.
“We’re just trying to get wins, get the job done,” said Vince Carter, who scored 11 of his 13 points in the second half against his former teammates. “Give credit to them. That team plays hard regardless of the record. We got lax, but we got the job done.”
Carter said Van Gundy was a little upset because the Nets were able to cut the Magic’s 17-point, fourth-quarter lead to eight in the waning minutes.
“We were able to close out. That’s all that matters,” Carter said. “Our goal is to put teams away. We didn’t do it, but at the same time, we found a way to get it done.”
Dwight Howard added 11 points and 16 rebounds, and the Magic hit 13 3-pointers in beating the Nets for the third time this season.
“We know we have things to work on,” said point guard Jameer Nelson, who had 15 points and eight of the Magic’s 24 assists. “You don’t want to have a 17-point lead and see them cut it to eight. It happened and we have to continue to work on it.”
Devin Harris had 17 points and 10 assists for the Nets (6-55), who lost their third straight after stunning Boston last weekend. Brook Lopez added 18 points and eight rebounds.
Terrence Williams added 14 points and Kris Humphries 12 as the Nets fell to 3-28 at the not-so-friendly confines of the Izod Center.
Jason Williams, who had 18 points in his last five games, tallied 13 for Orlando.
The Nets held a press conference earlier Friday to trumpet their temporary move to Newark next season and then gave another unemotional effort against one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference.
Barnes hit six of seven shots in the opening quarter and scored 12 straight points for Orlando in helping them take a 32-18 lead.
“We gave up a ton of transition points in first six, seven, eight minutes of the first quarter,” Harris said. “We can’t spot Matt Barnes 14 points in the first quarter. He’s a good player, but we can’t let him have those types of numbers and expect to win. I thought we did a decent job on Dwight for the most part, but we gave them the head start.”
With Humphries, Terrence Williams and Jarvis Hayes all scoring five points in the second quarter, the Nets managed to cut the lead to seven points at the half.
Carter, traded to Orlando in a draft-day blockbuster that cleared cap room for New Jersey in the upcoming offseason, scored nine points in the third quarter to push the lead back to 15 and it was never close again.
Carter actually had a 3-pointer taken away in the quarter during a timeout when the officials reviewed the videotape and discovered his shot didn’t beat the 24-second clock.
NOTES: Harris hit a 40-footer at the end of the first quarter, but it came after the buzzer. … The Magic are 30-4 when they hit 10 or more 3-pointers. … Orlando is 30-11 against the Eastern Conference. … Barnes and Van Gundy got hit with technical fouls for arguing non-calls on what seemingly were obvious fouls. … New Jersey never led in the game. … Nets starting shooting guard Courtney Lee missed his third straight game with a sprained left ankle.
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