But it’s still the NBA, and even the no-names have a great deal of skill. It wouldn’t be asking too much of the Bobcats to break 60, would it?
“I did a hell of a coaching job; that’s my first thought,’’ deadpanned Bobcats coach Larry Brown. “Our team wasn’t prepared, wasn’t ready to play. That’s the fault of the coach.’’
When you’ve coached at this level as long as Larry Brown has, you’ve pretty much seen everything, good and bad. But there might not have been too many evenings during the past 35 years when Brown coached a team that, in addition to failing to reach 60, was in serious danger as the fourth quarter approached the midway point of failing to produce a double-digit scorer. But Gerald Wallace made a foul shot with 8:40 left that enabled him to crash into dubs with 10.
And that’s how it ended. One double-figure scorer on an NBA team. It’s truly a box score to remember.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about this game is that the Celtics really didn’t play very well. They were quite lackadaisical in the second quarter, for example, refusing to get back on defense while allowing the Bobcats, who had zero leads in this game, to creep within 32-29 with 4:38 remaining in the half.
A 10-2 run got it up to 11 (42-31) by intermission, but things were far from secure, which led to the following halftime exchange:
Interested observer to Doc Rivers: “That half wouldn’t exactly make me an NBA fan.’’
Rivers to interested observer: “Me, either.’’
And then Doc went on to say how much he “feared’’ the Bobcats, whom he termed “explosive.’’
Oh, he meant it, all right. This Charlotte team has been a major nuisance for the past two seasons from a Boston point of view. The great championship team of 2007-08 was life-and-death with the Bobcats on at least two occasions. And then there was a double-OT squeaker the last time they met. Rivers wasn’t kidding.
