Fragile Bobcats Can't Be Trusted Offensively

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">NEW YORK - The Charlotte Bobcats are on the rise!

Eight of their 10 victories this season have been against teams with winning records. A ninth is against the Atlantic Division-leading (if sub-.500) New Jersey Nets. They've already beaten Western Conference contenders San Antonio and Utah.

The Bobcats are garbage!

They have lost four games by 30 points or more. To place that in perspective, thanks to Elias Sports Bureau, no other NBA team has lost more than one game by that margin this season.

They have also blown separate leads of 20 or more to New York and Minnesota, losing both those matchups.

The Bobcats are neither garbage, nor on the rise.

They're progressing, but fragile. And they won't stop being fragile until they acquire or develop a big-time scorer on the NBA level. That's where they stand, nine games short of mid-season.

They're coming off an impressive road victory against the Detroit Pistons, their second win against the Pistons this season. They approach winnable games at the New York Knicks tonight, then at home against Philadelphia on Saturday. Like the Bobcats, the Knicks and 76ers are headed to the draft lottery.

But if the first 32 games told us anything about this team, it's the danger of expectation. The playoff hype was silly, as the players fell in the trap of believing they were better collectively than they are. The NBA, more than any major league, is star-driven, and the Bobcats have nothing close to a star scorer.

"To be real honest with you, I don't know where our offense is coming from night to night," Bobcats coach-general manager Bernie Bickerstaff said before the Pistons game. "That means we have to play just about perfect" to win a game against any opponent.

The pseudo go-to guy changes on a weekly basis. Sean May was hot before spraining an ankle. Adam Morrison had his moments, but can be wildly inconsistent.

Of late, Matt Carroll has had the best span of his career, hitting an eye-popping 19-of-32 3-point attempts (59 percent) over the past five games. He has averaged 20.8 points in those five games.

Bickerstaff is constantly urging his players to find Carroll when he's hot. Sometimes it works, as in the fourth quarter against the Pistons. But when Carroll was the only dependable shooter against the Orlando Magic last Saturday, he still disappeared in the second half of one of those 30-something losses.

That's about recognition and decision-making by his teammates, very much a work-in-progress. Bickerstaff often gets frustrated, even after victories, that his players don't make the game easy.

He believes they defend well and try to rebound effectively, but don't convert their good work into easy baskets.</div>

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