The Bobcats entered the game with a record of 15-58. Typical expansion team numbers right. Its April, most of the Bobcat don't just have golf reservations for Myrtle Beach. They have the mapquest.com route from Charlotte, NC to Myrtle Beach taped to their lockers ( its about a 4 hour drive). So this should be an easy game to raise your spirits along the gruesome play-off trail. Surely that's what the chairman, Ed Snieder, was thinking as he settled in at court side on this beautiful spring day.Ah, but this is not you grandfathers Sixers team. Something different seems to break down every game. Tonite, the sparse weekday crowd witnessed what's wrong with the BIGS on this team. Marc Jackson is a trooper, but he's playing too many minutes. His lack of speed slows down the fast break and he could not keep the Bcats of the boards. Defense suffered. Rockin' Rodney Rogers is only a shell of the man who once hoisted the 6th man of the year award while with the Phoenix Suns. His shot has left him. He is slow getting to the right spot on defense. How slow was he? Marc Jackson looked faster ... and then there's Sammy Dalembert, the golden child. Maybe it was the excitement about the Dalembert lunchbox give-away tonite. I don't know. Sammy scored low on the basketball aptitude test tonite. Poor shooting in the paint. A missed slam dunk. A missed finger roll that should have been a slam dunk. At one pint in the game Sammy flipped the ball at the basket over his shoulder! But the closing moments was inexcusable. With the Sixers ahead and less than 12 seconds on the clock. Sammy rebounds a missed shot on the Sixers end on the court. Sammy immediately attempts to put the ball back up. He's blocked and the ball is turned over to Charlotte. The basketball IQ test says (a) Kick the ball out (b) just hold on to the ball (c) give the opposing team a chance to win. Sammy picked 'c'.
... Some may not appreciate the loss of Chris Webber or what he means to the Sixers' play-off run. But I do. It means a higher basketball IQ for the BIGS.
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BTW, the media will report the keys to the game as Bubba's 48 points on 17-31 shooting. Undoubtly they will mention the Sixers' 66 offensive points in the first half and the 56 defensive points they gave up in the second half ... leading to a 1 point in the closing moments. But we know the real story don't we.
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