Charlotte Bobcats

By Gary Washburn, Globe Staff The Celtics are getting healthier by the day and Keyon Dooling, who has missed most of the past month with a sore knee and hip pointer said he will attempt to return Thursday against the Los Angeles Lakers. Dooling has missed 13 of the team's past 14 games and will not play tonight against the Charlotte Bobcats. "When you have an area that's injured sudden movements (are difficult) but I'm feeling better," he said. "It's been frustrating. I've had two impact injuries.

NBA Denver Nuggets center Chris "Birdman" Andersen has been "excused indefinitely" from team activities while Douglas County (Colo.) sheriff's detectives investigate him for undisclosed Internet crimes against children. Authorities searched Andersen's Larkspur, Colo., home Thursday morning and seized property. Andersen, 33, has not been arrested or charged with a crime. "It could include many different things. Right now we're not saying. They literally just got the property this morning," Douglas County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Deborah Sherman said.

Kemba Walker, the ninth pick in this year's NBA draft, has signed with the Charlotte Bobcats and will practice with the team today. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. An early entry candidate, the 6-foot-1 Walker led Connecticut to the 2011 NCAA championship and was named the Final Four's most outstanding player. He was a consensus first-team All-American and first-team All-Big East selection. Walker is expected to begin the season as the team's backup point guard.

Patrick Ewing is one of several candidates the Charlotte Bobcats will interview for their head coaching vacancy and the Hall of Fame center will meet with team officials next week, said people familiar with the situation. The people spoke to The Associated Press Thursday on condition of anonymity because the team hasn't publicly announced its list of candidates. Ewing is an assistant with Orlando and a friend of Bobcats owner Michael Jordan. The Bobcats have interviewed Golden State assistant coach Michael Malone and Bobcats assistant Stephen Silas, son of former Charlotte...

The Atlanta Hawks went to overtime for a second straight night, pulling out a 102-96 victory over the Charlotte Bobcats on Friday behind 23 points and 13 rebounds from Josh Smith. The Hawks lost in triple-overtime to the Miami Heat the night before, but made sure there wouldn't be multiple extra periods needed by scoring the first eight points, with early 3-pointers by Jeff Teague and Joe Johnson. Marvin Williams added 15 points and nine rebounds, and Al Horford scored 15 points for the Hawks (5-3)

Rookie Chandler Parsons scored 20 points and Kevin Martin added 17 points and the Houston Rockets defeated the Charlotte Bobcats 82-70 Tuesday night to snap a four-game losing streak. Jordan Hill had a double-double for the Rockets off the bench with 12 points and 12 rebounds. The Rockets (3-6) broke open a tight game in the third quarter and the poor-shooting Bobcats could never put together a big run. They did manage to cut the lead to five with 2:30 left, but Parsons made a 3-pointer from the right wing and a jumper from deep in the left...

Rookie Kemba Walker made the most of his first NBA start, scoring a career-high 23 points to lift the Charlotte Bobcats to a 112-100 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night. With the Bobcats mired in a six-game losing streak, coach Paul Silas benched veteran Boris Diaw, saying he wanted to see a different look with a smaller lineup. Diaw, who had started a franchise-record 235 straight games, had scored just three points in the last two games and had drawn criticism from Silas.

Lou Williams scored 17 points and Jrue Holiday had 15 to help the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Charlotte Bobcats 89-72 on Friday night. Jodie Meeks scored 14 points for the Sixers, who bounced back from a rare home loss and still haven't lost two straight games all season. The Sixers won in front of co-owners Will Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. The Hollywood power couple had a front-row seat for their first Sixers game of the season. Their son, Jaden, also watched the Sixers romp.

Tyler Hansbrough had a season-high 22 points and nine rebounds as the Indiana Pacers continued their dominance of the Charlotte Bobcats with a 102-88 victory Wednesday night. The Pacers have now beaten the Bobcats nine time straight times, including twice this week. The Pacers led by 10 after three quarters but began to pull away in the fourth. Danny Granger had 12 points and A.J. Price, Paul George, Dahntay Jones and Darren Collison also scored in double digits. Lou Amundson had a season-high 11 rebounds as the Pacers won for their fourth game in a...

Paul Pierce has passed Larry Bird for second place on the Boston Celtics' career scoring list. Pierce needed nine points to tie Bird's total of 21,791 when the Celtics hosted the Charlotte Bobcats on Tuesday night. He had seven points at halftime, then hit a 3-pointer with 10:23 left in the third quarter to overtake Bird's total. Pierce knew he had it, raising his arms as Boston fans gave him a standing ovation. The applause lasted for several minutes as teammate Kevin Garnett waved the crowd on for more.

The worst season in NBA history is over for the Charlotte Bobcats. Meanwhile, the New York Knicks are looking ahead to the playoffs. The Bobcats couldn't even beat a Knicks team resting most of its starters, finishing with the lowest winning percentage in league history after a 104-84 loss on Thursday night. J.R. Smith scored 22 points for the Knicks, who pulled away in the second half to clinch the Eastern Conference's No. 7 seed and a first-round playoff matchup against No. 2 Miami beginning Saturday.

Michael Jordan's No. 23 has long been synonymous with greatness. Now that number has a completely different meaning for him. As Jordan watched from his luxury box, his Charlotte Bobcats lost their 23rd consecutive game Thursday night 104-84 to the New York Knicks and finished the shrunken season with the worst winning percentage in NBA history (.106). That means the man recognized globally as the greatest basketball player ever is the not-so-proud owner of the worst NBA team ever.

Not all great NBA players make great NBA executives. With Michael Jordan's Charlotte Bobcats in line to finish this season with perhaps the worst record in NBA history, a list of five executives who dazzled as players and baffled as decision-makers: –– 1. Isiah Thomas It's easy to forget that Thomas, a Hall of Fame player with the Detroit Pistons, had moments of brilliance in his career as an executive. In Toronto, he drafted Tracy McGrady, Marcus Camby and Damon Stoudemire.

John Wall had 16 points and 14 assists, Nene scored 18 points and Jan Vesely had 16 points on 8-for-8 shooting and the Washington Wizards handed the Charlotte Bobcats their 21st straight loss, 101-73 on Monday night. It gave the Wizards their first four-game winning streak since Dec. 9-13, 2007. The 28-point margin of victory equaled their largest in the season. The Bobcats were competitive for most of the first quarter until Charlotte's Tyrus Thomas was ejected with 3.6 seconds left for throwing an elbow at Washington's James Singleton.

Jetlagged or not, the Sacramento Kings were determined not to be the team the Charlotte Bobcats beat to end their long losing streak. The Kings made the most of a rare late-season cross country trip to the East coast and throttled the hapless Bobcats 114-88 Sunday night behind a dominant effort from DeMarcus Cousins, who had 29 points and 10 rebounds. It was Charlotte's franchise-record 20th straight loss. The Kings had lost nine of their previous 10 games, but this one was never in doubt as they scored 78 points inside the paint and led by 35 in the fourth...

Richard Hamilton scored 22 points in just 24 minutes as the Chicago Bulls took a step closer to wrapping up the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs with a 100-68 rout of the dreadful Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday night. Hamilton made his first seven shots from the field, including four from beyond the arc and the outcome was never in doubt. Despite playing without leading scorers Derrick Rose and Luol Deng, the Bulls shot 48 percent from the floor and connected on 9 of 19 shots from 3-point range to bounce back from Tuesday night's surprising...

Kevin Love had 30 points and 18 rebounds to help the Minnesota Timberwolves hand the Charlotte Bobcats their 16th loss in a row, 102-90 on Wednesday night. Nikola Pekovic added 21 points and 11 rebounds in 43 minutes for Minnesota. The Timberwolves snapped a four-game skid of their own. Kemba Walker had 21 points and six rebounds, and Corey Maggette scored 18 points for the Bobcats, who have lost 22 of the last 23 games. D.J. Augustin played for the first time in 12 games, but his return wasn't enough to lift Charlotte out of the worst losing streak in franchise history.

Luis Scola scored 23 points, Goran Dragic had 14 points and 10 assists and the Houston Rockets routed the NBA-worst Charlotte Bobcats 107-87 on Wednesday night. Samuel Dalembert added 12 points and 10 rebounds, and Jordan Hill scored 14 and grabbed eight rebounds for the Rockets, who've won two in a row after dropping six of their previous seven games. Derrick Brown scored 15 to lead the Bobcats, who've lost 20 of 23 road games this season. Houston followed up an unlikely win in Oklahoma City on Tuesday night with one of its most efficient...