By J.M. Poulard
The Golden State Warriors (12-19) will continue their Southeast division road trip tonight when they play the Charlotte Bobcats (11-19). Charlotte recently parted ways with Larry Brown and promoted Paul Silas to head coach for the remainder of the season. The team has maintained its defensive identity as well as its toughness but still struggles to get wins. The losses of Ray Felton and Tyson Chandler in the offseason seem to have meant much more than previously anticipated.
On offense, the Bobcats score an anemic 92.2 points per game (29th in the NBA) on 45.4% shooting from the field (19th in the league). As evidenced by the team’s shooting numbers, their offense is not a bad one. They do find ways to produce high percentage shots that lead to scores. The reason why Charlotte has low scoring numbers is because they squeeze the air out of the building with the pace at which they play. Indeed, they average a mere 75.7 field goal attempts per game; the worst mark in the league.
Their methodic ways on offense do however help produce high percentage shots. According to Hoopdata, Charlotte averages 25.1 shots at the rim (second best in the NBA). They manufacture most of their attempts at the basket by taking advantage of mismatches in the post. In Stephen Jackson and Boris Diaw, Charlotte has two of the best passers in the NBA at their respective positions; therefore they occasionally play them on the block where they typically have an advantage over their defenders thus resulting in help defenders always paying a close attention to them. Because the Bobs do a good job of finding open spots on the floor, they often feed cutters (who have gotten free because their man fell asleep paying attention to the post player) for attempts right at the rim.
Mind you Charlotte could do a much better job of converting when they get into the paint. According to Team Rankings, they average 41.4 points in the paint (15th in the association) because they only convert 61.6% of their attempts at the basket (19th in the NBA) whereas the league average is 62.8%. Also, their ability to get shots at the rim usually results in defenses sending double teams at them thus forcing them to shoot the ball from deep where they struggle. The Bobcats shoot 36.5% from three point range; good for 19th overall in the league.
The Bobcats complement their post play by also running plays towards the sidelines to isolate their wing players. And although, they have good perimeter players in Gerald Wallace and Stephen Jackson; they are somewhat turnover prone. Granted, not all of the blame can be placed on them, but they do contribute (Diaw as well) to the Bobcats being the second worst team in the NBA as far as ball security goes with 16.5 turnovers per game.
On defense, the Bobcats surrender 97.5 points per game (12th in the league) on 44.8% field goal shooting (11th in the NBA). Charlotte does a great job on defense because they have some solid perimeter players on the roster (Gerald Wallace and Stephen Jackson) that do a good job of keeping drivers out of the lane and also have some solid interior defenders (Nazr Mohamed, Kwame Brownd and DeSagana Diop) that battle for post position and keep inside players further away from the basket than anticipated. Consequently, their opponents average 21.6 shots at the rim (third least in the NBA) and only convert 58.8% of those attempts (fourth best mark in the league).
Given the fact that the Bobcats do a good job at shutting down the paint as evidenced by the 38.7 points per game in the paint (11th in the NBA), they force teams to adjust and shoot from deep. They cover the midrange portion of the court quite nicely as they only allow teams to shoot 16.6 shots from 16 to 23 feet (best mark in the association). Furthermore, they do a good job of contesting shots from that range as they only allow teams to convert 36.5% of their shots (fourth best in the league) from that distance.
Granted, the Bobcats defense does have its cracks. They are quite susceptible to ball fakes and also like to throw the zone out at teams every now and then to clog the paint when playing against potent big men and drivers. Anyone see a problem with that? A team that plays zone and that overreacts to ball fakes will allow a good passing team to create open shots. Further compounding the problem, Charlotte likes to aggressively double team the post when they are in their zone defense. The end result? A lot of open three pointers. No team in the NBA allows more three point shots than the Bobcats (21.5 three point attempts per game) and they also do a poor job of defending the shot as they allow opponents to shoot 36.4% from deep (19th in the NBA).
The Golden State Warriors will have an opportunity to get out in transition against the Bobcats who surrender 16.1 fast break points per game (23rd in NBA). Also, the Dubs have no shame in launching shots from outside; which means that it could be a long night for Charlotte if they were to get hot from deep.
Charlotte game notes: Gerald Wallace (ankle) is listed as day to day but did play Wednesday night against the Cavaliers. Tyrus Thomas (wrist) is also listed as day to day but did not play Wednesday night.
Golden State game notes: Andris Biedrins (ankle) and Dan Gadzuric (groin) are listed as day to day and are accompanying the team during the road trip.